Diary Of A Hollow Horse

This album was produced by Walter Becker of Steely Dan so I can't get away from the phrase "my kind" which works the same in this song as in the equally cryptic Rikki Don't Lose That Number." This 1989 song, which may be the epitome of the 'tragedy and mystery' of China Crisis' songwriting, has not received any commentary or interpretation as of yet. So allow me. On it's surface, this is the plea of a husband caught cheating and facing the end of his marriage. It being the "way of the world for me and my kind (adulterers, like in the Steely Dan song) is no excuse for his "bitter betrayal" and he knows it. What is a Holllow Horse? I think of the legend of the Trojan Horse, a false gift that let to destruction and doom. Thus his marriage was a false promise of fidelity to his wife (a "slave to the veil" - ouch) as he was "drawn to the flame" as in the image of the moth drawn to a flame and it's own demise. The chorus seems to invoke a fantasy, a different world, another life, where he and his missus meet again and he can rise to being faithful. But this is real life and there is no turning back. This song is often China Crisis' concert closer. The last verse is devastating: 29 words that sum up the song and the situation, the end of a love and a marriage in one verse. One of the most powerful verses I've heard sung, to end one of the most profoundly sad and poignant songs I know.