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Tales of the Road

Prodigal son:
One of Jesus' parables in the bible is called 'The Prodigal Son'. It is about a young man who leaves his father and wastes his inheritance. Poor and hungry he decides to go back home and ask his father to forgive him. The father is overjoyed to see his son again and arranges a large feast. The elder brother gets angry, because he has always worked hard for his father and never been treated so generously in return. But the father answers him: "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found". The point of the story is that God will always forgive a repentant sinner, and that one repentant sinner makes God happier than many just persons. It is typical for Justin's treatment of biblical stories to change their content and meaning into the opposite: his "prodigal son is not coming home". Similarly, the idea of being lost and found again is turned around in Gigabyte Wars; however, a positive, though not Christian, presentation of the same idea can be found in Orange Tree Roads.
- Source: The Bible. Luke, 15.11-32 - Read more: King James Bible -

Ferrybridge:
A village in the north of England, west of Leeds. The junction is probably the place where the M62 and A1 cross. The M62 leads from Bradford to Kingston-upon-Hull, from where ferries leave to mainland Europe. The A1 leads to London in the south and Newcastle in the north (from where also ferries leave to mainland Europe). The cooling towers belong to the Ferrybridge Power Station that dominates the skyline around the village.
- Read more: Wikipedia -

Wishing-well:
An idea in European folklore describing wells where it is thought that any spoken wish would be granted if you throw coins into the water.
- Read more: Wikipedia -

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Ten Commandments

The song:
We recorded this for 'The Ghost of Cain' but the producer Glyn Johns never liked it and it ended up as a B-side. In the end we think he was probably right . . . [I don't . . . SF]
-Source: B-Sides and Abandoned Tracks booklet -

Moses:
An early Hebrew religious leader. The first five books of the Torah as well as the Bible are attributed to him. He was born by a Hebrew mother in Egypt and was commanded by God to deliver the Israelites from slavery and lead them through the desert to the Promised Land.
In the bible God meets Moses on the Mountain Sinai in the desert and gives him two tables with the ten commandments written on them. The people of Israel that Moses leads meanwhile build a golden calf that they worship. The whole first verse of 'Ten Commandments' is based on Exodus, 32.15-20:
"[15] And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. [16] And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables. [17] And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp.[18] And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear. [19] And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount. [20] And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it."
- Source: The Bible. Exodus, 19.1-32.20 - Read more: King James Bible - Wikipedia -

Ten Commandments:
The set of rules written by God on the two tablets he gave to Moses on the Mount Sinai (see Moses above). Jews and Christians today still consider these rules to be a guideline for moral behaviour. Here they are: 1. I am the LORD your God; you shall have no other gods before me. 2. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God. 3. Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 4. Honour your father and your mother. 5. You shall not murder. 6. You shall not commit adultery. 7. You shall not steal. 8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 9. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. 10.You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
- Source: The Bible. Exodus, 20.2-17 - Read more: King James Bible - Wikipedia -

Book of Revelation:
By Jesus's disciple(?) John. The last book of the Bible, in which the end of the world, the apocalypse, and the Last Judgment are prophesied, when God will send all those to hell who don't believe in him.
- Read more: King James Bible -

A god made in the image of man:
According to , man was created in the image of god: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness".
- Source: The Bible. Genesis, 1.26 - Read more: King James Bible -

Mohammed:
First and most important prophet of the Islam.
- Read more: Wikipedia -

Holy war:
Holy wars appear in all religions (e.g. the Crusades in Christianity). In Islam, the Holy War or Jihad means "to strive or struggle in the way of God", i.e. to lead a good muslim life. The term is not meant to include violence, but is often misinterpreted and used as justification for martial or terrorist actions by fanatics.
- Read more: Wikipedia -

Heretics:
Heresy is the denial by a professed, baptized Christian of a revealed truth or that which the (Roman Catholic) Church has proposed as a revealed truth. Heretics were persecuted by the Inquisition.

Dead Sea Scrolls:
Ancient manuscripts (of leather, papyrus, and copper) discovered in desert caves and ancient ruins in the wilderness of Judaea. They are among the more important discoveries in the history of modern archaeology. Their recovery has enabled scholars to push back the date of a stabilized Hebrew Bible to no later than AD 70, to reconstruct the history of Palestine from the 4th century BC to AD 135, and to cast new light on the emergence of Christianity and of rabbinic Judaism and on the relationship between early Christianity and Jewish religious traditions.
- Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica - Read more: Wikipedia -

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Till the End of the Day

The song:
This was the first single Justin ever bought, probably back in 1966.
- Source: Justin Sullivan in an interview with Chris Benn in February 1997 -

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Too Close to the Sun

Mary:
A frequently occurring name in the bible; it was the name of the mother of Jesus and several women he knew. Accordingly, the mountain could be Calvary Hill, where Jesus was crucified.

Warrior monks:
Probably a Chinese monk (or someone influenced by this idea) from the Shaolin Monastery, that is famous for its association with Zen Buddhism and the martial arts.
- Read more: Wikipedia -

Melting wax and feathers falling:
In Greek mythology, Icarus and his father Daedalus were imprisoned by King Minos. They managed to escape by flying away with wings made out of feathers stuck together with wax. Icarus flew too close to the sun, the wax melted, the wings broke and the boy fell into the sea and drowned.
- Read more: Wikipedia -

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Trust

The song:
The song is about New Model Army's first bass player, Stuart Morrow. [I still think he was their best bass player ever, though].
- Source: Justin Sullivan in an interview with Chris Benn in February 1997 -

Stuart, we see each other about every other night, him and his girlfriend who is one of my oldest friends in Bradford, so me and Stuart make music all the time up in the attic. We are very close. When he left the band it was very suddenly, he said 'right, I'm off' and it was right at the point were we were commercially having a great deal of success and he left without any explanation and he wouldn't talk to us for about three years and after about three years, it was like this is a waste of time, let's be friends. And we have been friends ever since. You know, Justin has a different feeling over that and he was with Justin before I joined the band, but we are very close.
- Source: Robert Heaton in an interview with Chris Benn in May 1997 -

The song Curse is about the same subject and person.

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Turn Away

The song:
There's a lot of different things to be addicted to, but the hardest thing is to live with someone that's addicted to something. It's always the friends and the family of the person that get it in their neck.
- Source: Justin Sullivan on the Big Guitars in Little Europe CD -

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Twilight Home

The song:
Obviously a combination of Justin's favourite subjects, family/home (compare BD3, Dawn, Family, Family Life, Home, Inheritance, My People, No Mirror, No Shadow), and the sea (see Big Blue, Marry the Sea, Ocean Rising, Southwest, Sun On Water, Wipeout).

Surfers:
Justin himself likes to surf (although he is not very good at it) and supports a Cornwall based environmental activity group, "Surfers against Sewage" (SAS).
- Read more: SAS official site -

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225

The song:
It's about saving the world again, and against technology, the fact that everybody is forced to use technology. It's supposedly good for us, but I don't think it is. We didn't ask for any of it, but we have to use computers, we have to use this, we have to use that; as if somewhere else someone has decided that we have to use all this stuff, 'cause somebody is inventing it. If some clever person tomorrow invents some amazing device that enables you that you don't have to walk anywhere, we now have to feel we have to use this device because it's good for us. And it's nonsense, it's all nonsense.
- Source: Robert Heaton in an interview with German radio station Radio Bremen 4 in February 1989 -

White Coats is about a similar topic.

225:
225 beats per minute, that's the tempo of the song - which nobody does, except for speed metal bands. No rock band does it, it's all like Bon Jovie speed and stuff.
- Source: Robert Heaton in an interview with German radio station Radio Bremen 4 in February 1989 -

Without rhyme, without reason:
Withour logical explanation.
- Source: The New Oxford Dictionary of English -

[ Back to 225 ]

16/06/2007