Roving Jewel

Album: Butterfly House (2010)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song was kick-started by vocalist James Skelly mistaking his brother Ian's demo lyric for "I used to call 'at' the Roving Jewel" rather than "I used to call 'her' the Roving Jewel." The misunderstanding changed James's train of thought and, within minutes, he'd come up with a totally new narrative for the song. "It's about this fella who was trying to write the ultimate piece of literature about his life," explained James to Spinner UK.
    "He goes to this place to write it but ends up going insane trying to write, so decides to give up art in the end because he realises he can't write about a life if he's not living one. It's like The Shining or something. Sometimes you just have to put whatever it is down and live your life."

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