Against Agamemnon

Against Agamemnon
Album	Howl!...A Farewell Compilation of Unreleased Songs
Released	1994
Artist	the Mountain Goats
Length	2:10
Previous Track	"Feed the Birds" (Victoria Williams)
Next Track	"Downtown" (Mary Janes)

Against Agamemnon is the sixth song on the compilation Howl!...A Farewell Compilation of Unreleased Songs. It was re-released on the compilation Bitter Melon Farm.

Lyrics

Red red, red everywhere
Bright red all along the thin canvas wall
I stepped outside for a little air
I stepped outside to get away from it all
I went out through the front and saw the purple sky
Making jokes about my condition

I am going for a walk
I'll be back in half an hour
Watch over the children
I'll be back in half an hour
Hey hey la la la
Hey hey la la la

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song

• "I should really tell you what this song is about. Otherwise it hardly makes any sense at all. It's called 'Against Agamemnon' [applause] Thank you. It's about a guy named Ajax. Ajax was a, a warrior, that's shorthand in Greek drama for he's not very smart. But he's a very strong fellow and, uh, a very good warrior, he's very jealous of Agamemnon, who sort of represents a new class of warrior who's both strong and smart. Imagine, right. Yeah, I know, I'm a geek too, I ain't down with that either, you gotta choose sides, right. So that's why everybody hates Agamemnon. But he gets his, don't worry about that, it's another story. So Ajax is, is gets confounded by Aphrodite, I forget why she's mad at him but she's good and mad, and, uh, and so she causes him to, to confuse a bunch of sheep with his enemies, especially with Agamemnon. So he takes a sheep into his tent and tortures it, because that's just how he is. What's kind of funny about it is like, you're supposed to think, 'Oh, yeah, I can see how he would want to take this dude into his tent and torture him,' but the joke is on him because he's actually in this trance, and when he comes out of it, he realizes that he's been running around boasting about how 'I got Agamemnon in my tent and I beat the shit out of him and he can't do jack, and it's pathetic, and he's just one of those pathetic smart dudes, but now I owned him, right, totally, I got Agamemnon so who's smart, Ajax is smart, that's who', and - whatever, Ajax, because that is a sheep, so then, he, you know - then the veil is lifted from his eyes and, uh, he sees that he's been bragging to everybody about the sheep that he tortured in his tent, and he feels bad about it." -- 2008-03-19 - Music Hall of Williamsburg - Brooklyn, NY

Live Shows this Song Was Played at

• 2008-03-19 - Music Hall of Williamsburg - Brooklyn, NY
• 2021-08-24 - Space - Evanston, IL
• 2024-04-12 - Palace Theatre - Saint Paul, MN

Videos of this Song

• 2021-08-24 - Space - Evanston, IL