“It’s very basically saying that what they teach us in schools is all very fine, but what about what they don’t teach us in schools that creates so much confusion in our being. I mean, they don’t really prepare us for life in terms of teaching us who we are on the inside. They teach us how to function on the outside and to be very intellectual, but they don’t tell us how to act with our intuition or our heart or really give us a real plausible explanation of what life’s about. There’s a huge hole in the education. I remember leaving school at 19, I was totally confused. That song really came out of my confusion, which came down to a basic question: please tell me who I am. I felt very lost. I had to educate myself in that way, and that’s why California was very good for me to kind of re-educate myself, if you like.”Roger Hodgson (426)

“I wrote it I think around 1970. That time, the late ’60s, early ’70s, was a very idealistic time, one of hope, a lot of peace and love and the dream of the ’60s was still very alive and maturing, if you like. The Beatles had put out “All You Need is Love” a year prior to that. I believed in love – it was always for love – and just felt that was the most important thing in life. That song has really taken on a life of its own, and I think it’s even more relevant today than when I wrote it. Because we really are needing to value love in a much deeper way, and also we’re needing to care. The song is basically saying: just show you care. You know, reach out and show you care.”Roger Hodgson (426)

“I don’t think that half of the frustration that I feel sometimes has ever come out as much as it can. Maybe it did on ‘Nervous Wreck’, but that’s not as true as ‘Casual Conversations’. That song, for me, is deeply personal. It can obviously relate to people, as well as boy-girl. I suppose it’s me and Roger to a degree; me not being able to communicate with him, wanting to get out at times.”Rick Davies (863)

“It was written with two things in mind. I think it was a little bit, maybe my equivalent of ‘Gone Hollywood’ [Hodgson said the song was “definitely Rick tuning in to the valleys of Hollywood and seeing the shallowness and the difficulties. It’s a pretty neurotic place … I think he was putting himself in an American’s shoes” – Ed]. Maybe looking at America and seeing how Americans are living and possibly, also a song to Rick a little bit too, because we did live totally different lives.”Roger Hodgson (864)