A calm closer for Quarters!, “Lonely Steel Sheet Flyer” is a melancholic, psychedelic track centered around a simple chord progression with multiple instrumental flourishes. The lyrics are about a pilot and their lover being separated by distance. The pilot flies in their airplane but deeply misses their loved one, feeling “dead and awake” without them near.
The song was recorded at Daptone Studios in Brooklyn on November 3rd, 2014. Stu, Joey, Cook, Lucas and Cavs played on the track as seen in BOOTLEG HOLIDAY FROM HELL, with Cavs also overdubbing percussion. A riff from the intro later appears on the Nonagon Infinity track “Road Train.”
It made its live debut two years after release on 2017-09-23 at the Audiotree Music Festival at the District Square in Kalamazoo. It would be played throughout the year afterwards. These versions of the song appear close to the album but are usually shorter than the studio version with cut sections and flute additions. First appearing in the middle of the set, the song became a reliable closer starting on 2017-09-28. Following a performance on 2017-12-11 the song would take a five year break, reappearing on 2022-05-08 at Casa MUSA in Zihuatanejo as a show opener. This would be the song’s only performance that year. In 2023 the song appeared twice, one time in its studio form on 2023-08-14 seguing into “The River”, the second time as an acoustic rendition for The Cavern residency on 2023-06-04.