Song for Tura Satana

Song for Tura Satana
Album	Zopilote Machine
Released	1994
Artist	the Mountain Goats
Length	2:03
Previous Track	"Grendel's Mother"
Next Track	"Alpha in Tauris"

Song for Tura Satana is the 16th song on the album Zopilote Machine.

Lyrics

Doll squad's at the drive-in
It's 1973
The fruit is full and fat this year on the orange trees
Which grow in clusters
The city sixty miles away
As the sunset tries desperately to break through the gray
And the stardust came down, royal blue
As the San Bernardino sky showered over you

Coming home early is always a mistake
But when you see that woman on the sofa something in you breaks
You've got a celluloid tendency to flare out and blaze
And the report sounds once like a failed hymn of praise
And the stardust came down, royal blue
As the San Bernardino sky showered over you

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song

• "If this song has ever been played live—well, by me—it would have been no later than 1992, and it would have been with the old...and it would have been on the Casio that, when I moved away from California, my mother gave to one of my nieces. It's for a woman who used to star in, uh, exploitation movies. It's called 'Song for Tura Satana'...And it's, you know, and it's a true story. Tura Satana is kind of my hero because she, you know, like a lot of people who are in exploitation movies, she fell on hard times. And so she's—but she had saved all her money and so she had, like, a jet stream out in the desert, you know. So, but she's out one day trying to drum up work—and nobody has heard this story from me by the way, so keep it a secret, because I like it when people are confused by songs. This is why I'll never be really famous.—but anyway, so she comes home from trying to drum up work, and there, in the jet stream, is her husband and some other woman. So she got out her pistol." -- 2005-11-04 - Duke Coffeehouse - Durham, NC

Live Shows this Song Was Played at

• 2005-11-04 - Duke Coffeehouse - Durham, NC
• 2009-03-27 - The Society for Ethical Culture - New York, NY
• 2016-02-28 - Noise Pop 2016 - Swedish American Hall - San Francisco, CA

Videos of this Song

• 2009-03-27 - The Society for Ethical Culture - New York, NY