“Coming Home”
by Sky Saxon and The Seeds
2004 song
Red Planet takes a real turn for the unexpected with its final track, "Coming Home". A crisp, contemplative acoustic guitar plays the world’s most unremarkable chord sequence, over and over, and is joined by cheerful high-hat pats on every beat. Nothing is fuzzy, nothing is weird; the keyboards subtly bolt the rhythm to a melody rather than sending psychedelic bubbles into the air, and there’s no enraged Sky Saxon howling about Venus and dogs.
Instead, over eight minutes Sky, voice cracking with exhaustion and/or the blue smoke in his lungs, sings longingly of returning home and holding his woman. He somehow extends this through the whole song as handclaps join the campfire singalong-like performance. Finally, after several earnest minutes the band comes to a stop and Sky is heard a cappella, finishing the tune with a melodic flourish as he expresses his desire to “be your onlyyy… one!”
Note: On the Red Planet vinyl LP and the CD on Rogue, "Coming Home" is just under 8:30. On the CD from Jungle Records "Coming Home" appears in an edited form; some lines and sections have been removed and the track is two minutes shorter.
