Tonight we unlock the door to the boiler room…
Wish I Was Sorry Now (Demo):
“They keep me clean down in the boiler room…”
Following the demise of the Dancing Hoods, Mark returned to Virginia where he formed a band with younger brother Matt Linkous. Originally known as the Johnson Family and later Salt Chunk Mary, both names are a reference to Jack Black’s 1926 autobiography You Can’t Win. With Mark and Matt sharing guitar and vocal duties, the lineup was completed by Chip Jones on bass and Steve Schick on drums. The band played live locally and recorded several demos but no material was ever released…
LYRICS
Kimmy had us a baby
A daughter or a son
And sometimes I think just maybe
It might have been sort of fun
Now hush little darling don’t you cry
‘Cause you know that it will be alright
Well she’s got the rings of Saturn on her fingers there
You know she’s got the moon in her hair
I wish I was sorry now
I wish I was sorry now
I wish I was sorry now
I wish I was sorry now
It’s hollow near your heavy lonely
I’m gonna speed up on the glass highway
They keep me clean down in the boiler room
Where the evil dragons wait
Now hush little darling don’t you cry
You know that it will be alright
Well she’s got the rings of Saturn on her fingers there
She’s got the moon in her hair
I wish I was sorry now
I wish I was sorry now
I wish I was sorry now
I wish I was sorry now
Tears On Fresh Fruit (Live):
“Just when you’ve found your way to the boiler room…”
This performance was recorded at La Route Du Rock festival in Saint Malo, France on the 17th August 1996. Mark is accompanied by Scott Minor, Paul Watson and Scott Fitzsimmons. A live favourite over the years, the song was seemingly inspired by a passage from Henry Miller’s The Air-Conditioned Nightmare…
“…you fall into a coma, and just when you think you’ve found your way back to the womb they come after you with pick and shovel, with acetylene torches…tears that fall on warm fruit and make waterfalls in far-off Africa…”
One Man’s Blood (Live):
“On the ocean floor I sleep, in a sunken barge in the boiler room…”
A live video of this otherwise unreleased song was included in issue 39 of the interactive CD-ROM magazine Launch. It was filmed at the band’s SXSW performance in Austin on the 19th March 1999. The version shared here was recorded one week later at a live session for KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic. Mark is backed by Scott Minor, Jonathan Segel and David Dreiwitz…
The lyric to Wish I Was Sorry Now definitely needs a bit of work…any ideas?