Pulaski Skyway

some acronym??? CBGBs is some acronym? jesus. pulaski skyway and elizabeth is in NJ btw.

This song is clearly about the underground being attacked by the hidden hand. Jimmy Hoffa was a union man that got murdered for organizing a powerful union and causing too much attention. Then Gotta get Religion Join the UNDERGROUND church. Make your own beleifs and remain like a child.
Oh but to just dine on sewage = Beleive the lies Cold seagull pie = Obvious old stanked up shit Wrestle albino alligators = Clutch being clutch = Fight a easy to see predator. And spin the good lie = And live life beleiveing the bullshit

Like many other songs off the album Robot Hive/Exodus, the song Pulaski Skyway deals with themes of (de)industrialization, religion, propaganda, community, and technology. This song in particular focuses on the effects of deindustrialization on communities of the East Coast, referencing Elizabeth, New Jersey, and the raised highway bridge that runs nearby.

As an East Coast native myself, I can personally attest to the damage that stroads such as Pulaski have done by literally cutting entire regions in half, creating "good" and "bad" sides of the "traintracks" where single, cohesive communities once stood. Being both stroad and bridge, The Pulaski Skyway, therefore, becomes the perfect symbol of a culture that has been internally fragmented by the very industry and infrastructure that connects it to the wider world.

My favorite set of lines is definitely "Wrestle albino alligators/And spin the good lie/Oh that swamp full of grabbin' hands/Pull you under New Amsterdam/Chinese boxes hold their secrets well/How many are there you can never tell."

At first, the bit about "albino alligators" sounds like Clutch being Clutch (as user Keenen91 said already), and it is: Clutch has a way of being simultaneously earnest, silly, and clever. As a symbol, "albino alligators" represent the one conspicuous, unhidden predator in a dark, murky swamp that could be hiding countless others. ("How many are there? You can never tell.") The predators in this case being the companies that outsource production and manufacturing to cheaper, relatively impoverished workers in other countries, like China, thereby destroying the newborn communities in America that had grown up around these industries. That's part of these companies' life cycle, and a part of the unsustainable cycle of colonialism that America loves to think it came out on top of: the willingness to lay waste to entire ecosystems and communities in the pursuit of maximized profits and efficiency. (*This feels relevant and not relevant at the same time, but the "dark, murky place" with hidden alligators works well in the swamp analogy, but also remember the urban legends of alligators in the sewers of New York, which was originally named New Amsterdam. This is a beautiful little detail that fits in well with Clutch's aim to create a sort of modern American mythology in their works.)

I'm not quite as clear on my interpretation of Jimmy Hoffa and the role of unions in all of this, though I'm almost certain that the members of clutch are presenting a positive take on them. At first, telling the Stevedores to "grab his ankles" sounds a bit morbid, as if they're trying to drag him underground. Oh, but what's underground again? The mole people, the people who have been part of the underground resistance this whole time. Perhaps that's Clutch's proposed solution in all of this:

"Even the mole people, they got to get religion/They gonna join that underground church"

The underground needs to unionize, or else the unions need to go underground.

I believe its Fallon's hat off to hard labor for an excellent product. I think the "grabbin hands" and "underground religion" are the people that died building the bridge.

First time I heard it, I thought the line was

"Wrestle albino rhino-gators"

Which would have been so much cooler, and so much more like Clutch.

it goes:

"so grab his ankles, stevedores."

also,

"Oh that swamp full of grabbing hands pull you under New Amsterdam"

and I think Jets should be capitalized as it's a double meaning with the NY Jets.

and the mole people are people who live in abandoned subway tunnels in NYC. this song is so fucking cool. All the mythology of NYC piled up in layers.

pretty much all the stevedores too

Several errors in the lyrics above.

It's "pull you under New Amsterdam" not "Are you under New Amsterdam". It's "chump towers" not "Trump towers". It's "stevadores" not "steal the noise".

But here we are a few years after someone else corrected them (by citing the authors no less) and they're still wrong on the page.

According to the album insert, the lyrics go:

Oh, but to just dance on steel, the Sky Pulaski Way. By the fires of Elizabeth, never cease to amaze. So hats off to casualties of industry* Tra loo tray lay. Oh that swamp full of grabbing hands. Pull you under New Amsterdam. Chinese boxes hold their secrets well. How many are there one can never tell. Got to get religion, they gonna join that underground church Even the mole people got to get religion. They gonna join that underground church. ** Art class for the bourgeoisie, lab rats for the cat. Real estate moguls, Chump Towers, When the wind blows you can hear the windows go rat a tat rat a tat tat tat. Jimmy Hoffa in the Meadowlands, weighing down that union man. Grab his ankles, stevedores, Oh, how those Jets roar. Oh, but to just dine on sewage, cold seagull pie. Wrestle albino alligators and spin the good lie

• Despite what the insert says, the Fallon obviously sings "industry's casualties". ** The insert doesn't mention the "Andy Worhol" part, but I could swear is says, "heeby jeebies," rather than some acronym. *** There's obviously some difference between what the insert says and what Fallon actually sings.