This song is about alcohol-fueled creativity (addiction) vs. sober creativity — or the related idea of searching for satori (abduction) drunk/sober.
“Kick in the Eye” appears to be a direct reference to Jack Kerouac’s “Satori in Paris” (1966).
“Somewhere during my ten days in Paris (and Brittany) I received an illumination of some kind that seems to’ve changed me again, towards what I suppose’ll be my pattern for another seven years or more: in effect, a satori: the Japanese word for ‘sudden illumination,’ ‘sudden awakening’ or simply ‘kick in the eye.’”
The book is a more-or-less nonfiction account of Kerouac’s travels in Northwest France attempting to trace his French-Canadian genealogy. If the title of this book sounds familiar, it’s also the name of a Bauhaus EP, containing two songs that are more-or-less about getting drunk. The book is about Kerouac getting drunk on the way to a satori moment, a moment which it’s debatable if he actually achieves.
If this interpretation is valid, then the song is a sardonic lament about how increasingly difficult it is to maintain the comfortable masks of your identity if you’re not drinking. If you’re drunk, you don’t need to care if you reach satori (rejection) — it provides the comfortable illusion of having done so. But if you’re sober, every care is taken (protection).
