Earthquake

Album: The Hogyssey (2001)
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Songfacts®:

  • A real earthquake inspired this song. Spacehog frontman Royston Langdon was in New Zealand when one hit, providing Earth-shaking inspiration. In a Songfacts interview with Langdon, he explained: "It's a metaphoric representation of that, and it was a pretty big earthquake. I was in Wellington and it just changed my perspective of what I thought was solid."

    The quake gave Langdon a new perspective. "It's kind of cool in a really weird way because it gives one a deeper appreciation of the atom and also just how powerless we are over nature. It just hit me, so I made this song, and it came up real quick - a little ditty."
  • At the end of the song, the band yells, "Beans on toast!" That's a reference to a food item popular in their native England, but not so prevalent in America, where they moved in 1994.
  • The Hogyssey is the third Spacehog album, and their last until 2013, when they re-formed to released As It Is on Earth. The Hogyssey, released in 2001, sold poorly and led to the band's demise, but Langdon was starting another chapter in his life: he got engaged to Liv Tyler that year, and married her two years later. The couple split up in 2008.

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