William and Ann met as undergraduates in a dormitory off Camden Road in north London. Ann, a budding astronomer, and William, a layabout in full bloom, began a friendship that progressed haltingly into paroxysmal romance. One can only assume that Ann took pity on the boy, so fond of coaxing plangent notes from his guitar and writing tumid lamentations for his generous lot in life. At semester's end, they returned to their separate lives in the US, where William, with characteristic indecision, slowly severed the relationship. Several years later, to his good fortune, the pair reunited in New York, where Ann was concocting a lubricant to solve the city's gridlock problem, and William was filling his days reviewing restaurants he'd never been to. After a layoff and a short but profitable stint in the secretary pool, William entered a prolonged period of unemployment, during which time he lived by Ann's largesse and daydreamed about the project that would become Bulbs On Low. His muse out earning a living, William was free to spend countless hours writing songs between episodes of "I, Claudius." With the help of a few knowledgeable friends, he began piecing together the rudiments of a home recording studio, where he and Ann would make their first LP, Tremble, Tremble. Getting Ann to participate was not a trivial matter. With becoming modesty, she refused him again and again, relenting only when William swore an oath that, at the album's completion, he would get a job.