Introduction: Steve Hogarth wrote on Marillion.com "We got into the idea of developing This Town, exploring the consequences of becoming bitter and taking revenge on the city - using it, and the people in it, for your own ends... becoming a champion of the city through manipulation and some kind of two-faced cynicism. Playing it all like a game. It was easy to create this fiction - I've been in the music business for over a decade and, believe me, there's no better place to meet these guys. He discovers that his ruthlessness makes him perversely attractive. Am I ringing any bells..?
"For the little reprise of This Town at the very end I imagined all the people on the escalators going down the underground at Waterloo station mumbling the mantra together..."
'You didn't notice me as I passed you on the stairs...'
I became aware that passing someone on the stairs is considered to be bad luck, and was an established superstition and asked about it on the 'Ask the Band' page on the Marillion Forum (long since consigned to the dustbin of history!)
H replied: "I know about this superstition and I'm always a little reluctant to pass people on stairs. Yes, I was very aware of this when I wrote the line and NO you're not reading too much into it. Most of my lyrics have two meanings (three, if you know me) so it's always worth digging a little deeper than the literal if you're going to fully get to grips with 'em. I think there's something very complex, disturbing and romantic about crossing on stairs. This metaphor takes me to a lot of places in my life. The metaphors of simultaneous ascent and descent have much resonance ...and to descend stairs may not necessarily represent DESCENT. You might be on your way to freedom, just as to ascend a staircase maybe a burden, or a journey to some kind of imprisonment. Staircases are lonely and peculiar places. I used to have a recurring nightmare about stairs. Elevators also... I could go on for hours..."
Song Listing:
Songs with a link have explanations.
What about the line "She spends your money on me"... where on earth did that come from?
ReplyDeleteI always thought this was about someone having an affair with a married woman and passing her husband on the stairs .... how closely I share your taste etc seemed really clear to me but can't see anything from H confirming it
ReplyDeletepretty sure it's about a prostitute, line "i love them as if i love them / and they repay me with 'help'"
DeleteSo she spends her partner's money on him
ReplyDelete