Was the song “Bad Moon Rising” similar in that sense?
That’s another sort of epochal thing, but, on that song, I was only thinking in terms of the natural and supernatural. It was inspired by an old movie I saw called The Devil and Daniel Webster, where the lead character, after promising his soul to the devil, benefits from many things—including surviving a huge storm that left his corn crop standing, while his neighbor’s crop was flattened. I just thought at the time, “Wow, that’s spooky.” What about “Tombstone Shadow”? Some of the tales in the song were true. We were playing in San Bernardino, California, and I did go to see a gypsy—he happened to be a gypsy man, though. He had me cut a deck of cards, and when I came up with a 7 and a 6, he told me I was going to have 13 months of bad luck. He also told me not to travel in airplanes. If I’d taken his advice, I guess I’d be like John Madden [ former Oakland Raiders coach and TV announcer who is famously fearful of flying]. The imagery you speak of in “Green River” also seems very real a
