“Possum Kingdom” by Toadies

"Possum Kingdom" was the second single from Toadies' 1994 debut, Rubberneck, and it's a come-on that makes your skin crawl. Vaden Todd Lewis wrote it and sings it, drawing on folklore from the band's home state of Texas and on a real place, Possum Kingdom Lake, out in North Texas near Fort Worth.

Lewis has explained it as a sequel to his song "I Burn", about cult members who set themselves on fire hoping to reach a higher plane. "Possum Kingdom" picks up with one of them, now nothing but smoke, drifting out to the lake in search of someone to come along.

The music keeps you off balance to match. The song lurches back and forth between 7/4 and 8/4, so the groove never quite settles, while the guitars of Lewis and Darrel Herbert coil and snap, Lisa Umbarger's bass creeps underneath and Mark Reznicek's drums land like a slammed door. Lewis slides from a sly murmur to a full-throated howl, and Tom Rothrock's production for Interscope leaves every bit of that menace in plain view.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.