The Mountain Goats Wiki
The Mountain Goats Wiki
The Mountain Goats Wiki
2,629
pages
in: Unreleased songs

Carmen Cicero

Sign in to edit

Carmen Cicero is an unreleased song by the Mountain Goats that has also been performed by the Extra Glenns.

Lyrics[]

There's power in the name
But the name's been lost for centuries
There's poison in the water
But the water tastes like honey
And we're so thirsty we don't care where we wake up tomorrow
We don't care, the question can hardly hold our attention

And this is a song for your young men to sing when they run out of options
Yeah, when they run out of options

There's the faith you can give or withhold
And then there's the one true faith
There's the revolution you came for
And the one you're eventually going to get
And there's a road that starts right here and leads clear up to Saskatchewan
And I brought a full tank and a '67 Mustang

And this is a song for your young women to whistle
While they're driving at high speeds down the highway

There's wind up in the trees
There's a song on the wind
There's a message in the song
But the message is hopelessly complicated
And the words are written on water
And they disappear before you write them down
But I, I brought the Polaroid

And this is the song
And everyone's gotta sing along
But it hasn't got a chorus
God damn it all

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah 
Hey hey, la la la la

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]

  • "There's a thing about this song, and I know it makes you all uncomfortable when I tell you this. And it makes me uncomfortable too. Less so cuz I've been drinking. But- I'm gonna ask you to sing along. Ok? So then all of you are gonna say, Oh now come now Mr. singer-songwriter guy, we didn't come out on the town to be asked to sing along by some singer-songwriter guy. Right? That's exactly what we try to avoid. And I understand! 'Cause I grew up in Southern California, and we were forced to sing along with singer-songwriter guys throughout my entire youth. And so- so I relate to that, and I've always avoided shows where they bug you to sing along. But- you have to trust me on this for two reasons. Uh, one, because I said so and I'm Catholic and I feel like that's a good enough reason, and two- because the song works best if you're yelling this one word really really loud. It's only one word, and it's more or less the same word in Dutch as it is in English, as it is in practically every other language in the universe- that we know of. Uh- the word is "yeah", you'll know when it's time to do it." --2002-12-07 - Amstel Festival - Amsterdam, The Netherlands (Extra Glenns set)
  • "This is a song I declined to release. I had people say, 'please, people want to hear that song.' I say 'yeah, but it's better live, it's better live, it's better live.' And they go, 'Yes, but people would like to hear it.' 'It's - it's better live.'" -- 2020-02-22 - Swedish American Hall - San Francisco, CA
  • "Because of my personal problems, I have a song that was never released that I want to play in the encore. And moreover, it's one that, the live record bears out, I mess up the lyrics about two-thirds of the time. If you don't know it, it's one of the few songs where I really actively encourage audience participation once it gets to the end. You might say, 'well, but John, it's unreleased, only the true fiends will already know what to do.' And that's true. But you will figure it out, I promise, if your heart is pure. If your heart is pure and your intentions are good, you will realize, 'Oh, I know the one word that I'm supposed to sing here sixteen times.' And you will sing it. And if you sing it as loud as you can, it will feel good." -- 2021-09-09 - City Winery - New York, NY

Things Referenced in this Song[]

Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]

Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.