American Canyon Sutra

Album: Tip of the Sphere (2019)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • "American Canyon Sutra" finds Cass McCombs stepping into spoken-word territory as he conjures a symbolic urban landscape with a mixture of fear and disgust. He told Uncut magazine "American Canyon" is not a real place:

    "It's like a city in all of us," McCombs explained. "It's like in William Burroughs' Cities of the Red Night - you have to pass through them to get to a place where there is no thought. If you want to eliminate thoughts, if you want to be free from this corrupted mind, you have to pass through the cities of the red night, but to get there you're going to have to go through hell. You're going to have to see all kinds of horrible humans and be just terrified."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World

Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat WorldSongwriter Interviews

Jim talks about the impact of "The Middle" and uses a tree metaphor to describe his songwriting philosophy.

Song Titles That Inspired Movies

Song Titles That Inspired MoviesSong Writing

Famous songs that lent their titles - and in some cases storylines - to movies.

Jim McCarty of The Yardbirds

Jim McCarty of The YardbirdsSongwriter Interviews

The Yardbirds drummer explains how they created their sound and talks about working with their famous guitarists.

Ian Gillan of Deep Purple

Ian Gillan of Deep PurpleSongwriter Interviews

Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan explains the "few red lights" in "Smoke On The Water" and talks about songs from their 2020 album Whoosh!

Superman in Song

Superman in SongSong Writing

Not everyone can be a superhero, but that hasn't stopped generations of musicians from trying to be Superman.

Rick Astley

Rick AstleySongwriter Interviews

Rick Astley on "Never Gonna Give You Up," "Cry For Help," and his remarkable resurgence that gave him another #1 UK album.