"This is Bruce’s first album and probably one of his best. There’s a richness and naïvety on this record that ends up in these lyrical paintings that speak something dear to my heart. It’s about my home, and it’s in a language I understand. I always felt like this was “our” record. The people like “us” who were outcasts growing up. It’s one part Dylan, one part Van Morrison, and then there’s this Marlon Brando part that encapsulates the beautiful losers. There aren’t any winners on this record, only people in “Lost in the Flood.” Even the brighter moments have a sadness to them. “Does this Bus Stop at 82nd Street?” says it well: “Drink this and you’ll grow wings on your feet.” Since reality is so hard, at some point the fantasy takes over. Fantasy, and die hard belief in a different life just over the horizon. It’s that fantasy of rock and roll that some people are too affected to believe in anymore. But this record helps me keep the faith in the childlike wonder of music, and rock and roll in particular. This was my rulebook starting out writing songs. It still is. For the lost, for the lovers, for the crazies, and everyone in between—""For You."" It was like he was saying to me and everyone I knew who lost but believed in spite of those losses, you could still win. “I came for you.”"

"I never got into the ‘Celebration Of The Lizard’ stuff, and I’m still not mad on it. In the minibus on early Bunnymen tours we’d play a lot of Doors, and I got into it. I think they wrote some of the best three-minute pop songs ever. Robby Krieger came up with some of their best pop songs. Even though I prefer the Velvets as a group, The Doors are the most perfect and compatible four musicians in the history of time. The stuff they were doing was unbelievable. Even some of the madder stuff I can handle. If you listen to the musicianship, Ray Manzarek’s keyboard playing is so recognisable from just being a bluesy player, and it never gets on your wick. Some keyboard playing you’re like, "oh, fuck off". The band had the best drummer, keyboardist, guitarist and frontman – and it never got muso. Morrison looked incredible. If he was alive today he’d still be just as good, not so mysterious perhaps, but more of an Allen Ginsberg or Nick Nolte, swatting flies from his face on Venice Beach with a bevvy in his hand. He’d still be at it. And therefore, a heroic figure, looking like he’d been up for three weeks growing the world’s largest beard. I love the way ‘Peace Frog’ runs into ‘Blue Sunday’. The singing was incredible. I just don’t understand how The Doors weren’t even bigger."