I know some bass players who are probably taking an inappropriate amount of glee in this.
I always thought “The End” was about a coup d’etat in South Vietnam in 1963. There are references to the State Department (weird scenes inside the gold mine), the Soviet bloc (the snake), Nikita Khrushchev (He’s old, and his skin is cold), President Ngo Dinh Diem (Father), Diem’s sister Tran Le Xuan (Sister), General Duong Van Minh (the killer), etc. However, I may be the only one in the world who has come up with this interpretation.