The next song on Side 2 of Transverse City continues Warren’s speculation that the now (circa 1989) is just as much a dystopia as the future he’d conjured on Side 1. “Gridlock” should be familiar to LA drivers especially, but to pretty much anyone who’s ever spent way too much time in car.
It’s 5:00 P.M. on a weekday, friend
There’s one of me and two million of them
The whistle blows and the factories close
There’s a million more commuters on the access roads
Here, Warren’s experiences gridlock over scenes from The Great American Traffic Jam: