This lyric was written many years ago, and performed live with an entirely different melody with The Minus 5 in Seattle at least once in rock lineaments, and now finally appears on a record thirty years later. The pathways can be mysterious, though most of these are written since the last album.

This song is equal parts Gilbert O’Sullivan and Burt Bacharach. I was first introduced to the piano/ whistle double by Brian Lohmann (Johnny Lonely) in San Francisco in the early 90’s and it blew my mind when I first realised that’s how Brazilian music achieved that wondrous effect. David Nagler came to the same wondrous realization completely by chance, right here. Such a great sound. I’ve been doing a lot of whistling recently, live and on my Secret Series. I remember there was a whistling competition at school when I was maybe 14. I didn’t win and I was very offended because I’ve always been proud of my whistle. Is the guy who won whistling professionally these days? I DON’T THINK SO. Maybe around the kitchen though.

This song is the second song on the record to feature the phrase “one last heist” - here it’s a lead singer trying to get his reluctant bandmates back together for a final payday, and in the other it’s more literal: I think of it as that guy on the cover of the record. In the end, it’s all a metaphor.

Thank you for taking this trip through the songs with me. The album is technically released tomorrow: god bless her and all who sail in her. And this shouldn’t be my last record, for those who were concerned: after the last heist comes - in the classic TV trope - the “ten minute retirement”. And then he’s back for the sequel.

Photo (“A Lady and Her Horse”) by Felix Tholier (1899)

Design by Morgan Narkiewicz