on a very busy day, three minutes and seven seconds to have as many goosebumps as i want.
addendum, 6/15:
i can almost barely stomach this song. i have a tendency to want to cry or throw up when i hear it. i don't know whether elijah is metaphorical or not; i don't know about the baby either. this past passover, i actually set out a cup for someone who i've been wanting to come home, next to elijah's. it didn't work. but the prick of anticipation was there; my hair stood up not because i had a reckoning, but because i imagined a reckoning to be possible. and i think a lot of darnielle's songs--i've said it a million times--are about this: not the climax per se (though he has moments of revelation), but about the way a moment can raise like a blister, the way a focused second, no matter to what end, can mean everything.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Re: lack of MGs songs' babies: If you're pro-life, you could add this one to the list. Right?
(You are pro-life, right?)
typical kish on a technicality. i mean, you can't throw me for this kind of loop--i always thought the baby was a metaphor, and if it's real, i certainly expect the mother to want to keep it. then again, we never find out why the narrator in "going to georgia" has a gun, or why there's violence in "stars fell on alabama"--darnielle has definitely made some shadowy, terrible situations sound cozy before.
good catch, though.
Post a Comment