London Thunder

Album: What Went Down (2015)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Foals vocalist Yannis Phillppakis wrote this track about touring and knowing that when he returns home, some things will be different. He told Mojo: "That song, basically, I wrote it at an airport at night and it wasn't very busy and it had that kind of weird, eerie, cold melancholy to it. I was coming back home and I realised that the home that I was coming back to wasn't the home that I left, that something had happened while I'd been away. That song is about being away from home."
  • A music video was shot with a CCTV camera of Foals playing this song live at the Studios La Fabrique where they recorded What Went Down. Studios La Fabrique is located in the same village in the south of France in which Vincent Van Gogh was hospitalized after savaging his own ear.
  • Phillppakis elaborated further on the song's meaning to HMV.com, telling the site it "deals directly with the idea of being absent and always being in departure lounges, the idea of not being able to put roots in anywhere."

    "When I was younger I didn't care so much about where I was, but on the last tour in particular I really felt like I was treading heavier, I wanted to put an anchor down, I wanted to stay somewhere," he added. "That song deals with being away and how when you come home your is never the same. The idea of home and belonging is recurrent in quite a lot of our songs."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Guy Clark

Guy ClarkSongwriter Interviews

Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris and Lyle Lovett are just a few of the artists who have looked to Clark for insightful, intelligent songs.

Rupert Hine

Rupert HineSongwriter Interviews

Producer Rupert Hine talks about crafting hits for Tina Turner, Howard Jones and The Fixx.

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In Songs

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In SongsSong Writing

Songs where something goes horribly wrong (literally or metaphorically), and help is needed right away.

Jethro Tull

Jethro TullFact or Fiction

Stage urinals, flute devices, and the real Aqualung in this Fact or Fiction.

Timothy B. Schmit of the Eagles

Timothy B. Schmit of the EaglesSongwriter Interviews

Did this Eagle come up with the term "Parrothead"? And what is it like playing "Hotel California" for the gazillionth time?

Stan Ridgway

Stan RidgwaySongwriter Interviews

Go beyond the Wall of Voodoo with this cinematic songwriter.