"The Brakeman's Dead"
Saturday Matinee Music Video
SATURDAY MATINEE MUSIC VIDEO “The Brakeman’s Dead”
This “ghost train song” steamed itself to life during a live show with The Rover Boys. Chords and lyrics suddenly burst out of my head, each verse beginning with the line “Maybe about this time next year…” I sang whatever flew into my head, with vocabulary from Biblical apocalpyse themes + current events + runaway trains while the Rovers kept up. I did this freeform tune a few more times, and it hit with people. We recorded it (at Tom Mallon’s studio in San Francisco) live without a lyric sheet. I thrashed an acoustic guitar through a stack of Marshalls with Bennett Green and John Stuart on drums (separate sessions) and Adam Savetsky on bass.
Michael Miller (who drew this cartoon of us) and Chris von Sneidern added guitar touches in one take John Cage-style. I sweetened it with percussion (bottles & junk) and violin. On a cosmic jukebox it would play next to Neil Young & Crazy Horse at their most raucous
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