Cross Bones Style
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| "Cross Bones Style" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Cat Power | |
| from the album Moon Pix | |
| Published | September 22, 1998 |
| Recorded | January 1998 |
| Genre | Indie rock |
| Length | 4:32 |
| Label | Matador |
| Songwriter(s) | Chan Marshall |
| Producer(s) | Matt Voigt |
"Cross Bones Style" is a song by the American rock musician Cat Power, also known as Chan Marshall. It is the 10th song on her fourth album, Moon Pix, released in September 1998 on Matador Records.
"Cross Bones Style," along with five other songs from Moon Pix, was written by Marshall one night in the fall of 1997, after she awoke from a hallucinatory nightmare while alone in the South Carolina farmhouse she shared with then-boyfriend, American musician Bill Callahan. "My nightmare was surrounding my house like a tornado," she explained. "So I just ran and got my guitar because I was trying to distract myself. I had to turn on the lights and sing to God. I got a tape recorder and recorded the next sixty minutes. And I played these long changes, into six different songs. That's where I got the record."[1]
The song was recorded by Matt Voigt at Sing Sing Studio in Melbourne, Australia in January 1998. As with most songs on Moon Pix, "Cross Bones Style" was largely recorded live, with Marshall singing and playing guitar at the same time. The drums, by Jim White of the Australian instrumental rock band Dirty Three, were added after.[2]
Composition and lyrics
In a 2018 interview with The Guardian, Marshall explained that the song was inspired by two children she met while in Africa, who slept in trees at night after their parents were killed. "A lot of kids slept in the trees in the park," Marshall recalled.[3]
