The song is about and inspired by my grandad Charles Allen. I had already recorded an album using Charlesâ voice, where he spoke about his life growing up in Liverpool in the 1920âs and 30âs working as a drummer and big band leader. When he recorded those stories in the 1980âs he had retired and just returned from a trip of a lifetime to visit family in Australia with his wife (my gran). One of the expressions he had used while over there was his version of the more common phrase âIâll go with the flowâ (referring to someone who lets things happen, is relaxed about random events, or is versatile and able to change plans) â Charles used the more archaic version: âIâll go with the tideâ. This would be in the context of him being asked what he would like to drink, or where he would like to eat, or where he would like to visit. I guess he didnât want to be any trouble or dictate what the group was going to do, so would go with the majority. His Australian family thought this was a very funny phrase to use.
I was shocked to learn Charles was like this whilst there, because usually he was very forthright and set in his ways. He was a man of routine, he was tidy and punctual, he liked structure in his life. So to read that he would just allow his life to take an undirected course was surprising. So much so that the phrase âIâll go with the tideâ originally became the title of this song and its main theme. This later was taken over by the idea of immortality and being part of the universe, through the original middle eight section which started out being related to the tide ("We are only waves, returning to the sea") and then continued to deal with wider things: "We are all just dust, returning to the earth. We are particles, we are all star dust. We are all just dust; we are all star dust".
The phrase âWaves returning to the seaâ is a line I first heard in the TV series âThe Good Placeâ â the character Chidi is quoting from Buddhist teaching. It just fitted so beautifully with Charlieâs phrase âIâll go with the tideâ I had to include it. Originally this section was a middle eight but I felt it was so important that after a melody change it became a chorus, and the original chorus became a kind of bridge.
I had already written before in my earlier song âWe Are Dustâ how the human race and everything else on earth is made up of galactic debris that was pulled today by the gravitational force of stars. Therefore it seemed natural to continue with the theme of existence with the idea that we are made up of space dust.
It is also reference to the Hoagy Carmichael/Mitchell Parrish song âStardustâ which was Charlie and Minnieâs favourite song. A part of its ghostly refrain can be heard at the end of the track. There is also a hint of Bowieâs Ziggy Stardust in the arrangement, particularly the handclaps and guitar solo section inspired by âSoul Loveâ.

The song is released on elementary recordings on 25 October 2022. the day there is a partial eclipse of the sun. As Rockets in the Trees sang on their track "w w w": "Planets moving in circles, a universal ballet" - we are all connected and should look after each other a bit better than we are.

The Bandcamp version has bonus content, not available on other releases: an additional track in collaboration with the awesome talent that is Neil Robinson and a PDF booklet showing artwork and how the song came to be.

We Are All Stardust

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