The message of this song is that when a successful businessman stops making money or when the money runs out, he wants to know the reasons. "That's the Midas Shadow," Stewart told biographer Neville Judd.
Regarding the lyrics, "Conquistador in search of gold - for all the jackdaw reasons," when Stewart wrote the song he didn't realize Americans were unfamiliar with the jackdaw, a bird which is supposed to steal gold rings, and other treasures to line its nest. Later he wrote a song called "Jackdaw," which is also the title of the official Al Stewart fanzine.
You're looking down on the tropical trees While the Spanish maids pick up the sheets Stewart was staying at the Continental Hyatt House in Hollywood, which inspired this line. "It was a crazy place," he said on an interview CD for the album. "Led Zeppelin were running around and all the rock and roll bands of the day were there. The Spanish maids, as I refer to them in the song, would make up your bed in the morning, and they had absolutely no idea who all these crazy people were. It was just the dichotomy between the laboring poor and the gilded rock and roll stars that caused me to write this song."
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