The Recording Process:

First Unit Production and Recording:
Billy Brown: Keyboards, programming
Recorded at Outpost Productions, New York January,
1998 engineered by Billy Brown

Second Unit Production and Recording:
Tony Garone - vocals, acoustic guitar, keyboards
Recorded, engineered and mixed at Cow Pilot Studios, Arizona by Tony Garone

Billy sent me an ADAT with a collection of music that he had done with the open invitation to use whatever I wanted for Gilgamesh (or whatever). On the tape are several complete instrumental songs and some drum patterns. When I heard "Mystics" (the original version of this song) the vocal melody immediately popped into my head. I knew it would be perfect music for this song. So I simply wrote the lyric and added my vocal, acoustic guitar and some additional keyboards and viola! There you have it.

What is this song about?

Gilgamesh is devastated by the death of Enkidu, who is stricken with some type of illness after being "chosen to die" by the gods for killing Huwawa and the Bull of Heaven. Gilgamesh erects a monument to Enkidu, with the finest gold and gems - and all of Uruk mourns him. This part of the Epic is the turning point for Gilgamesh in that he begins to question his mortality by witnessing the death of Enkidu.

In part he is more concerned about his own demise than that of his friend, and at this point he decides that he will journey to the Far Away, a place where the legendary Utnapishtim (Sumerian Ziasudra) lives - a mortal who was given eternal life by Enlil (the sky god). Gilgamesh intends to find out how this was done, in an attempt to achieve the same for himself.

Before he departs, he once again seeks the council of his mother Ninsun. He asks her why he (being one third human and two thirds divine) should perish as a mortal. She sadly explains to him that because he is one third human he is destined to live and die a human. Nevertheless, Gilgamesh takes off on his perilous journey to the Far Away to meet Utnapishtim and find out how it was that he escaped the fate of mortals.

Cuneiform for "Gilgamesh Laments for Enkidu"

Dr. Pagan explains:

Attached is the line I've constructed for Gilgamesh's lament. I tried something a bit more oblique, but beautifully expressive. Here it is:
i-na-shu di-im-tam im-la /in~Óu dimtam iml~/ "his eyes brimmed with tears."