A great example of the unique songwriting skills of Keith Reid. Weaves a cinematic kind of visual image and tells a story that is strange, surreal, and meant to be humorous in a kind of bizarre way. The whole story is ridiculous, and yet it somehow reflects a sincere desire to fly away from the world, up to that "Golden Gate" somewhere up in the heavens. Of course, the celestial trip gets wrecked, because he knows that he is not "some kind of angel", but just a human being who struggles with life and contradiction, and never quite sees a way to get beyond it. The best line of the song is "If you understand just what I'm trying to say, whatever you do don't grin, you'll give the game away." In other words he suddenly sees the weird drama of life unfolding around him as something that is really a joke. And when you grin at the joke, then the game becomes something different. You realize that to want to fly up to heaven and be like an angel is both a sincere kind of aspiration and a ridiculous idea. And maybe that is the point, if there is one.
A great example of the unique songwriting skills of Keith Reid. Weaves a cinematic kind of visual image and tells a story that is strange, surreal, and meant to be humorous in a kind of bizarre way. The whole story is ridiculous, and yet it somehow reflects a sincere desire to fly away from the world, up to that "Golden Gate" somewhere up in the heavens. Of course, the celestial trip gets wrecked, because he knows that he is not "some kind of angel", but just a human being who struggles with life and contradiction, and never quite sees a way to get beyond it. The best line of the song is "If you understand just what I'm trying to say, whatever you do don't grin, you'll give the game away." In other words he suddenly sees the weird drama of life unfolding around him as something that is really a joke. And when you grin at the joke, then the game becomes something different. You realize that to want to fly up to heaven and be like an angel is both a sincere kind of aspiration and a ridiculous idea. And maybe that is the point, if there is one.