A second Leo Kottke track on Kat’s Karavan in the space of a fortnight and, just like the previous one, it was dedicated to Peel’s youngest brother, Alan, who was probably enjoying the fact that he had been able to reclaim his house from its enforced period of hosting the Estonian band, Roovel Oobik - though it appears that they had also spent some time staying at Peel Acres before they were finally able to return home.
The Year of the Driving Nail was the opening track on Kottke’s 1969 album, 6- and 12-String Guitar. His liner notes refer to it as being From an old Etruscan drawing of a sperm cell. I initially thought this was him making a coded reference to the track being inspired by masturbation, but he was being completely serious. According to Joseph Campbell’s 1964 book, The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology, every year, during the annual meeting of representatives from the 12 cities that made up the region of Etruria, a nail would be driven into the wall of the sanctuary of the goddess, Nortia - though other sources suggest that it was done to mark the beginning of the Etruscan New Year, with the nail representing the fate of the civilisation. It was believed that when the wall was completely full of nails, the Etruscan race would die out. By 88BC, the Etruscan civilisation had been pretty much absorbed into the Roman kingdom.
The Driving of the Year Nail was immortalised on the rear of Etruscan bronze mirrors, with an image of the winged goddess Athrpa holding both the hammer and nail, along with a boar’s head and joined by Adonis, who was killed by a boar, his lover, Aphrodite; alongside another couple, Meleager (whose continued existence was dependent upon the preservation of a log in a fire that was burning when he was born) and Atalanta, whose brief but chaotic relationship during the Calydonian boar hunt has to be read to be believed.
From left to right: Adonis, Aphrodite, Athrpa, Meleager and Atalanta.
Image taken from The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology (Campbell, 1964, p.310, Secker & Warburg, London)
Video courtesy of toke to elk.
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