Bizarre song lyrics - discuss

Everlong1

I play acoustic guitar and I'm currently learning a few covers for parties etc. Decided to browse the chords for Soundgarden's song "Black Hole Sun" which I've loved for years.

While I love the song, I have to confess that this is the first time I've actually studied the lyrics in detail. Now I'm a songwriter myself and I'm used to seeing odd lyrics in songs (I'm a Biffy Clyro fan and their lyrics are fairly opaque as well) but the Black Hole Sun lyrics take the biscuit. What drugs was Chris Cornell on when he came up with this verse:

"Stuttering,
Cold and damp,
Steal the warm wind
Tired friend.
Times are gone
For honest men
And sometimes,
Far too long
For snakes."


It kind of makes sense until the last line....far too long for snakes?

I get mildly irritated at lyrics as obscure as this as I like to know the meaning of a song in general....although thinking about it now, compared to the average David Bowie lyric, the above is Ladybird book stuff.

Your thoughts?

I remember reading an interview with Cornell years ago and from what I can recall he said the lyrics didn't mean anything at all, he was just playing around with words and imagery. The interviewer was suggesting that it was about the apocalypse, but he rubbished that and basically said, no, its just a bunch of words. The title of the song is the name of a sculpture in Seattle.

9959

She loves you yeah yeah yeah
That's just silly.