“Song for Tura Satana” introduces us to the kind of life Tura Satana led and what happened when you crossed her.

Track: “Song for Tura Satana”
Album: Zopilote Machine (1994)

John Darnielle says “Song for Tura Satana” is a true story. He also says not to look too closely into that or to share that too widely, but I have to mention that part because we have to talk about it. Tura Satana was an actress and a dancer and about a million other things. She had a really crazy life and a knack for great storytelling. I’ll call specific attention to this retrospective which attempts to fact check a story about her relationship with Elvis. The magazine says that her story can’t be 100% true because Elvis wasn’t where she says he was, but this kinda misses the point of Tura Satana.

She is most remembered for cult action films, including one that John Waters said was the best movie of all time and would be the best movie to ever be made. She taught herself martial arts and did her own stunts. We don’t have nearly enough space to cover it all, but she was shot later in life by an ex-lover. I can’t find any mention of the story in this second verse, where Satana shoots someone for sleeping with her own lover. But just like it doesn’t matter if Elvis was really there that night or if you can just believe he could have been, it doesn’t matter who had the gun or why. “Coming home early // is always a mistake” is ominous even for John Darnielle and even for 1994 for the Mountain Goats, so true story or just slightly true, we’re in dark waters and we know what’s coming.