Searching For Satellites
“Well, “Searching for Satellites” has to do with our musical community, our fan base. And I think that we’re always looking for connections. I mean, the Internet is a great example of a tool that we use now to connect with people. And it became very, very apparent to me that our community was flung out across the world, and that people who grew up with our music, our music meant a lot to them. And you’re often trying to reconnect, make connections with those people. So “Searching for Satellites” is a kind of euphemism for looking for your people that are like-minded people, really. And in our case, it’s our fans, it’s people that maybe they touched our music, they forgot about it, they lost it, and reconnecting with them. So that’s the metaphor there.”Andy Powell (476)
Heavy Weather
“I think the sentiment, what everyone that’s been through the last couple of years here with the climate change, the weather, it’s also a metaphor for relationships. The weather affects your outlook and everything you do. Everybody thinks that recessions are related to the financial climate, they’re often not. The United States, the American civilization, what we’re going through at the moment is no different than a huge explosion of America in the 20th century. And what we’re seeing now is the result of all of that, American imperialism, if you will. And the weather is part of it. I mean, anyone who doesn’t see the climate change that’s going on around the world through our dependence on an oil based technology and fuel probably has their head in the sand.”Andy Powell (476)
Lorelei
“Well, the legend of the Lorelei, the legend that comes from the Rhine, the River Rhine in Germany. The Lorelei was a mythical mermaid type figure that would tempt sailors onto the rocks with the singing, which often could have been the wind in the rigging. So that was a metaphor for a temptress, really. It was a metaphor for being tempted astray, should we say.”Andy Powell (476)
Jail Bait
“Our first tour of America and we weren’t really accustomed to American girls. They were far more, should we say, mature, I suppose, in the way they looked. And you had to be careful, because these young girls would just throw themselves at bands, especially English bands. And if you were from a foreign country like England, you didn’t really know the laws and you have to very careful. And this one particular girl that inspired that song, I didn’t write the lyric on that one, but I think it was a surprise.”Andy Powell (476)
Persephone
“Well, that was written by our bass player at the time, Martin Turner. And like the Lorelei, it was really another metaphor – actually for our original guitar player, Ted Turner, who quit the band. The song was really written as an ode to a guy, actually. It was the Persephone of the Greek legend.”Andy Powell (476)
“A slow, moody piece. Lyric is not about gods and things — it’s about a pop singer who’s going down the drain, then in the last verse starts to come back — real strong. Model for the character? It could be someone like Ella Fitzgerald, though it wasn’t written specifically about any one person in particular.”Martin Turner (910)
Lady Jay
“If you could imagine — about a rich kid and a groupie… Based on a legend, in fact, about this rich gentleman knocking up a tart down the road, who became pregnant and committed suicide and was buried in a very desolate place. Flowers appeared on her grave every day, fresh flowers, and even when her lover died fresh flowers appeared there every day, and even now they appear there every day — very weird.”Martin Turner (910)