Red thread of fate

“All along there was some Invisible string Tying you to me?”

Angela & Uncle Jerry identify the song's central metaphor as a clear allusion to the Asian folk tradition of the red thread of fate. Uncle Jerry traces the story through Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese cultures, centring on the figure of Yue Lao, a god who ties an invisible thread between two people destined to meet. The tale of a wealthy man who tries to prevent his fated marriage only to discover years later that his bride bears the scar from his interference maps directly onto the song's premise: that an unseen connection was always drawing the speaker toward her partner across continents and years. Uncle Jerry calls the song 'BAM right in the middle of the tradition of folklore' and notes it draws on a folk tradition that extended for hundreds of years in both European and Asian culture.