Baboon

Baboon
	;
Album	The Coroner's Gambit
Released	2000
Artist	the Mountain Goats
Length	2:16
Previous Track	"The Coroner's Gambit"
Next Track	"Scotch Grove"

Baboon is the sixth song on the album The Coroner's Gambit. It is the first Mountain Goats song to utilize drums.

Lyrics[]

The sun came up above the strange white plain
Blood red flowers all wet with rain
And the spirit wasn't really willing anymore, but the flesh was very, very strong
And I've got very little money left and I've got no sense
But I'll have none of your goddamned impudence
The sun came up above the new white fields 
Everything was new again
Pure power stripped of meaning
Sky burning, spring cleaning

Daisies on the hillside like cancer on the skin
Pretty little yellow eyes that flutter in the wind
I'd be grateful my children aren't here here to see this
If you'd ever seen fit to give me children
And my defenses may be working with a skeleton crew
But I'll be skinned alive before I'll take this from you
The sun came up above the ocean out west
All the colors of the rainbow

Stand up straight, you can see the house leaning
Day breaking, spring cleaning

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]

"This is one of those songs, it's about a couple of people... they live in the same house, they might be married, it's hard to say, you couldn't tell it by the way they treat each other." -- 2001-08-03 - 40 Watt Club - Athens, GA
"I feel bad about these people but nonetheless I continue to torture them." -- 2002-03-01 - Slow Bar - Nashville, TN
"This is a song! I say. That I want you to have in your heart, when the day comes that you see a person whose lips, when they first met yours, filled you with a joy you had not known before that day. When the day comes that the same lips fill you with the revulsion you would reserve for an open grave - I want you to know this song. You may not wanna sing it, you may not want to remember it. But I have sadistic tendencies! And I want you to remember me on that day! Cause I be right down there with ya! 2, 3, 4!" 2004-05-26 - Bottom of the Hill - San Francisco, CA
"This is a love song, but it's different from other types of love songs. In many love songs, not all, but in many, you hear a person expressing a feeling along the lines of 'Oh! I feel so warmly toward my intended that I want to express that feeling. I wanna let it out of myself, and share it with the world, and perhaps the world will in some way be enriched by sharing in my loving feeling.' And that's one kind. This is of another sort, where you say 'I have a feeling, and it was once such a loving feeling, and it's now so rotten, and smells so horrible. It's such a dreadful burden to carry that I want to inflict it on other people, that they might, just a small bit, of how angry I am, an anger which at one point focused toward a certain person, but which has, in its perversion, extended itself to all y'all.'" -- 2005-11-04 - Duke Coffeehouse - Durham, NC
"There may come a morning when you say to yourself, 'I have some serious questions I need to ask myself,' and a friend may call, and you may say to them 'Look, I have some serious questions I need to ask myself,' and they may say 'What are you fucking talking about? I had some miniature golf in mind.' And you may say to them 'Wha- I- Well, but I have some serious—' and they say 'Yeah, I heard you. You're talking nonsense. Come, come to the miniature golf course, it'll be a good time,' and you may hang up the phone, on your friend. He'll forgive you! You have some things to think through. This song is about that morning." -- 2006-09-24 - Pearl Street Clubroom - Northampton, MA
In response to a tweet asking if "Baboon" is an Alpha Couple Song: “It’s not.” -- 2021-04-21 - Twitter

Things Referenced in this Song[]

Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]

Videos of this Song[]

The Coroner's Gambit
Track list: "Jaipur" • "Elijah" • "Trick Mirror" • "Island Garden Song" • "The Coroner's Gambit" • "Baboon" • "Scotch Grove" • "Horseradish Road" • "Family Happiness" • "Onions" • "Bluejays and Cardinals" • "Shadow Song" • "There Will Be No Divorce" • "Insurance Fraud #2" • "The Alphonse Mambo" • "We Were Patriots"

Baboon

Contents

Lyrics[]

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]

Things Referenced in this Song[]

Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]

Videos of this Song[]

Fan Feed

Baboon

Album	The Coroner's Gambit
Released	2000
Artist	the Mountain Goats
Length	2:16
Previous Track	"The Coroner's Gambit"
Next Track	"Scotch Grove"