Throw My Bones

Album: Whoosh! (2020)
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Songfacts®:

  • To "throw my bones" means to roll the dice. That's because in ancient times, people would throw animal bones to divine the future. When they painted spots on the bones, they became early versions of dice and were used in games of chance.

    In a Songfacts interview with Deep Purple lead singer Ian Gillan, he explained how it relates to this song's message. "The idea of trying to find out what's going to happen tomorrow, nobody knows that," he said. "I went through this whole Brexit thing, and people saying, 'We don't have enough information and what's going to happen?' I'm thinking to myself, 'I know everything I need to know. Who knows what's going to happen? But I'm prepared.' That's what the song is about. It's just about being content with life as it is. It doesn't mean to say that you just sit there and don't do anything or you don't have ambition. It just means to say that you don't know what the future holds. It may be something you'd really rather not have."
  • This is the lead single from Deep Purple's 21st album, Whoosh!. Like their previous two, it was produced by Bob Ezrin, who recorded the band in Nashville. This lineup of Deep Purple includes three members from their classic Mark II era: Roger Glover, Ian Gillan and Ian Paice; along with Steve Morse, who joined in 1994; and Don Airey, who came on board in 2002.
  • In the music video, and astronaut wanders around the city before venturing to the countryside and finding himself in a desert setting. The same astronaut is on the cover of the album, tying in with the apocalyptic nature of some of the songs.

    The band doesn't show up in the video at all, which is fine with them. "We've never been fond of videos," Gillan told Songfacts. "And we don't look that good these days, either!"
  • According to Ian Gillan, the Woosh! album title was chosen for its onomatopoeic qualities, and "when viewed through one end of a radio-telescope, describes the transient nature of humanity on Earth."
  • Whoosh! entered UK's album chart at #4, the band's highest-charting longplayer since their 1980 chart-topper Deepest Purple.

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