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SISTER DEATH THING
> Date: Mon, 15 Aug 1994 15:51:08 -0500 > From: rstill[at]-remove-utdallas.edu > Subject: JBC query > This might be a FAQ (I'm new here), but does anyone think > the song "Sister Death" is a reference to the character Death > from Gaiman's Sandman? > My case for Sister Death deriving from the Sandman > comic is somewhat circumstantial. First, Death is Dream's sister, > ergo Sister Death. Second, Death's role in Gaiman's cosmology is to > escort dying souls to their post-corporeal destinations--thus > accounting for the line "Sister Death get me out of here"
> Date: Mon, 15 Aug 1994 17:10:46 -0700 (PDT) > From: Glen Davis > Subject: JBC query (fwd) > Very interesting someone asked this today. > Sister Death is one of my favorite JBC songs and I was thinking > about its inspiration just yesterday. > I picked up a copy of Anne Rice's, 'Interview with the Vampire', > this week-end and was surprised to see that the 'main' vampire, > Lestat, refers to a young vampire girl in the book as (among other > names), you guessed it, Sister Death.
Inspiration?
Explication!
The inspiration for this tune, initially, came from St. Francis of Assisi. You know the chap - "Hello, brother donkey. Hello, Sister Milkfloat..." Big in the world of Poor-But-Honest Christianity. Got made a saint...
Well, according to some source or other to which I was exposed under education, his last words were "Come, Sister Death..."
There you go. Beyond that, the lyric was written very quickly and without much conscious thought, which means that it's The Real Stuff (as it were). It also, however, means that - since I was listening to Big Star's 3rd LP an awful lot round that time (Dec. '89) - I nicked the "get me out of here" line wholesale from Night Time.
St. Francis, Alex Chilton and Yer Actual Life - those are the main constituents. I've never seen Sandman. I did read a little Anne Rice, but I thought it was a tad... muddled, if you like. She seems to make the rules of Being Undead up as she goes along. Having been raised on Uncle Terry's vampire pictures since the age of about six, I feel that i know the rules, and cling to what I learned as a youth. Don't forget, folks - after you stake 'em, you got to CHOP OFF THE HEAD, or it ain't nothing but a sequel in the works.