Dongs Of Sevotion

Bill Callahan released Dongs Of Sevotion in 2000. The title again is jokey like the previous Knock Knock. I do not think Bill Callahan had a serious girlfriend at this point. Track 1 Justice Aversion is about revenge “lion bites zebra neck, zebra stomps lion head”. Again he identifies with criminals “I root for the underdog, like the bankrobber in the getaway car”. Track 2 Dress Sexy At My Funeral is a sexist song telling his “wife“ — he was not then married — she doesn’t ever dress sexy but to dress sexy for his funeral and tell the funeral crowd about times they had sex outdoors etc. Track 4 The Hard Road is about being a vagabond and a minor criminal who steals pies and clothes from a line. Track 5 Easily Led has a line about how he is “just trying to be a human”. Track 6 Bloodflow is about him having enemies and wanting to use a machete on them, so kind of like the usual Bill Callahan revenge theme: “Can I borrow your machete? Blood will spill and blood will spurt, enemies keep the mind alert”. Track 7 Nineteen seems to be about Bill Callahan or a character losing his virginity in an embarassing way to a woman who looked like a "leper" without her clothes on which is not very politically correct to put in a song. ”My movements were slow long she didn’t even know what she was taking away”. Track 8 Distance is another song about how he doesn’t feel part of the community and he makes excuses not to go out. He also sings about how he has treated women badly and damaged them “All these women have passed through me I have turned them all to waste”. Track 9 is a song on his common topic of how he doesn’t like other people surveilling him “there are some terrible gossips in this town, with jaws like vices, and eyes like drains”. Track 10 Cold Discovery is about his usual problems with women, similar to I Break Horses where he doesn’t tend to his girlfriends, in this one he has no softness for women “I can hold a woman down on a hardwood floor, and your teeth can gnash right through me looking for a soft place... I had no soft place for you to rest and this was your your cold discovery” and he also sings that the fact he could hold a woman down on a hardwood floor was a cold discovery for him, as I guess it means he was being more violent to women than when he was younger. So he is following in his father’s footsteps after all, in terms of violence to women. This song Cold Discovery is like saying to the more cheerful and upbeat song Cold Blooded Old Times from Knock Knock, that he is back to being cold again, it isn’t something that is just in the past. Track 11 Permanent Smile seems to be about skulls, how a fleshless skull has a permanent smile.