"It was composed on the morning after John Lennon's murder," writes Costello in the liner notes to Imperial Bedroom, "I went out walking to clear my head of the dreadful news reports, and this song came to me. I wouldn't have done anything as presumptuous as write a song 'about' the event and even edited out a passing reference to it in the original second verse. However, the line 'Singing the 'Leaving of Liverpool' and turning into Americans' seems to be about a place where dreams begin and ...