Callahan started out as a highly experimental artist, using substandard instruments and recording equipment. His early songs often nearly lacked melodic structure and were clumsily played on poorly tuned guitars (possibly influenced by Jandek, whom Callahan admired), resulting in the dissonant sounds on his self-released cassettes and debut album Sewn to the Sky. Much of his early output was instrumental, a stark contrast to the lyrical focus of his later work. Apparently, he used lo-fi techniques not primarily because of an aesthetic preference but because he didn't have any other possibility to make music. Once he signed a contract with Drag City, he also started to use recording studios and a greater variety of instruments for his records.
From 1993 to 2000, Callahan's recordings grew more and more "professional" sounding, with more instruments, and a higher sound quality. In this period he recorded two albums with the influential producer Jim O'Rourke and Tortoise's John McEntire, and collaborated with Neil Hagerty. After 2000's Dongs of Sevotion, Callahan began moving back to a slightly simpler instrumentation and recording style, while retaining the more consistent songwriting style he had developed over the years. This shift is apparent in albums such as Rain on Lens, Supper, and A River Ain't Too Much to Love.
Smog's songs are often based on simple, repetitive structures, consisting of a simple chord progression repeated for the duration of the entire song. His singing is strikingly characterized by his baritone voice and a style of delivery without being over-emotional. Melodically and lyrically he tends to eschew the verse-chorus approach favoured by many contemporary songwriters, preferring instead a more free-form approach relying less on melodic and lyrical repetition. Themes in Callahan's lyrics include relationships, moving, horses, teenagers, bodies of water, and more recently, politics. His generally dispassionate delivery of lyrics and dark irony often obfuscate complex emotional and lyrical twists and turns. Critics have generally characterized his music as depressing and intensely introverted, with one critic describing it as "a peep-show view into an insular world of alienation." Despite this there is also a broad swathe of joy throughout Callahan's work and more attentive critics have picked up on Callahan's tendency to black humour, a tendency often confused with a depressed mental state or a genuine obsession with the morbid, a confusion no doubt caused by his deadpan vocals.
Cat Power (Chan Marshall) recorded Callahan's song Bathysphere on her 1996 album What Would the Community Think. She covered him again in 2000 on her Covers Record doing the song Red Apples.
Smog's Cold Blooded Old Times appears on the High Fidelity soundtrack. The song Vessel in Vain (from Supper) was also used on the soundtrack of the independent British film Dead Man's Shoes in 2004. In October 2007, Cadillac released a commercial which featured Smog's song Held and Bob Dylan driving a 2008 Escalade through the desert.
As of 2007 he lives in Austin, Texas where he released Woke on a Whaleheart. It was his first record release as Bill Callahan.
Eid Ma Clack Shaw
Bill Callahan Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Last night I swear I felt your touch
Gentle and warm
The hair stood on my arms
How, how, how?
Show me the way, show me the way, show me the way
I flipped my forelock, I twitched my withers, I reared and bucked
I could not put my rider aground
All these fine memories are fuckin' me down
I dreamed it was a dream that you were gone
I woke up feeling so ripped by reality
Love is the king of the beasts
And when it gets hungry it must kill to eat
Love is the king of the beasts
A lion walking down city streets
I fell back asleep some time later on
And I dreamed the perfect song
It held all the answers, like hands laid on
I woke halfway and scribbled it down
And in the morning what I wrote I read
It was hard to read at first but here's what it said
Eid ma clack shaw
Zupoven del ba
Mertepy ven seinur
Cofally ragdah
Show me the way, show me the way, show me the way
To shake a memory
The lyrics to Bill Callahan's song "Eid Ma Clack Shaw" is both poetic and enigmatic. The song opens with the line "Working through das pain," which suggests the singer is trying to push past something difficult, possibly a heartbreak or a struggle. The following lines dive deeper into the theme of love, memory, and the power of dreams. The singer recalls feeling someone's touch last night, awakening strange feelings in him that he cannot explain. The line "Show me the way, show me the way, show me the way/To shake a memory" repeats itself throughout the song, indicating that the singer is trying to escape from something, something that lingers in his mind like a ghost.
The second stanza continues this thread with vivid imagery of a horse trying to shake off its rider. The line "All these fine memories are fuckin' me down" suggest that the memories that once brought joy and happiness to the singer are now weighing him down like a burden. The following lines "Love is the king of beasts/And when it gets hungry it must kill to eat" compares love to a lion, highlighting its power and its danger. The song ends with the singer dreaming the perfect song that held all the answers, but it is unclear whether the song really exists or not. The last lines in the song, "Eid ma clack shaw/Zupoven del ba/Mertepy ven seinur/Cofally ragdah" are a mysterious set of words that have no specific meaning but adds to the intrigue and mystery of the song.
Line by Line Meaning
Working through das pain
I am trying to cope with the pain I am feeling
Last night I swear I felt your touch
Last night I strongly believed that I felt your touch
Gentle and warm
Your touch felt tender and comforting
The hair stood on my arms
I got goosebumps all over my body
How, how, how?
I am wondering how it could be possible
Show me the way, show me the way, show me the way
Please guide me through this difficult time
To shake a memory
To forget a painful memory
I flipped my forelock, I twitched my withers, I reared and bucked
I am struggling to deal with these painful memories
I could not put my rider aground
I could not escape from the pain and memories that haunt me
All these fine memories are fuckin' me down
All these once pleasant memories are now weighing me down and causing me pain
I dreamed it was a dream that you were gone
I had a dream where it seemed like you had left me
I woke up feeling so ripped by reality
I woke up feeling shattered by the harsh reality of that dream
Love is the king of the beasts
Love can be a powerful and overwhelming force
And when it gets hungry it must kill to eat
When love is not reciprocated, it can be destructive
A lion walking down city streets
Love can be a force as powerful and wild as a lion walking through a city
I fell back asleep some time later on
I eventually fell asleep again after a while
And I dreamed the perfect song
I had a dream where I created the perfect song
It held all the answers, like hands laid on
The song contained all the answers I was seeking, like a comforting hand on my shoulder
I woke halfway and scribbled it down
I woke up partially and quickly wrote down the song so I wouldn't forget it
And in the morning what I wrote I read
I read what I had written in the morning
It was hard to read at first but here's what it said
It was difficult to read my own handwriting at first, but eventually I was able to decipher it
Eid ma clack shaw
Unknown phrase or word with no clear meaning
Zupoven del ba
Unknown phrase or word with no clear meaning
Mertepy ven seinur
Unknown phrase or word with no clear meaning
Cofally ragdah
Unknown phrase or word with no clear meaning
Show me the way, show me the way, show me the way
Please help me find a way out of this pain and confusion
To shake a memory
To forget a painful memory
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: BILL CALLAHAN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind