The poem ending It Ain't Easy When You Fall arose during a Mott tour in Scotland from 1973. Hunter's interest in poetry was long lasting having D.H. Lawrence on Mott and Baudelaire on Mad Shadows; and, of course in 23A Swan Hill he says: "Wrote this poem called `The Floods Roll On.'" The poem fit the song as in the studio the song ran a bit short and they needed an ending when an attempted scat singing didn't come off as well. It's a bit of a mix since the song is about Mick Ralphs while the poem is personal to Ian. The "uncontrollable light" line in the poem is when songwriting goes perfectly which Ian has stated has happened only about a half a dozen times in his life.
Shades Off (spoken)
(Ian Hunter)
Where do you go when you've somewhere to run
But the time isn't right and there's things to be done
And you're trapped half-way up, you don't want to go back
So you keep going on - compromising the lack
And you see the green fields as you travel on by
And you look at the things you'd forgotten to try
And you wish you were young and you wish you were old
For the songs always sung and the stories been told
And you thought you were different but what did it mean
For you tricked yourself trying - life's still unseen
As it is, as it was, as it always will be
Will you find out at all what it is to be free
See it never was easy to live with a head
So I kept to the back room and I live there instead
What comes from the front-room is only for "Friends"
I have a bay window but that's where it ends
And it's here I see pictures and my madness is clear
And there's no longer logic so therefore no fear
And I'm almost dead with uncontrollable light
Sometimes when I've written a song - it's alright...
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