A song a day 18

“My Wandering Days Are Over” was written about the completion of Belle & Sebastian. Stuart Murdoch spent much time finding the right mix of people to make up his band. Stevie Jackson, Richard Colburn, Chris Geddes and Stuart David made up Murdoch's backing band, but it wasn't until new years 1996 that he met Isobel Campbell and the band was complete… for the time. Eventually, Stuart David and Isobel Campbell would leave the band, and Sarah Martin, Mick Cooke and Bobby Kildea would join. With “My Wandering Days Are Over,” Murdoch sings about “hitting the drums for the final time” and letting his new bandmates help form his image. It wasn't until after the band's second release however that those members had a distinctive voice to the listener.

You know my wandering days are over
Does that mean that I'm getting boring?
You tell me

I'm tired of listening to myself now
I'm tired of fixing things for Mykel and the rest of them

You know my bip-bopping days are over
I hung my boots up and then retired from the disco floor
Now the centre of my so-called being is the space between your bed and wardrobe with the louvre doors

I said, "My celibate days are over"
You put me straight on the finer points of my speech rehearsed
In the mirror of my steamy bathroom where the lino tells a sorry story in a monologue

Six months on, the winter's gone
The disenchanted pony left the town with the circus boy
The circus boy got lonely
It's summer and it's sister song's been written for the lonely

The circus boy is feeling melancholy

It's got to be fate that's doing it
A spooky witch in a sexy dress has been bugging me
With the story of the way it should be
With the story of Sebastian and Belle the singer

I said, "My one man band is over"
I hit the drum for the final time and I walked away
I saw you in Japanese restaurant
You were doing it for business men on the piano, Belle

You said it was a living hell
You said that it was hell