Songfacts®:

• This is a track from Division Street, an album that Simon co-produced with Tom Rothrock, who helmed three albums for Elliott Smith (Either/Or, XO and Figure 8). "I felt challenged and inspired by the idea of making a modern psychedelic folk-rock album, a Tom Rothrock production like XO, but then the Velvet Underground and the Stones kept entering in," said Simon. "Elliott Smith was very influenced by the Beatles but my guitar playing is more influenced by Keith Richards. And I kept wanting to emphasize more lo-fi elements."
• The song was intended to be a slice of rock 'n' roll fun. "There are other songs on the album that were more about wounded animals, misfits, and people with real problems that they may or may not be dealing with. I wanted 'Dixie Cleopatra' to be a fun, psychedelic garage stomp rock 'n' roll song," Simon told Artist Direct. "It felt like the album should have one in it."
  
  "It was more of a conceptual idea," he added. "It's a Ramones, Stooges, Chuck Berry rock 'n' roll style put in with this made-up futuristic language that doesn't really belong in that sort of song. It's that concept more than a story about a specific person. I do have a friend named Dixie Cleopatra though."