Optical Illusion

Album: 24 Carrots (1980)
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Songfacts®:

  • According to the inset sheet, "Optical Illusion" - the last track on the album - runs to 3 minutes 27 seconds. An Al Stewart solo composition, this slightly enigmatic number sounds like an ode to an unnamed woman. If that is indeed the case, the identity of the woman will be obvious to diehard fans: Mandi, who featured in so many of his early songs, including the saddest, "Elvaston Place." By 1980, when "Optical Illusion" was published by Frabjous Music, she was long out of his life, but her ghost was not exorcised until he met and married his future wife more than a decade later. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Alexander Baron - London, England

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