The True Wheel

This is a song by Brian Eno. It's on Side Two of his second solo album, Taking Tiger Mountain By Stragety, 1974.

The lyric is mostly nonsensical, but it's one of those fun hooky pop songs that Mr. Eno used to write back in the day, before he started taking himself seriously and doing all that "ambient" garbage. Music for Elevators indeed. The most fun thing about this one is the chord progression: V IV I, one bar each, and then it starts over again, but the song is divided up into units of four bars. It wraps around. The effect is very nice and also unusual. It's one of those "experiments" I guess, except that it worked and good music came out of it.

Of course, Mr. Eno made that 801 Live album not so long after, and I suppose there's a connection between the name and the lyric here. That's a good record, by the way, if you can find a copy. If you've got the other one from around then, with Cale and Nico, drop me a line. Is it worth tracking down? Did you notice Mr. Cale crooning over a sentimental moment in Shrek? That one blew my mind, really. It's always the unexpected that's worth getting out of bed for, isn't it?¹ Naturally we've all heard of the English band A Certain Ratio, who borrowed their name from this song. I think he's talking about the real Modern Lovers down there, too, as in Jonathan Richman.

It's a fun song. The "row, row, row" and "ding, ding" bits are sung falsetto by a chorus of singers presumably consisting of Mr. Eno. It's goofy and cute, and there's little bits of frippery in there, too.

We are the 801
We are the central shaft

And we are here to let you take advantage
Of our lack of craft
Certain streets have certain corners
Sooner or later we'll turn yours.

We are the 801
We are the central shaft

And thus throughout two years we've crossed the ocean
In our little craft (row, row, row)
Now we're on the telephone
Making final arrangements (ding, ding)

We are the 801
We are the central shaft

Looking for a certain ratio
Someone must have left it underneath the carpet
Looking up and down the radio
Oh, oh, nothing there this time
Looking for a certain ratio
Someone said they saw it parking in a car lot
Looking up and down the radio
Oh, oh, nothing there this time
Going back down to the rodeo
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, here we go!

We are the table, the captain's table,
Let's get it understood, let's get it understood.
We are the losers, we are the cruisers,
Let's get it understood, let's get it understood.
We are the diners, the final diners,
Let's get it understood, let's get it understood
Most of us are tinkers, some of us tailors
And we've got candlesticks and lots of cocktail sticks
We saw the lovers, the modern lovers,
And they looked very good, they looked as if they could.
We are the neighbors, the nosy neighbors,
We think just like you would, we think just like you should.