Hellhound In My Heart
When I was 10, I had a dream of being attacked, but not killed, by a Black Dog. I knew in the dream this was not an ordinary creature, but a supernatural one. After I'd recovered from the attack, I tried to track the dog down. I hunted it, and to an extent, it hunted me. There was a sense we'd become linked.
When I woke up, I couldn't quite get my head out of the dream. It had seemed totally real but in a different way than waking reality. I can't explain it at 52, I surely couldn't explain it at 10. I tried asking everyone I knew about Black Dogs, but all they knew of was werewolves. I was very clear, it was not a werewolf, it was a black dog. No, not a regular dog. I went to bookstores, trying to research. Nothing. This was decades before the internet. And for many years, I did not know there was a phenomenon of people seeing black dogs that were not regular dogs. England seems to have the greatest number of incidents, but there are others from various places around the world. Years later, I read gathered reports in folklore journals. I also learned of having "spirit animals", where the animal attacks you and makes you linked to it. Didn't know any of this at the time of the dream. I did find myself speculating a lot about meaning and origins.
When something would make me enraged, I would sometimes think of this, as though there were a giant ferocious beast trying to break out of me or act through me. Certainly we would be generous to call this a stretch; and yet, I don't know.
When I went to record this, at first it was just guitar and vocal. I liked its raw quality, but felt that it needed something else. The harsh sounds that got added were my attempt to place the whole thing within an industrial-type atmosphere, machine noises and wailing. Again, back to the modern blues idea.
lyrics
Hell hound in my heart
Tearing me apart
Wants to write your name
In blood on the ground
Hell hound in my heart
Raging down at anything
Anything that moves
Or makes a sound
Look at me wrong and you're dead
Can I stop this
Before I take my world to hell
Or will it take some silver force
And death to break the spell
Don't look at me
Don't talk to me
You strangers all around
It wants your blood to feed the ground
The hell hound in my heart
Look at me wrong and you're dead
G.S., 3/31/91
credits
from Darkland Express part one,
released April 29, 2016
GS: vocal, guitar, treated thunderdesk & whistling
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