Ghosts of the Great Highway

[CortezTheKiller]

Does anybody know the dealio with all the songs about deceased boxers on this album? I embarrassingly discovered this album just last fall and think it's an absolute masterpiece.

[Darkhorse]

they are all featherweights

ps does anyone know where I can still get the vinyl re issue of this?

[CortezTheKiller]

they are all featherweights

And what is so significant about that?

[Oil Can Boyd]

There was an AV Club interview with Kozelek where he said this:

 

AVC: What inspired you to write when you made Ghosts Of The Great Highway?

 

MK: I'm embarrassed to say it, but I think that there was some sort of post-September 11th things happening in my psyche and in my life. I had a tour scheduled in Europe, and some stuff in Florida and New York, right around Sept. 11, and I'd cancelled it when Sept. 11 happened, and I remember wanting to be around my girlfriend at the time, and just sort of wanting to be home. It wasn't until April 2002 that I got on an airplane. There's a real theme of death in Ghosts Of The Great Highway, and I think rather than confronting my fears of death or my thoughts of death through this typical Bruce Springsteen/Neil Young obvious way of using "Let's roll" or whatever, there's a theme throughout the record where there's probably 10 references to dead boxers. There's Salvador Sanchez, Pancho Villa, Benny Paret, Sonny Liston. There was a reference to a woman who I knew down the street who died. Rather than focusing in one area, I think it came in with other young people who lost their lives tragically in different ways. At the time, I thought, "This is just my tribute to boxers that lost their lives early," but looking back on it, it was more than that.

[CortezTheKiller]

There was an AV Club interview with Kozelek where he said this:

 

AVC: What inspired you to write when you made Ghosts Of The Great Highway?

 

MK: I'm embarrassed to say it, but I think that there was some sort of post-September 11th things happening in my psyche and in my life. I had a tour scheduled in Europe, and some stuff in Florida and New York, right around Sept. 11, and I'd cancelled it when Sept. 11 happened, and I remember wanting to be around my girlfriend at the time, and just sort of wanting to be home. It wasn't until April 2002 that I got on an airplane. There's a real theme of death in Ghosts Of The Great Highway, and I think rather than confronting my fears of death or my thoughts of death through this typical Bruce Springsteen/Neil Young obvious way of using "Let's roll" or whatever, there's a theme throughout the record where there's probably 10 references to dead boxers. There's Salvador Sanchez, Pancho Villa, Benny Paret, Sonny Liston. There was a reference to a woman who I knew down the street who died. Rather than focusing in one area, I think it came in with other young people who lost their lives tragically in different ways. At the time, I thought, "This is just my tribute to boxers that lost their lives early," but looking back on it, it was more than that.

Good stuff. Thanks.

[solace]

they are all featherweights

ps does anyone know where I can still get the vinyl re issue of this?

 

http://www.auralexploits.com/search.php?label_iid=511

 

they still have the white vinyl version too

[CortezTheKiller]

http://www.auralexploits.com/search.php?label_iid=511

 

they still have the white vinyl version too

Says the white vinyl is out of stock. Neat site though.

[solace]

ah! my bad

 

man i own that record in like 3 or 4 diff formats, lol