You're Gone

Album: Marbles (2004)
Charted: 7
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Marillion lead singer Steve Hogarth wrote the words to this song. "'You're Gone' was about love lost," he said in his Songfacts interview. "About desperately missing someone. It was also about my father to some degree - I lost him shortly before I wrote that song."
  • Marillion guitarist Steve Rothery came up with the music to this track in an unusual way. Steve Hogarth explained in a video posted by the band: "He had this program where you could assign a chord to a note. He could build up a chord in one note of this keyboard he was playing, and then he could create a very Bowie-esque way of writing where you deliberately make accidents. He made these chords he thought were interesting and then he was just pressing the buttons, which would initiate the chords until he found an order he thought was interesting. He had these three chords going around and around, and I happened to have these words on the screen. I wrote the chorus straight off that after I had let the verse go around a while."
  • Coming in at #7 in the UK, "You're Gone" was the first Top 10 hit for Marillion since "Incommunicado" reached #6 in 1987. The band struggled in the '90s and lost their record deal, but the Internet was a boon, as it allowed them to reach their (very tech-savvy) fans more effectively.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Wolfgang Van Halen

Wolfgang Van HalenSongwriter Interviews

Wolfgang Van Halen breaks down the songs on his debut album, Mammoth WVH, and names the definitive Van Halen songs from the Sammy and Dave eras.

Kip Winger

Kip WingerSongwriter Interviews

The Winger frontman reveals the Led Zeppelin song he cribbed for "Seventeen," and explains how his passion for orchestra music informs his songwriting.

In The Cards

In The CardsSong Writing

Songwriters have used cards and card games to make sense of heartache, togetherness, and even Gonorrhea.

David Clayton-Thomas of Blood, Sweat & Tears

David Clayton-Thomas of Blood, Sweat & TearsSongwriter Interviews

The longtime BS&T frontman tells the "Spinning Wheel" story, including the line he got from Joni Mitchell.

Goodbye, Hello: Ten Farewell Tour Fake-Outs

Goodbye, Hello: Ten Farewell Tour Fake-OutsSong Writing

The 10 biggest "retirement tours" that didn't take.

George Harrison

George HarrisonFact or Fiction

Did Eric Clapton really steal George's wife? What's the George Harrison-Monty Python connection? Set the record straight with our Fact or Fiction quiz.