I don't know, but I think the clue lies in the last verse:

So if you're ever goin' on a big trip
Ya better be careful out there
start everything out on your good foot
And wear clean underwear
Take along a Bible in the back seat
Read of David and of Solomon
For if you make a mistake in the bottomless lake
You may never see your sweetheart again.

I'm no student of the Bible, neither, but what sort of exile(?), or loss, did both David and Solomon suffer, that you could learn from?

I know that it is basically the same question that Jen asks. I just thought a change of phrasing might unravel something.

The trouble, though, about songwriters' use of imagery, is that it often only really means something to the person who wrote it.
If this is what has happened here, we may never grasp it.

But to take 'Spaw's argument a bit further, one may also look at his choice of characters from a purely rythmical sense; the syllables to suit the tune, as it were.

Are you out there John?

B.