It's a song about death and coming to terms with loosing a loved one to death. It's about the process of letting go of someone when they die.
"Recording the South African female trio the Mahotella Queens in Johannesburg made such an impact on Duncan that they ended up singing on three tracks, including the truly spine-tingling vocal break in what is perhaps the album's most effective track, 'All Alone'. "At first, I added them to a very upbeat track, 'Ma' Africa'. But that went off so well that I played them 'All Alone' as an afterthought. 'All Alone' was written to accompany our film about death, and the Queens used to be led by a man who performed with them, who had died about two months before we got there. We explained that this was our film about what death means, and thought that it would be good to have something uplifting in the middle to show that death can be a beginning, as well as an end."
It's a song about death and coming to terms with loosing a loved one to death. It's about the process of letting go of someone when they die.
"Recording the South African female trio the Mahotella Queens in Johannesburg made such an impact on Duncan that they ended up singing on three tracks, including the truly spine-tingling vocal break in what is perhaps the album's most effective track, 'All Alone'. "At first, I added them to a very upbeat track, 'Ma' Africa'. But that went off so well that I played them 'All Alone' as an afterthought. 'All Alone' was written to accompany our film about death, and the Queens used to be led by a man who performed with them, who had died about two months before we got there. We explained that this was our film about what death means, and thought that it would be good to have something uplifting in the middle to show that death can be a beginning, as well as an end."
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb03/articles/1giantleap.asp
A beautiful song. I love it. :)