Bad Moon Rising is the second studio album by American rock band Sonic Youth, released on March 29, 1985, by Blast First and Homestead Records. The album is loosely themed around the dark side of America, including references to obsession, insanity, Charles Manson, heavy metal, Satanism, and early European settlers' encounters with Native Americans. Released to strong reviews from the underground music press, Bad Moon Rising was the band's first album to combine experimental material with transitional pieces and segues. The album was preceded by the single "Death Valley '69", which did not chart in either the US or UK (the track was re-recorded for the album and released again as a single in June 1985). The album was named after the 1969 song "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival. The album's cover is a photograph by artist James Welling of a scarecrow with a flaming jack-o'-lantern as its head. Bad Moon Rising's style has been described as noise rock, no wave and experimental rock. The album begins with "Intro", a short instrumental featuring several guitars, described by Michael Azerrad as "a melancholic, meowing slide line playing off a delicate stack of crystalline arpeggios." "Intro" segues into the next song, "~Brave Men Run (In My Family)". The song begins with a single riff repeating for a minute, before Gordon murmurs, "Brave man run in my family/Brave men run away from me." The riff fades into the album's third song, "Society Is a Hole", "a one-chord