Song Origin

JT told Leeza Gibbons the story in 1992:
“I was recording that Apple album and I took a break and went to an island off the coast of Spain called Formentera. And I met a girl there named Karin, and she and I took a boat to the next island, which was Abeetha – a larger island. We were just walking around there and missed the last boat back and didn’t have any money for a room and we stayed in the street that night and waited for the next morning when the boat would run again … She was asleep … and I was up and … I was thinking about my home in North Carolina and what it meant and stuff and that just sort of came down out of the air … It’s I suppose still my favorite song that I’ve written. It means a lot to me that one.”

The “holy host of others standing around me” refers to The Beatles, who had made possible the release of JT’s debut album and performed on some of the tracks.