In a Flood

Very American western with the Johnny Cash slide and state name dropping. Cale's always a bit sensitive about his national identity.

I’ve always lived in the states. I came in ‘63...New York is hometown...Listen, I’m a product of America.

Cale mentions quoting from Alain Robbe-Grillet's novel Repetition on 'Hobosapiens': And in the first four pages, there are these stunning, riveting descriptions that took me back to what it was like being in New York when I first arrived there, the isolation and sense of desertion that you feel...you walk in and people look at you and they listen to you speak, and their attitude toward you just increases your feeling of isolation, because they recognize that you're foreign.

Perhaps this comes from being referred to in the press kits as a MIGHTY WELSH COLOSSUS.

Cale has said that this song is about a man running away from his lover, then realising what he's lost, and returning. However it sounds like a sinister love note to a cheating, crazy lover - Cindy, his second wife?

Cindy and Cale had a troubled, drugged marriage. Cale recalls in his bio that she was reminiscent of the volatility of Lou Reed. I don't mean he was the original Cindy, but it was a close run thing. At least the sexual relationship with Cindy was consummated (136). lol gayest gays.

I heard from other people where you went
Is delivered in a threatening whisper, which is not a little bit sensual. That strained dry whisper in your ear.
You had us worried all along: Cindy had given them a lot of worry in the past (What's Welsh for Zen pg.134)
Mention of the past again, and the line 'you thought you had it covered' seems to be addressed to the singer, an accusation with a retrospective wryness.

I had been drinking, so I got really loud with her. I said, 'Have you been taking heroin again, darling?' at the top of my lungs, very Noel Coward.

Let's compare, shall we?

Noel Coward: Wit ought to be a glorious treat like caviar; never spread it about like marmalade.
John Cale: Have you been taking heroin again...dahling?

Covered all over in grease. What was under the hood was alright. Puts one in mind of checking the carborator one more time in 'Things'. lol Cale leave car sex metaphors to Marc Bolan.

The soft repeated 'ohh' is quite calming and paternal, like a hush or a lullaby.
Perhaps Cale is commenting on the nature of their relationship, the role of husband as protector? He says in his bio that It was a huge responsibility (134), and refers to himself as a 'Florence Nightingale'.