Lonely

Album: Go to School (2018)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This is a track from Go to School, a concept album that tells the story of Shane, a chimpanzee raised as a human boy who goes to school.

    This raw, personal song was written by the band's Michael D'Addario when he was 15 about being lonely at school. As it was written from the perspective of a teenager he thought it would be cool to include it on the record because it was so genuine. Michael explained to Billboard:

    "It's got a line about waiting outside of school for your parents, and then the other people talking about hanging out, but they don't mention, 'Why don't you come?' And that's silly, but I think I wrote that a couple years ago when I was 15.

    So, when we were recording it this year, I decided, 'Let's just do it exactly the way I wrote it then.' It was really genuine and it's rare for things to be produced on this scale, but have a lyric that came from a real 15-year-old heart. It's even more interesting than just being a guy who writes musicals and putting yourself in the 15-year-old's shoes. Things like that happened, a lot of natural things like that. It was a natural process."
  • Q magazine asked Brian D'Addario why they chose to make a monkey the lead character of their concept album. He replied: "We were thinking about this totally innocent, very pure character who came from a different place to all the other characters in the story, who came from a more cynical place. We thought, 'Oh, maybe this could explain why he's unlike the rest of them, why he's more in tune with his soul, because he hasn't been corrupted."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Gavin Rossdale On Lyric Inspirations and Bush's Album The Kingdom

Gavin Rossdale On Lyric Inspirations and Bush's Album The KingdomSongwriter Interviews

The Bush frontman on where he finds inspiration for lyrics, if his "machine head" is a guitar tuner, and the stories behind songs from the album The Kingdom.

Phil Hurtt ("I'll Be Around")

Phil Hurtt ("I'll Be Around")Songwriter Interviews

Phil was a songwriter, producer and voice behind many Philadelphia soul classics. When disco hit, he got an interesting project: The Village People.

Brian Kehew: The Man Behind The Remasters

Brian Kehew: The Man Behind The RemastersSong Writing

Brian has unearthed outtakes by Fleetwood Mac, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Costello and hundreds of other artists for reissues. Here's how he does it.

Reverend Horton Heat

Reverend Horton HeatSongwriter Interviews

The Reverend rants on psychobilly and the egghead academics he bashes in one of his more popular songs.

British Invasion

British InvasionFact or Fiction

Go beyond The Beatles to see what you know about the British Invasion.

Chris Rea

Chris ReaSongwriter Interviews

It took him seven years to recover from his American hit "Fool (If You Think It's Over)," but Chris Rea became one of the top singer-songwriters in his native UK.