One of Sarah Smith’ standout moments, Stoneage Dinosaurs constains one of her best and most beautiful sax solos. In fact, the song itself it one of Tim Smith’s most (seemingly) heartfelt compositions. Its only flaw is the heavily compressed, gun-shot like drum sound, which feels slightly overblown. As well as the powerful music, the lyrics are again one of the most important points of the song, mainly concerning growing old and feeling out of place in the present.
There are multiple references to celebrities and TV personalities- from those around the time of Smith’s childhood (“Michael Miles plays a game for me”, “…statue of Peter Glaze“), beforehand (“Liberace asks after me…”) and around the time of writing (“Mr T offers me…”). ‘Jim’ is also mentioned- his brother? Another element is a theme which makes frequent appearances in Cardiacs lyrics- the First World War, or war in general. The second and third (to a lesser extent) concern this, and it would crop up again in later lyrics, such as those for The Duck and Roger the Horse.
Stoneage Dinosaurs was included on the Songs For Ships and Irons compilation CD.
The Cardiacs Discography, song by song 