Back To The Bolthole

Album: In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull (2012)
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Songfacts®:

  • This paean to mortality is one of guitarist Ryan Jarman's on the In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull album. His bassist brother Gary commented to NME regarding the set: "Ryan's definitely propagating the fact that it's [the album as a whole] more back to basics. At least in our approach to things I would say it is, as it's just the three of us doing whatever comes naturally and writing quite swiftly. Having said that some of the songs like 'Back To The Bolthole' and all of the Abbey Road stuff [the final four songs] and 'Confident Men' are a progression on the previous record. I think it's a little confusing, back to basics in its approach and its ideal, but I still like to consider it a progression."
  • Ryan Jarman wrote the song's chorus before its verses. He explained its meaning to NME: "When we were writing the last record, it made me aware of getting older, mortality, coming to terms with it, not letting it dictate the way you live your life or letting it bother you. You can't do anything about it so you're better off forgetting about it. Sometimes you go through phases when it's really troubling you, the fact that you're going to die."
  • Ryan explained to NME that the opening line, "You follow Aurora," refers to a boulevard in Seattle called Aurora. He added: "We used to take these road trips down the Northwest and we found ourselves here quite a lot. On these trips we wanted to feel like we were existing outside society, under the radar."

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