People trying to make a coherent story out of this seem to me to be missing the point. No doubt there is a song at the back of it which does have a coherent story - but the essence of the song as it's sung, in all it variations, seems to me to lie in its rambling imprecise nature.

Incoherent, defiant, sentimental, a wreck of a song, most effectively sung by a singer who is somewhat wrecked themselves, but still in good voice.