Bus to Beelzebub
Soul Coughing Lyrics

The lyrics to Soul Coughing's song "Bus to Beelzebub" are cryptic and open to interpretation. It's difficult to discern the exact meaning behind the words, but it seems to be a commentary on the struggles of addiction and temptation. The opening lines, "Get on to the bus, That's gonna take you back to Beelzebub" suggest that the bus is a metaphor for a path towards temptation, and Beelzebub is often associated with the devil or evil. The following line, "Get on to the bus, That's gonna make you stop going rub a dub" implies that this path is both tempting yet ultimately destructive.

The imagery in the next few lines compounds this idea further. "Your words burn the air like the names of candy bars" suggests a certain sweetness to the temptation, while "Your mouth is cold and red, all in rings around your laughing laughing laughs" evokes the image of a devilish grin. The chorus, "It's a grind grind, It's a grind" perhaps refers to the repetitive and unending nature of addiction, while the line "I'll scratch you raw, L'état see'est moi" implies both a sense of power (as "l'état see'est moi" translates to "I am the state") and an element of self-destruction.

The verse that follows is filled with bizarre and non-sequitur lines like "I drink the drink and I'm wall to wall, I absorb trust like a love rhombus" which adds to the overall sense of disorientation and confusion. The repeated "Yellow no. 5" at the end could be a reference to the artificial food coloring of the same name, which has been linked to hyperactivity and other negative effects.

Overall, the song seems to be a kind of cautionary tale, a warning of the dangers of temptation and the allure of the forbidden. The lyrics are open to interpretation, but the tone of the song is undeniably ominous and unsettling.