In answer to your question, benpoulden, "Morning Hollow" appears on two seperate Sparklehorse albums. As a hidden track at the end of "It's A Wonderful Life" and as track 9 of 12 on 'Dreamt Light Years...". So it does end one album.
I think the pet idea is a lovely one. Mark Linkous uses animal imagery in the majority of his songs and spoke about the feeling of closeness he had to animals after his accident. It feels like a touching realisation that a pet that has always been a source of comfort is not going to be around for much longer.
One other thing, and this is not so much a point as just a feeling, but I have just been reading 'Child of God' by Cormac McCarthy - one of Mark Linkous's favourite books, and there is a scene towards the end where Lester Ballard wakes up in a hollow in the ground and sees morning light coming through a crack in the ceiling and he's is just unbelievably pitiful and you know that he is very close to the end. Mark definitely was a huge fan of the book and so the connection feels pretty likely.
In answer to your question, benpoulden, "Morning Hollow" appears on two seperate Sparklehorse albums. As a hidden track at the end of "It's A Wonderful Life" and as track 9 of 12 on 'Dreamt Light Years...". So it does end one album.
I think the pet idea is a lovely one. Mark Linkous uses animal imagery in the majority of his songs and spoke about the feeling of closeness he had to animals after his accident. It feels like a touching realisation that a pet that has always been a source of comfort is not going to be around for much longer.
One other thing, and this is not so much a point as just a feeling, but I have just been reading 'Child of God' by Cormac McCarthy - one of Mark Linkous's favourite books, and there is a scene towards the end where Lester Ballard wakes up in a hollow in the ground and sees morning light coming through a crack in the ceiling and he's is just unbelievably pitiful and you know that he is very close to the end. Mark definitely was a huge fan of the book and so the connection feels pretty likely.