"Song for Clay" is the opening track from Bloc Party

Bloc Party

Bloc Party are a British Indie rock band, composed of Kele Okereke , Russell Lissack , Gordon Moakes , and Matt Tong...

's second album A Weekend in the City

A Weekend In The City

A Weekend in the City is the second studio album by British indie rock band Bloc Party. It was recorded at Grouse Lodge Studios in Westmeath, Ireland, in mid-2006 and was produced by Jacknife Lee. The record was refined and mixed at several locations in London at the end of 2006...

and was set to be the fourth single released from the album. The band had even begun work on a music video

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

 for the song. It was replaced as the fourth single by a newly recorded song "Flux

Flux (song)

"Flux" is a song by Bloc Party which was released as a single on 12 November 2007. It was produced by Jacknife Lee, along with several other new songs, during the band's week in the studio after their performances at the Carling Weekend: Reading and Leeds Festivals. The song uses mostly electronic...

".

The song is inspired by Bret Easton Ellis

Bret Easton Ellis

Bret Easton Ellis is an American novelist and short story writer. His works have been translated into 27 different languages. He was regarded as one of the so-called literary Brat Pack, which also included Tama Janowitz and Jay McInerney...

' novel Less Than Zero whose main character's name is Clay. Lyrics

Lyrics

Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...

 in the song include "People are afraid to merge on the freeways" which is a recurring line in the book, and is similar to the opening sentence in the novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

. "Disappear Here" is seen on a billboard

Billboard

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

 in the novel, and appears recurrently throughout. Other lyrics, such as "I live the dream" and "When we kiss

Kiss

A kiss is the act of pressing one's lips against the lips or other body parts of another person or of an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, affection, respect, greeting, friendship, and good...

, I feel nothing" coincide with common topics in the book, which deals with the negative effects of hedonism and promiscuity on the human psyche.