Like many of us, the band members of British indie rock band Alt-J read the beloved children’s book Where the Wild Things Are.
The book, which was published in 1963 and written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak, inspired the band’s single “Breezeblocks,” — a song from their 2012 debut studio album An Awesome Wave.
In a talk with the magazine Interview, Alt-J’s frontman, Joe Newman, goes into some detail of how Sendak’s most famous book inspired the band’s song.
“The song is about liking someone who you want so much that you want to hurt yourself and them, as well,” he said, according to a June 2012 article. “We related that idea to Where the Wild Things Are, which we all grew up reading, where in the end the beast say, ‘Oh, please don’t go! We’ll eat you whole! We love you so!”
Cover art for the single “Breezeblocks.”
In the last verse of the song, he sings:
“Please don’t go, I’ll eat you whole
I love you so, I love you, so I love you so
Please don’t go I’ll eat you whole
I love you so, I love you so, I love you so, I love you so”
And in the second verse, he mentions the book’s title: “Do you know where the wild things go?”
From Novels to Notes 