Songfacts®:

• Jason Pierce of Spiritualized told the Sun newspaper May 23, 2008: "Death Take Your Fiddle is about being close to death in the same way that 'Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space' was about floating in space. If you understand life isn't worth living unless you are close to death, it makes sense of life. And the closer you get to it, the more you realize that."
• Pierce has denied in interviews that the album was inspired by a spell in intensive care he experienced after a bout of double pneumonia, but its title, Songs in A&E, appear to contradict him. He explained to the London Times May 16, 2008: "The songs were written before it happened. Although when I returned to them over a year later I was trying to capture that low-level atmosphere you find in hospitals. You get this sense that if people were given a chance they'd all run around with their arms in the air, screaming: 'We're in trouble!' But there is a lid on it; the atmosphere is held down by the fact that everything is supposed to be calm and clean."
• The album contains a number of sonic references to this near-death experience such as the breathing sound on this track. The use of breathing was done by means of an accordion without the keys being pressed.
• The album sleeve features photography by Anton Corbijn, who also did the photography for Annie Lennox's Diva album and directed the video's for U2's "One" and The Killers' "Andy, You're A Star." The sleeve's photography features catheters and various other hospital accouterments. Pierce explained the thinking behind it to the Observer Music Monthly March 2008: "The decision to use the little plastic catheters that connect the IV drip to your vein was because they kind of looked like crosses. They are so small and simple that people don't really place much importance on them. For some people, though, these small, simple things are the most important things in the world. They save lives."