Originally called "Uptight," which is how Jonny referred to it in its early staged, the song pays homage to Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues." It deals with alien abduction and stems from two incidents in Thom's life. The first occured at Abingdon School, when he was assigned an essay question that went something like this: "If you were an alien from another planet arriving on Earth, how would you describe what you saw?" The second incident occurred when Thom was driving down a country road and hit a bird (which he believes was a pheasant). He stepped out of the car and at that moment began thinking about alien abduction.


http://www.greenplastic.com/lyrics/subterranean.php