"Cross Bones Style" is a song by the American rock musician Cat Power, also known as Chan Marshall.
"Cross Bones Style," along with five other songs from Moon Pix, was written by Marshall one night in the fall of 1997, after she awoke from a hallucinatory nightmare while alone in the South Carolina farmhouse she shared with then-boyfriend, American musician Bill Callahan.
As with most songs on Moon Pix, "Cross Bones Style" was largely recorded live, with Marshall singing and playing guitar at the same time.
[2] In a 2018 interview with The Guardian, Marshall explained that the song was inspired by two children she met while in Africa, who slept in trees at night after their parents were killed.
It featured Marshall's friends as dancers, and Harry Druzd, a drummer and bartender, on drums, since White was not available for the video shoot.
"[5] The dancers performed in front of a white background using simple dance steps devised by Vapnek and hand gestures conceived by Marshall.
"[9] In a Stereogum article celebrating Moon Pix's 20th anniversary, Tom Brehihan wrote that "Cross Bones Style" was "the first Cat Power song that I ever heard and maybe still the best," describing it as "swirling, pulsating dream-pop with maybe the faintest hint of New Order in its groove.