Sun Kil Moon

Ok, day two. Today seems like an easy day. Maybe that’s why this whole Blog thing keeps going. Anyway, I could start in with the Vice Presidential Debate and the way those jerks beat each other up and ignored Gwen Ifill. Or, I could rant about the Nobel Prize and the naming of Ubiquitin (which by the way is pretty amazing research).

But instead, I’d like to discuss the lyric that keep going through my head today from a band called Sun Kill Moon. Their album Ghosts of the Great Highway came out last fall and is fronted by Mark Kozelek, formerly of Red House Painters. Mark you may also know from Cameron Crowe’s movie Almost Famous as a member of the band Stillwater. I am most struck by the opening song on the album “Glenn Tipton”.

As many of you will know, Glenn Tipton was one of the guitarists for Judas Priest. The song begins with a list of adversaries starting with the abuse that Clay took at the hand of heavy weight Liston in their 1964 fight. Clay started the fight a 7 : 1 underdog (If you wanna lose your money then bet on Sonny- Clay quipped) ended up fighting the 5th round blind due to a liniment of Liston’s that got in Clays eye. In the end Clay would win what was to be his last fight by that name as he would renounce his “slave name” and change to Muhammad Ali. The rest of the first verse continues in turn by the recalling the conflicts between Judas Priest’s founding guitarist KK Downing and Glenn Tipton. Next are Jim (Gomer) Nabors and Bobby Vinton.

The song leads, sometimes humorously, around the battles and conflicts that fill our lives and those in it with whom we collide. The late night internal dialog of his father, simple daily struggles and the pain in jettisoning your first lover are all positioned against the more (ok less) famous conflicts of the first stanza. Mark could have chosen more known conflict (think Sonny & Cher), but he didn’t. Why? Maybe to make the average Indy-Shoe Gazer do a little homework. Maybe because he needed the cadence and it just worked. And what about the notion of time/change/dreams which are also hugely planted in each chorus. Any thoughts?

The album's got many other great gems. Try downloading, um I mean buying, "Carry me Ohio", " Lily and Parrots" and "Salvador Sanchez".


Cassius Clay got hit more than Sonny Liston,
Some like K.K.Downing more than Glen Tipton
Some like Jim Nabors, Some Bobby Vinton
I like them all

I put my feet up on the coffee table
I stayed up late, watching cable
I like old movies with Clark Gable
Just like my Daddy does

Just like my Dad did when he was home,
Staying up late, Staying up alone
Just like my Dad did when he was thinking
How fast the years pass

I knew an old woman ran a donut shop
She worked late, serving Cops
Then one morning, baby, her heart stopped
Place ain’t the same no more

Place ain’t the same no more
Not without my friend any more
Place ain’t the same no more
How things change

I buried my first victim when I was nineteen
Went through her bedroom and the pockets of her jeans
And found her letters that said so many things
That really hurt me bad

I never breathed her name again
But I like to dream about what could have been
I never heard her calls again
But I like to dream


Other SKM links

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