"Saint Dominic's Preview" begins with references to Morrison's youth, working as a window cleaner in Belfast. He uses the word chamois (the leather used to clean windows) as a pun to link the French word to two aspects of French culture: singer Edith Piaf, with her song "Non, je ne regrette rien", and Cathedral Notre-Dame in Paris. The line "It's a long way to Buffalo/It's a long way to Belfast city too" is believed to refer to the homesickness that Morrison experienced living in the US at the time, because of the situation in Belfast. Whilst touring on the West Coast, drummer Gary Mallaber recalled a conversation he had with Morrison about how he missed Buffalo, New York: "he wrote that [line] in 'Saint Dominic's Preview'. 'It's a long way to Buffalo/it's a long way to Belfast City too' – that was him crying out, saying, 'Well, you know what, I would like to return to my place too, 'cause I miss it.'" Morrison revealed to journalists in 1972: "I don't think I want to go back to Belfast. I don't miss it with all that prejudice around. We're all the same and I think it's terrible what's happening. But I think I'd like to get a house in Ireland. I'd like to spend a few months there every year."