January 26 - Song for Tura Satana

The interesting thing about a year-long journey through an artist's developing back catalogue is that not all artists develop in all areas at the same rate (in fact very few of them do) and so sometimes you get interesting chimerae.

Song For Tura Satana has the clearest difference between the development of its lyrical and vocal content and the development of its instrumentation of any song thus far. Although this might just be that the instrumentation was developing in a different direction to everything else. It's performed with an electronic drum beat on a cheap keyboard which is in its own way delightful but makes this song seem like pure novelty.

However the lyrics, lionising the muse of Russ Meyer, is something else entirely. It's lyrical, sentimental, and a coherent and simple narrative, giving a small but painful vignette from the life of a woman who, how should I put this, had a powerful impact on any young people who were working out that they found women attractive. It's a tremendous example of the ability of John to make musical paintings from the lurid and the tacky, so in that way the instrumentation works perfectly.

This is the first song to have come from a full Mountain Goats album, with everything before this being from a tape, and EP, or a compilation. This is an interesting moment as it potentially marks a shift towards songs as part of a coherent whole, with ideas being explored at greater length even if the songs remain short and punchy. We've taken a step on a journey as the band grow and change.