Bellerin' Plain

Lyric notes by Bob DeBorculo

The title itself is a dialectical variation of "Bellowing". I've always interpreted the song in terms of a Peter, Paul & Mary song performed in the 60s (previous heritage not known to me), "This Train", with lyrics something like:

This train don't carry no gamblers, this train.
This train don't carry no crap shooters, this train.
This train don't carry no midnight ramblers, this train (etc).

Presumably it's about the train to salvation, or whatever.

Beefheart's train rumbles through a nightmare landscape, the "parapliers" being a visual allusion comparing the train, tacks, or some combination thereof to a pair of pliers. The lyrics describe the sights and sounds of this setting.

The sibilant "S" sound could be read as an echoic hissing in emulation of a steam engine, or considered a false start on another word in the lyrics, left in because it sounded good.