Down from Above was their best-known album, released in August 1990 after signing a deal with Fontana. The production quality was markedly improved. Several of the tracks are reworkings of earlier material (especially The Quiet Mind). The track list is:
- Primitive Man
- The Quiet Mind (for Joe)
- Take Your Money
- Can It Be?
- Away from Here
- Pavan
- Stand Together
- Betty's Last Letter
- Bloomsbury Blue
- Midnight Road
- Not Alone
- Song of the Mermaid
- Something's Gone Wrong
- Epitaph
David Mamet wrote the lyrics for Primitive Man and Epitaph, and provided backing vocals on Pavan. Another (very different) rendition of Primitive Man appears on Rebecca's solo album The New York Girls' Club; the only Ruby Blue song to feature in her solo material.
Epitaph refers to the Marchioness disaster of 20 August 1989, where 51 people lost their lives in a collision between a pleasure boat and a dredger in the River Thames . Roger Fife and Erika Spotswood were attendees at the Marchioness party and were amongst the lucky survivors. Their witness statements can be viewed on the above link. A drama-documentary about the Marchioness disaster in which both Roger and Erica were portrayed was dropped by ITV in August 2007 after relatives of the deceased described it as "distressing and insensitive".
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Famous quotes containing the words down and/or from:
“Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know, But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.”
—Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950)
“From far, from eve and morning
And yon twelve-winded sky,
The stuff of life to knit me
Blew hither: here am I.”
—A.E. (Alfred Edward)