Interpretive Context Deficit

[Title] INTERPRETIVE CONTEXT DEFICIT DISORDER [Verse 1] He heard “Wasi River Rage” And started taking notes, RAGE was underlined in red, BLAST BEATS got three quotes. River was a recurring place, Banjo unexplained, I said, “Buddy, it’s an arrangement.” That part was not retained. [Pre-Chorus] Take away the setting, Throw the punchline overboard, Soon you’re being frightened By the pieces you ignored. [Chorus] Interpretive Context Deficit Disorder, Every metaphor gets shorter and shorter. Strip off the setting, throw out the art, Then get real scared of the parts you took apart. Interpretive Context Deficit Disorder, Red-string logic and a three-ring binder— If the song says beans, sometimes they’re beans, And sometimes the goddamn dashboard’s green. [Verse 2] He audited the catalogue: BRIDGE — recurring theme. RIVER — fifty-something hits. DASHBOARD — suspiciously green. BANJO — everywhere you look. GARLIC — only one. VINEGAR — a singleton. “My God, what have they done?” He found the signal, lost the song, Counted every noun that came along. Said, “Why’s the dashboard always green?” I said, “That’s literally what that one means.” [Chorus] [Verse 3] He said the blast beat showed intent. I said, “The blast beat’s an instrument.” He said, “Why write an evacuation drill?” I said, “Banjo as Control was sillier still.” He raised the risk and raised the threat On evidence he hadn’t gathered yet. Called escalation “duty of care”— [Backing voice, quietly] Apparently police. [Hard stop] [Spoken] That’s a callback. [BLAST BEATS ENTER] [Bridge] We built a model of the model Of the man who read the sign, Put his context deficit On a trend chart over time. Then the banjo player whispered, “Boys, you’re doing it again.” So we documented that finding And assigned corrective action ten. [Breakdown] SIGNAL! (Got it!) CONTEXT! (Lost it!) METAPHOR! (Flagged it!) VINEGAR! ...Why vinegar? [Final Chorus] Interpretive Context Deficit Disorder, Every inference makes the evidence shorter. Take out the river, the joke and the rhyme, You can make anything alarming given sufficient time. Interpretive Context Deficit Disorder, Red-string logic and a three-ring binder— If the song says beans, sometimes they’re beans, And sometimes the goddamn dashboard’s green. [Dead stop] [Spoken voice] Is that last line about us? [Banjo player] Case in point. [Single banjo tag]