Songfacts®:

• Antony Hegarty told Mojo magazine February 2009 that this is, "an intimate dialogue, a song to my father. I still see him. He's a really good friend of mine."
• Hegarty explained to Mojo that this song was inspired by the old 1960s Stax records: "The basic riff is obviously modelled on a simple Stax progression up and down the guitar. We developed it in all sorts of ways, mixed it about 10 million times, then I just took everything out again."
• Hegarty explained to Mojo magazine May 2009 that the song's concept is that we "we all have an inner father, an inner mother and an inner child." He added: "The inner father protects and provides, the inner mother creates a nurturing circle and a safe place, and the child's job is to be free, to feel and dream expansively. Sometimes we get mired in one of those archetypes and lose contact with the others. I've thought of it from the point of view of raising a kid. By the time you get to 20 you think; that's enough of being a child, now it's time to be an adult. Then you realise that you need to create a safe place for the inner child while being a parent to it too. I know it sounds like horrible '90s therapy. I mean, what the f--k does self-parenting mean? But in a weird way I'm beginning to understand it."
• Hegarty explained to Mojo the line, "Hold that man I love so much." He said: "I was imagining a child doing what he or she could to smooth the mind of the man, the father figure. In our society the man has to understand it all, to be in control, to have the lay of the land. But that it is a lot to ask of anyone. So why doesn't the child comfort the man? The child dives into mystery and feels abundance and it's so refreshing. That can be helpful for the man having to deal with everything and having an existential crisis as a result. It revives your spirits to be with a child. A child gives comfort to the broken spirit of an old man. Actually, I would say that one of my biggest inspirations is the six-year-old daughter of some friends of mine. She has the most amazing blue eyes and I love her very much."