Appears on: Soup, Galaxie Single
Recorded at: Kingsway Studios, New Orleans
Produced by: Andy Wallace and Blind Melon
Glen:
drums,
percussion
Brad:
bass
Shannon:
vocals
Christopher:
guitar
Rogers:
guitar,
piano
Miles
Tackett: cello
Live Performances: Much Music and a few other live shows
Notes:
The
first part of the song Shannon wrote about Susan Smith who murdered her
two sons in South Carolina. In the fall of 1994, the disappearance
of Smith's children garnered national attention as she appeared on national
television, stating that her children had been kidnapped by an African
American carjacker, and pleading for help in finding them, resulting in
a nationwide search and an upsurge of public sympathy for a distraught
mother. However, she eventually confessed that she had lied about the car
jacking and the black kidnapper, and had killed her children herself, leading
to the police finding her car, with her drowned children strapped into
car seats inside, in a local pond.
Shannon: I think that just the whole crime against children is hideous and it's the one thing that makes me believe that capital punishment is all right. That whole scenario brought a spiritual awakening to a lot of people. It brought out a caring identity in people who are parents, in people who might not be a parent but love children. That's what it did to me. I can find an element of humor in just about everything but when society and people in society harm children I can't comprehend I can't ... after becoming a father really opened my eyes to the whole world of crimes against children. We took Amnesty International on the road with us because I believe that a lot of things what they do and what they stand for is totally correct but the biggest issue that they have is the death penalty. I don't believe that the world really has a place for people who kill children. I believe anybody who kills children should be put to death. There is nothing that can happen to anybody that can validate that type of scenario. Once something like that happens. [Smith's] mental state from this day forward is done. how do you rehabilitate someone like that after something like that? There is no glue that is going to hold someone together after that. I believe that they should do some sort of social experiment where after take a five year period and crack down so hard on crime and capital punishment needs to be brought out in the forefront so that people will see look if you do this you're going to die. I think they would be amazed as to how much the crime rate would go down. I think we are slowly turning into Escape from New York and I don't ever want to have my child living in an environment like that.
This was Shannon's favorite song on Soup. "We've got a song called Carseat, which is my favorite on the record - It's got the bossa nova type feel to it."
Glen wrote the music for the song.
The second part of the song is a poem written by shannon's great great grandmother, Blanche Bridge. She wrote it in her ledger on February 11, 1884. Blind Melon recorded this song 111 years later on February 11, 1995. Shannon had the poem tattooed on his left arm.
Lyrics:
Tongue
tied, nerves as big as boulders
Why
Mom, I thought I was your soldier
My
brother sits by me
Buckled
into the carseat
Feel
the thirst, it's time for pulling over
Into
the truckstop on my daddy's shoulder
Out
back where they plant all the trees
ten
feet away my daddy buries me
God's
Presents
If
my path be smooth or rugged
If
with thorns or roses strewn
Where
I go the Father seeith
And
He will leave me not alone
If
I take the wings of morning
far
within the giant sea
Even
there His hand will leave me
Even
there my God will be
Though
the gloom of night be round me
Though
I cannot see my way
Yet
the Lord will see and guide me
Because
unto Him the night is day
If
my thought are good or evil
Set
me think to hide them not
there
is one above all seeing
And
He beholdth every thought
And
ever more my eyes beholds me
And
all my ways to Him are known
And
His loving arms enfolds me
He
will leave me not alone