Ths song's title is so that we'll still be discussing it 30-40 years after he wrote it! It is what it means and means what it is. What else could it be?

And I always thought it was "underground," not "subway," anyway. But then, my ur-text comes from Charlie Waller and the Country Gentlemen, so what do I know? Now someone will look up a recording by them and it'll be "subway," so my memory is doing its usual thing, but that is how I "hear" it.

Bob Clayton