Roadkill Buttsteak 8: "St. Mary, Star of the Sea" b/w "June"

History repeats.  Or, as they say, it rhymes.  Once as rhyming tragedy, once as rhyming farce, I suppose.  Well, if the two songs of this post are history (to me and a couple others anyway), I think they are more the rhyming persistence-in-the-face-of-life variety, but you be the judge...

Starting with the latter being firster, "June" goes farther back, to the Dillo band and even earlier.  I wrote it sitting in the bare, tall living room of my old, dark apartment on North Calvert St. ('96-ish) on a busy, dull intersection towards the edge of Charles Village (or Upper Charles Village as they probably market it nowadays).  I was trying to learn how to write songs and of course listening to a lot of Jayhawks and such roots rock (as evah, kid!) and that influence definitely shows. I've decided over the years that I missed the mark just a bit, by talking around things rather than addressing them directly,  Granted, the whole thing definitely was intended to be more painting than writing-- I was aiming for something impressionistic that it never quite arrived at.  I guess I'm saying that if I had it to do over again I'd tackle things differently from a lyrical perspective but I still do love the song after all these years and do I keep taking it out for periodic spins.  Thelonius Monk I ain't, but with every go-round I think the song gets a bit closer to the intended destination.

The '96 version was moody and muddy, done on a 4-track with a capo-ed Ovation acoustic, some mediocre, but sparse and clean electric guitar, punchy and "unplugged" sounding drums, and harmonica.  Shortly thereafter, the Dillo band rocked it out live on a bunch of occasions and captured a nice, driving recording at one of our two forays to Invisible Sound Studios out in Greektown.  At that time it was Johnny Marsh singing and playing rhythm, Goff on lead, Mike on the drums and me on a great short-scale Gibson EB bass that Dave Nachodsky handed to me.  When Paul B came on board to play bass, it only got better.  RK and I took another stab around six years ago, which may yet be remixed.  For the current recording, it was again me and Mike in the engine room, followed by a few too many layers of Wurlitzer and organ and guitarmonies and general interference.

St. Mary, Star of the Sea (the church)  is right up the block from our old house in Federal Hill, me and Goff and Johnny Rock.  Standing on top of Riverside between Clement and Gittings, it was a useful late night navigational aid in the 'hood.  Post-bar or post-work or post-rehearsal, you could stop in front and look up at the steeple on one side and then down the hill towards the outer harbor and the great red neon sign of the Domino Sugar plant out in Locust Point, and think how well that scruffy town could clean up when it wanted to.  So, yeah, St. Mary, Star of the Sea (the song) is a tribute to the losers and boozers and them trying to get up and over.

JK

SoundCloud:                      https://soundcloud.com/johnk-rkbs/

Pics:

Box Links:

June:                         https://app.box.com/s/24ellye4qahihklwdlte



St. Mary, Star of the Sea:   https://app.box.com/s/4zt73bfj5ix70on9ngmj