(1)

And though, my darling,
There is another side you never see
Another side   (2)
And know, darling,
You know it’s there, on the right
I’m pointing to it now
While you, your fragrance drags
It conveys me to the country

And is...
this...
your birthday?

As if by flight, behold
I am sat in a leafy winding spiral ablaze
Clad stones
Stocked up with pebbles
Rumbling
Trying to, like you, navigate without pains
And in dreams I stumble towards you, (3)
Knees knocked, as you evaporate
Though I am teed up  (4)
I am in the next room with you always (5)

1. From Reformation:

Julia Adamson on the track: "It was initially an instrumental I called it Birthday Song as it was 
my sister's birthday and I gave it to her on a CD for a present.
MES always liked it.  On a separate occasion I asked him to write a 
'love' poem and after a couple of goes was finished and fabulous I thought. 
MES decided to put the instrumental and poem together for The Marshall Suite."

A very short excerpt of this is heard at the end of "Ibis-Afro Man."  

^

2. Note Mike Watts's comment, "the phrases are similar to those of a medium talking through a 'spirit guide'."

^
 

3. Dan points out the allusion to Roy Orbison's "In dreams I walk with you." His entire comment below (comment 1) is outstanding, in fact; do not skip it.

^

4. "Teed up" can mean ready to go, as in a golf ball on a tee, or it can mean intoxicated.  

^

5. Paul Go submits:

"To follow up on the 'spirit medium' angle of the song, "I am in the next room' could be inspired by a line from 'Death is Nothing at All,' a popular poem for funeral services.

That poem, by Henry Scott Holland (1847 - 1918), has 'I have only slipped away into the next room' as its third line."

(See More Information for the text of the poem)

^

Birthday Song: Fall Tracks A-Z

The Story of the Fall: 1999

Death Is Nothing At All

Death is nothing at all.
It does not count.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
Nothing has happened.
Everything remains exactly as it was.
I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged.
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
Call me by the old familiar name.
Speak of me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it. Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was.
There is absolute and unbroken continuity.
What is this death but a negligible accident
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight
I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just round the corner.
All is well.
Nothing is hurt; nothing is lost.
One brief moment and all will be as it was before.
How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!

Henry Scott Holland