Songfacts®:

• This song was inspired by Waterboys keyboard player Brother Paul Brown, who left Memphis for Nashville, where it was easier to find work. This song tells his story, with the hook being one of his favorite sayings: "My soul is in Memphis, but my ass is in Nashville, Tennessee."
• Waterboys frontman Mike Scott wrote this song. Musically, it's inspired by the period from 1967-1971 when soul and country crossovers were common. He calls it "country-funk."
  
  "It wasn't fully developed," Scott said in a Songfacts interview. "It's sitting there, like an old past world that still has an open window on somewhere new to go. I love that. That sort of interface between country music and soul music. In that period, in the late '60s, you would get a lot of soul artists, like Otis Redding, that would do country numbers, and you would also get country singers who would use elements of funk music. Well, as the '70s progressed, that interface evaporated. Soul singers moved onto different territories, so did country singers. It was a little, strange interlude, and I think it wasn't fully explored."