I wrote this song about my brother, Ian, who died more than 30 years ago. It started as a folk song but some way down the line turned into a rock song, which I much preferred. The three young men at the beginning are me, Ian and his friend, Mick. We were walking along towards Lewes station one time, they were 12 so I was just 11. On the bench at the bottom of Station Street, Lewes, sat what for us appeared to be old men. Their chins were dark and partly shaven. Ian said to Mick., 'I never want to have a blue chin when I get old.' Mick nodded in agreement, but I didn't have a clue what they were talking about.  Right or wrong, Ian explained that if you didn't use an electric razor, which was smoother, but instead used a hand one, your chin would turn blue. The idea had always sat somewhere in the back of my mind and is still there today. Ian must have thought he was so wise, and to me he was. That's why I wrote the lines, 'Good old boys to men, grown into boys again.'

The lines, 'About the dance they knew, just pass it on,' refers to Ian coming home from the Riverside Youth Club when he was about 11, and teaching me all the new dances he'd learnt that evening. My parents wouldn't let me go; I was too young.

The verse where all 3 of us walk through the graveyard is both ironic and poignant. We all wore Levis jeans and from watching the other 2, I realised that it looked cool if you put your thumbs through your belt loops while walking along. It's maybe not cool now, but it sure was then! The irony comes from the fact that all 3 of us where walking past the spot where Ian would be buried.

The remainder of the song involves ideas of adolescence, bewilderment and soon to be discovered, unrequited love. Passing it on means passing these thoughts from one generation to the next, thoughts and ideas that seemed so important to us and which will be lost when I'm gone.