Eric recalls hearing the 'Eye in the Sky' expression used 3 times in one day in different contexts which inspired the title. Firstly, he was in Las Vegas and a friend was marketing manager of the Tropicana Hotel & Casino and took him to see their surveillance system, a small picture of which is on the inside album cover. This surveillance system was known as the eye in the sky, although these days they are apparently much larger installations. In Eric's room in the hotel, listening to the news, there was a reference to an 'Eye in the Sky' spy satellite which had picked up some military installation and at the end of the same bulletin, the programme went over to the 'Eye in the Sky' weather helicopter. So the phrase really stuck! Somebody also pointed out that on the back of a dollar bill, there is an eye in the sky on top of a Pyramid which made an obvious link.

In more general terms, the album is really about belief systems, either political or religious without being in any way judgmental or preaching as Eric is a confirmed, but respectful atheist. There's also an obvious connection to the gambling theme of the earlier Turn of a Friendly Card album.

The lyric of Old and Wise was particularly inspired by the wife of one of the record company executives who was also a personal friend, who passed away at a tragically early age.