Arthur's Seat
I wrote this song’s about something many of us hope for: that the people we elect to our Scottish Parliament genuinely put the country, and its people, first. Not in grand speeches. But in quiet moments, in tough decisions, and in the way they carry the weight of what we’ve entrusted them to do.
It’s also a small tribute to Enric Miralles. His vision, his hand in that strange and striking building at the foot of the Royal Mile. Folk have said a lot about it over the years; sometimes fair, sometimes not. Like a lot of AON, 'Arthur' tries to challenges us to think for ourselves, be honest with our own thoughts. Really stress test what we think we know. What we choose to see. Is it right? Can we do more? Is what we're doing wrong?
Because when you slow down and really look, not just at the building, but at what it stands for, there’s something quite beautiful there. Not perfect. Far from it. But bold. Rooted. Human. Just like the people it represents. Miralles said the design should feel like it’s growing out of the land. Maybe that’s what we’re still trying to do, as a nation, as communities, as people.
This song holds that hope. That we can do better. That we already are.
Finn Moray
Song Lyrics
[Verse 1]
It was never meant to scrape the sky,
but to answer the hill, and keep it shy.
A chamber drawn in slant and bend,
where stone and silence learn to mend.
No symmetry to serve the vain,
no grandeur bred from static gain,
but lines that yield, and curves that teach,
that power begins where pride can’t reach.
[Chorus]
So speak with care, and take your seat.
You stand where form and meaning meet.
The thresholds hum with old conceit.
When you walk through the door,
bear in your soul the weight of Arthur’s Seat.
[Verse 2]
No steeple thrust, no marble stance,
just timber poised in tempered dance.
A roof that leans to hear the ground,
a hall where absence is profound.
These walls are not for sovereign praise,
but questions shaped by shifting days.
The truth here isn’t cast in steel,
it breathes in what you choose to feel.
[Chorus]
So speak with care, and take your seat.
You stand where form and meaning meet.
The thresholds hum with old conceit.
When you walk through the door,
bear in your soul the weight of Arthur’s Seat.
[Verse 3]
The space resists the settled pose,
and gathers weight from what it knows.
A place designed to press, not please,
with arguments blown through forgiving trees.
No banners bold, no gilded claim,
just light refracted into frame.
The blueprint never sought acclaim,
it asks if you've earned its name.
[Chorus]
So speak with care, and take your seat.
You stand where form and meaning meet.
The thresholds hum with old conceit.
When you walk through the door,
bear in your soul the weight of Arthur’s Seat.
[Verse 4]
This isn’t where the answers sleep,
but where the watch is meant to keep.
The voice you use, the vote you cast,
are echoes that will always last.
And though no oath can make you whole,
this chamber shapes the nation’s soul.
Step lightly, not from fear but grace,
and hold the shape of this small place.
[Final Chorus]
So speak with care, and take your seat.
You stand where form and meaning meet.
The thresholds hum with old conceit.
When you walk through the door,
bear in your soul the weight of Arthur’s Seat.