The Birds Take Flight

Coming in 2026 (hopefully?)

  Hey, so, you know that this is an instrumental song, right? Why are you looking up the lyrics?

  Aah, I’m only joking.  Not everybody would think to check this page, so credit where it’s due!  Ok, you came all this way, spotted the incongruity, and I can hardly let you leave empty-handed so how about this- would you like to know what “SoWAIN TuL” actually means? I’ve said a few things about it before- that it’s a mystical homeland, or a sacred sword of myth- but, actually, it’s a silly title based on a term in computing.

  You see, in 1992 a standard interface was developed by a group of reps from six companies who manufactured scanning equipment and, due to the fact that it was a pan-corporate effort, they named it “TWAIN”. This name was derived from Rudyard Kipling’s poem “The Ballard of East and West” which features the line “…and never the twain shall meet”. So far so good, right?

  Except, in popular culture, this myth arose that the name was actually an acronym for “Technology Without An Interesting Name”: T.W.A.I.N. I thought this was amusing, so, when I couldn’t come up with a name for the song, I decided to call it “Song Without An Interesting Name, Tune Likewise” and abbreviated it to SoWAIN TuL, which is why some of the letters are capitalised and others aren’t.

  So, now you know. But, hey, keep this between us, yeah?