Originally recorded for Belle and Sebastian’s latest album, Late Developers, the track “What Happened To You, Son” was just released. The song tells the story of a music fan obsessing over his idols.
“‘What Happened To You Son’ got pulled rather randomly from the last LP because the LP felt one track too long. Out it came,” lead vocalist Stuart Murdoch said in a statement.
“The song is about my youth, and the funny hole I fell into in my late teens,” Murdoch stated. “I was failing at my university course, failing in almost everything I tried around then. I was obsessed with the music of the time, I used to hang so much on the lyrics and message and feeling of certain bands of the 80s era – it probably wasn’t healthy.”
“So although the theme of this song is a little accusatory, the fault is with the beholder. I could have switched off at any time. Instead I let the singers become my penpals and my deities.”
‘The song tries to address what happens when the pop stars grow up, and change, and go a different way, and seem to betray the stance they held when you loved them the most.”
"The song finishes hopefully, however. There’s always a way forward, always a light to guide you if you look closely, if you give up part of yourself, if you let yourself flow and change.”
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