Looking at the full lyrics it sounds like the song's about a man who died and as floating around in his hometown as a spirit, visiting his love. What the pearl and silver mean however, perhaps (silver) moonlight reflected in something?
-edit-
Ah, looks like he blew his brains out. The silver/pearl could mean a nickel-plated gun with pearl handgrips.
'The nothing man': low self esteem, goes to a bar to drink himself courage...
Or is that all too far fetched?
-editedit-
Compare the story of "Nothing Man," a tale of a soldier returning from a nameless war to find people relatively oblivious to all that is happening, to the comparatively blunt "Born in the USA." "Nothing Man" clearly applies to today but could apply to any military action of the past 20 years, or even events in the future.According to
fakejazz.com
