‘Quarry’: Watch Cardinal Sons Perform David Bowie’s ‘Running Gun Blues’
Every episode of Cinemax’s action-packed crime drama Quarry is directed by Greg Yaitanes, an Emmy winner who’s previously worked on House, Lost and the network’s own cult hit, Banshee. Yaitanes’ expertise with shadowy characters and intense situations is put to good use in this story of a troubled Vietnam vet (played by Logan Marshall-Green), forced by circumstance to work with a cabal of hired killers.
The director also played a major role in recreating the world of Memphis in 1972 through music. It was his idea to have current bands perform live covers of old rock and soul songs – many of which are obscure even to devoted retro-pop fans.
In this clip, for example, the hero Mac Conway has a PTSD-induced panic attack while hanging out at a laid-back nightclub. While he’s freaking out, New Orleans rockers Cardinal Sons are playing David Bowie’s “Running Gun Blues,” a lesser-known number from 1970’s The Man Who Sold the World.
The song is about an American soldier on a rampage, slaughtering the Vietnamese. It echoes the conflict inside Conway, a man having trouble settling in back home due to the ghosts of his recent past.
Quarry debuts on Friday, September 9th at 10 p.m. on Cinemax. (Series directed by Greg Yataines; written by Graham Gordy, Michael D. Fuller, Jennifer Schuur, and Max Allan Collins.)