Devil in the Shortwave ¹

Shortwave radio uses frequencies from the top of the AM band to the bottom of the VHF band (just below FM). The main advantage of shortwave is its long-distance transmission capabilities. It is used for a variety of purposes, including general commercial broadcasting, amateur radio, ship and aircraft communication, international propaganda, utility stations, radio clocks, and numbers stations. ↩

Seems to have multiple meanings depending on who is asked, and doesn't have one fixed definition. The best descriptivist definition I could come up with is that this phrase is used by punks to jokingly make fun of overenthusiasm in the punk scene, for genuine enthusiasm, or to ridicule people not considered to be in line with the punk ethos. See for example the Bomb the Music Industry! song (Shut) Up the Punx! ↩

Genesis 19: 1 – 2 is part of the informal series of Biblical references. ↩

"The two angels entered Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting at Sodom's gate. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them. He bowed with his face to the ground and said, "My lords, turn aside to your servant's house, wash your feet, and spend the night. Then you can get up early and go on your way."

"No," they said. "We would rather spend the night in the square." Genesis 19: 1 – 2, Holman Christian Standard Bible, retrieved March 22, 2013. ↩

This is the opening phrase in the Biblical verse referenced in the title. Genesis 19 describes the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah for their sin, particularly regarding what was considered sexual deviancy (including a crowd insisting that Lot provide the two angels to them that they might have sex with them). In the Bible, Sodom and Gomorrah were ultimately destroyed by fire and brimstone sent by God, and Lot fled Sodom, during which his wife was turned into a pillar of salt for looking back at the destroyed city. ↩

My best guess is that this refers to a permanent marker. ↩

Punch and Judy is a traditional puppet show depicting the violent Mr. Punch, Judy, his wife, and other characters. ↩

Bombay, now officially Mumbai, is the capitol city of Maharashtra on the west coast of India. It is India's largest city by population. ↩

Dirty Old Town is part of the informal series of cover songs. ↩

Dirty Old Town is a folk standard first written by English singer Ewan MacColl in 1949 and has subsequently been recorded by many groups, traditional and otherwise. It refers to the desperate industrial environment of Salford, MacColl's birthplace. ↩

A croft is a fenced area of farmland. Here, it refers originally to the land near the Salford Gasworks. The canal mentioned is the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal. ↩

John has described this as an "upbeat song about [a] couple consuming one another". January 27, 1999, Cat's Cradle, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. ↩

"Comandante" means "commander" in Spanish, and "commandant" is a military title whose precise meaning depends on the military in question. I do not know if John misspelled these words or if he meant something else.

"Hasta Siempre, Comandante", is a song written by Cuban Carlos Manuel Puebla celebrating Che Guevara, mentioned later in the song. This may or may not have some relationship to John's choice of title. ↩

Brendan Behan was an Irish writer, playwright, Irish Republican Army member, and notorious alcoholic who wrote Borstal Boy, an autobiography about being an Irish Republican and his subsequent imprisonment in the late 1930s and early 1940s while an adolescent. He ultimately died of diabetes secondary to alcohol abuse. ↩

Tripoli is the capitol and largest city of Libya. ↩

"With a banjo on my knee" is a line from the popular nonsense minstrel song "Oh! Susanna", written by Stephen Foster in 1848. ↩

Mao Zedong, communist revolutionary and founding father of the People's Republic of China, was known for wearing a collared coat with four pockets, which became symbolic of Chinese communism. ↩

Che Guevara was a Marxist from Argentina known for his involvement in the Cuban Revolution. An famous photo of Guevara, known as Guerrillero Heroico, has gained worldwide renown and has become a symbol of revolution, often placed on pins and t-shirts. ↩

A bottle rocket is a generally illegal small firework intended to be fired into the sky, where it makes a small explosion. Initially, it is often placed in a small glass bottle to stablize it while it is lit. ↩

This chorus has also been sung with the chorus lines of "Lace up your skates real good / Come on over to my neighborhood", "Put on your Chairman Mao hat / You look so goddamn cute in that", "Lace up your skates real tight / Be here by six o'clock tonight". See the Cat's Cradle show on January 27, 1999. ↩

Cincinnati is a large city in Ohio. ↩