Misplaced Childhood - Intro

Introduction: Misplaced Childhood was the third Marillion album. With the massive hit of Kayleigh, it broke the band into the top flight of rock. Not all the songs on the album have explanations: Pseudo Silk Kimono, whilst dense in mood, uses simple imagery and does not warrant explanation. Blind Curve doesn't have explanations for similar reasons.

Kayleigh

Fish (The Funny Farm Interview - July '95, Dick Bros) said: "Kayleigh was a way of saying sorry. I dunno, I was very confused at the time, you know, I had a lot of long term relationships, a lot of 'deep and meaningful' relationships that, basically I'd wrecked because I was obsessed with the career and where I wanted to go. I was very, very selfish and I just wanted to be the famous singer but I was starting to become aware of the sacrifices that I was making, and I think that Kay was one of those sacrifices that went along the road.

Lavender

Introduction: Fish (The Funny Farm Interview - July '95, Dick Bros) said: "Going through parks listening to Joni Mitchell, Lavender is the little boy's dream about you can walk through the park and bump into the lady of your dreams that you're going to fall instantaneously in love with."

Bitter Suite

Introduction: Bitter Suite is Marillion's first multipart song, comprising a series of vignettes that would appear to be about the aftermath of the break up with Kaylegh. The sub-parts of the songs take their names from films from the first half of the 20th century. The films' plots and themes don't seem to have any particularly strong connection to the subsections bearing the titles.

Heart of Lothian

'Heart of Lothian'
From Jeroen Schipper's FAQ: "Lothian is the county/district in which Edinburgh is. Lothian is divided in three parts: East, West and Mid. Dalkeith and Edinburgh are in MidLothian. Saying you have a heart of Lothian is just saying where you come from.

Waterhole (Expresso Bongo)

'Waterhole'
A slang term for a pub.

'Expresso Bongo'
Expresso Bongo was a play that turned into a film in 1960 starring Cliff Richard as naive rock star Bert Rudge who signs up with hustler Johnny Jackson. Jackson changes Rudge's name to Bongo Herbert and sets him on the path to fame, but Herbert soon realises he's been stitched up by his dodgy manager and the 50:50 split of his earnings.

However, Piet Spaans says that he had asked Fish whether this referred to the Cliff Richard film and was told it didn't.

Lords of the Backstage

'I'm so far out and I'm too far in'
Chris McGarel pointed out that this line is taken from the forth line of the first section of A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers by Van Der Graaf Generator, from their album Pawn Hearts:

Blind Curve

Introduction: Blind Curve is split into five sub-sections. Only Mylo and Perimeter Walk have explanations.

III. Mylo

'Mylo'
Steve Ross said: 'Mylo' was John Mylett, the drummer with Liverpool band Rage, managed by then Marillion manager, John Arnison. Mylo died in a car crash in Ibiza, Spain in 1984. Fish heard about it whilst in Canada on the Fugazi tour.

Fish from an article entitled Fish Likes an Argument; it's One of His Hobbies in Smash Hits by Vici MacDonald: "I was in Canada when I heard [Mylo] was dead - he'd been in a car crash and died instantly. And I had to do nine hours of interviews. To every interviewer that came in I said, 'You must excuse me if I'm untogether, but one of my best friends has just died.' And not one of them cared. When it was all over, I just cried and cried and cried."

 IV. Perimeter Walk

'Stoned and Immaculate'
This line appears on the version of Bitter Suite on La Gaza Ladra after 'Could have been ancient... could have been mystical'. Darren Moore said: "It's a reference to The Doors' song Stoned Immaculate, the ending lyrics being about walking on the perimeter."

Stoned Immaculate - The Doors

Let me tell you about heartache and the loss of god
Wandering, wandering in hopeless night
Out here in the perimeter there are no stars
Out here we is stoned

Childhood's End

'Childhoods End?'
Childhoods End was an Arthur C. Clarke novel concerning a race of beings that had grown from its infancy and ascended to a higher lever of evolution. It was a theme that he was to develop further in his classic 2001, A Space Odyssey.

Childhood's End itself served as the inspiration for the Genesis track Watcher of the Skies from 1972's seminal Foxtrot.

White Feather

'White Feather'
The superstition goes that a white feather plucked from a game cock and placed in the clothing of a person marked a poor or cowardly fighter. This is because a pure-bred gamecock wouldn't have white tail feathers. This term was first used in the eighteenth century.

Lady Nina

Introduction: Fish (The Funny Farm Interview - July '95, Dick Bros) said: "I was going through a very bohemian element, you know. I remember hanging about this place called 'Rasputins', which was one of the famous German brothels, and I used to go along and just write there at night with the girls, and talk to the girls, sitting in the red light of the bar. Lady Nina [...] was written there."

Freaks

Introduction: Max Rael provided this excerpt from a conversation between Fish and the The Company USA in January 1998:

Tom: "What's the song Freaks about?"