To see the lyrics, click on the name of the version you are interested in (on the left).

As Regeneration revealed a new side of The Divine Comedy, so did the live performances in 2001, which enabled Neil Hannon and his friends to explore unknown paths. The lives of the period are very interesting, quite different from what most people think The Divine Comedy is. One of the most interesting songs is ‘Note To Self’, which was regularly played in 2001. It was played again a little in 2002, but has not been played since, maybe because guitarist Ivor Talbot left.

The song is a tortured one, a little like ‘Through A Long And Sleepless Night’. Actually, like ‘Through A Long And Sleepless Night’, it compiles ideas Neil Hannon wrote down, and works like a personal diary. To put them as a song, Neil was inspired by the movie Pi [1], in which a character “restates his assumptions”. In the song, Neil Hannon reasserts a number of things (about death, beauty and song writing). As such it fits the theme of the album. Neil is undergoing a metamorphosis, leaving his old self and finding himself a new one. The process is not easy, and the song shows Neil’s fear during it. This process is like a travel into darkness. The song was actually first called ‘Heart Of Darkness’, like Joseph Conrad’s novel.

At the end of the song, we can hear probably Joby Talbot and Bryan Mills playing table-tennis. They had a table in the studio, and the band would waste away their time playing. [2]


[1] New Comer, 2001
[2] Freeserve webchat 10/05/2001