This Is It

Kilbey/Willson-Piper/Koppes/Powles
(Copyright Control/Polygram Music)

Appears On:

Lyrics (unofficial)

[rev. Aug. 24, 2013]

He had a room in the best part of town
He got a chocolate on his eiderdown
Staring out over roofs at the Cross
Suppose he must have felt somewhat at loss

This is it, oh
This is it now
This is it, oh baby
This is it

You couldn't say he was feeling very vibed
What had the quack in London prescribed
You couldn't really say he seemed to care
Sometimes he acted, he wasn't anywhere

This is it, oh baby
This is it now
This is it, oh
This is it

Watching things you put up start to crash
Even though you've got a fistful of cash
Watching the future, it bursts on through
I was one of those who used to envy you

I knew a wise man who didn't own a thing
I knew a happy man who made me feel sad
You never know what the other guy is thinking
Too bad

Sometimes you come upon a fork in the road
What was waiting there he never could have known
Split-second difference, one tiny percent
Yeah, he came and he went

This is it, oh baby
This is it now
This is it, oh
This is it now

Excerpt from De-mystified: The stories behind 6 Michael Hutchence-inspired songs by Lyndsey Parker - Nov. 21, 2017:

  The Church, "This Is It" (1998)

Key lyrics: "He had a room in the best part of town/He got a chocolate on his eiderdown/Staring out over roofs at the Cross/Suppose he must have felt somewhat at loss ... Watching things you put up start to crash/Even though you've got a fistful of cash/Watching the future it bursts on through/I was one of those who used to envy you

"This Is It," from Australian alt-rockers the Church's 11th studio album, Hologram of Baal, is the most literal of the Hutchence tribute tracks out there, chillingly chronicling Hutchence's final hours in a Sydney hotel room. "I was very shocked and depressed by Hutchence's death, because it was so inexplicable," the band's Steve Kilbey told Yahoo Music at the time of the song's release. "It's like, this guy's got everything — money and girls, all the things we all aspire to. And yet, once again, like a lot of celebrities, he's taken his life. What hope does that give all the guys working in the factories, you know?"

Echoing Corgan's statements, Kilbey also said he thought the decline of Hutchence's teen-heartthrob status "weighed heavily on him. ...He was getting towards 40, but his appeal was based on being a sexy young guy, which he was starting to not be anymore. That's the dilemma if that's what you are, as opposed to, hopefully, what we look upon ourselves as musicians. If you went and saw the Modern Jazz Quartet, you wouldn't be thinking about how fat or how old they are, or if their beards are gray. You'd just be, 'Yeah, I like this music.' But Hutchence was trapped in this youth thing."

Looking back at the Australian music icon's legacy 25 years later, Kilbey tells Yahoo in 2017: "Michael Hutchence was the only person I ever met who I thought truly possessed that elusive quality of 'charisma.'"