The title track is said to be about the invasion of Aghanistan... the
previous one, that is, by the USSR. Another explanation is that it's a
Dog Day Afternoon-like hostage situation, with the protagonist literally shooting out the lights of the building so he can't be seen from the outside. Could be both. What a song, what a masterful album. And on the cover of an LP plagued by, among other light matters, a marriage going to hell, back-stabbing prostitutes, walls of death, a woman "lying in a pool of herself" after she jumped-or-was-pushed-depends-on-who-you-ask, and an overwhelming, crippling restlessness —but hey, "only the pain [keeps] you sane and gives you a mind to travel on" so "don't worry, 'cause under the ocean, at the bottom of the sea, you can't hear the storm, it's as peaceful as can be" (!)— RT appears smiling, because of course he is. It's not necessarily ironic; there is, after all, a kind of life-affirming force among all this horror. In any case, let that be a lesson to mooks worldwide and their Dark Serious Issue Poses on the covers of
their boring-ass records.
Incidentally, "Shoot Out The Lights" was splendidly covered by Thompson fanatic Bob Mould on his
See A Little Light EP:
