 After Henry Cow broke up , Frith moved to New York City in 1979 where he became involved with a number of musical projects , including a new solo album . To make a more " immediate " record after the intensities of Henry Cow and Art Bears , Frith turned his attention to world folk and dance music . In Hopes and Fears he had " rediscovered the joys of song @-@ form " , and it was the song " The Dance " that Frith and Cutler wrote for that album that inspired the making of Gravity . Frith said in a BBC interview : 
