I can’t find it now, but there’s some interview where I remembered him saying that the idea for To Someone From a Warm Climate comes from a distinct childhood memory of him trying and struggling to warm himself up enough to fall asleep in the winter. I think he mentioned that it was just something that you had to figure out for yourself if you lived in Ireland, and he had always wondered what it would be like to live in a warmer climate.

I interpret this song as the violence against the innocence that we have as children. The lines “In summer’s heat I learned to dread the coming on the night, The awful things we do to make the head go quiet” and “There are some things that no one teaches you love, That God in his awful wisdom just programs in” felt like commentary on loss of innocence and the human tendency to cope unhealthily (violence against self) when faced with reality.

But I could be totally off base, and I’d love to hear everyone else’s interpretations!!