Cut Off Their Thumbs Number 1

Cut Off Their Thumbs #1 is an unreleased song by the Mountain Goats. It was intended to be released on Bedside Recordings Vol. 1.2 but there was not enough room on the single for it. A demo of it was posted on the Mountain Goats website by John, along with "Deserters", in 2005 as a Christmas gift.

Lyrics

We sprawl out on the bed or we lean against the wall
Down among the dregs out where the yellow spiders crawl
The telephone is broken and the drapes have all been closed
Hands up, who doesn't know exactly where this story goes 

I'm gonna kill everybody in this room
I'm gonna kill everybody in this room

How has it come to this, well I haven't got a clue
You looking up at me and us two glowering down at you
Wind shakes the palm trees with an escalating fury
Face the judge or take your chances with the jury

I'm gonna kill everybody in this room
I'm gonna kill everybody in this room

Let's have a little music on this hazy afternoon
Let's hope the tension in here finds its resolution soon
Radio on the windowsill, old white moon above
God watches over children and he cares for fools in love

I'm gonna kill everybody in this room
I'm gonna kill everybody in this room

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song

• "underrated jam in my opinion" -- Mountain Goats Forum, 2009
• "In 'Fight Club', when -- if you haven't seen 'Fight Club', I'm about to spoil something in it for you. When, when Ed Norton, uh, doing his first, uh, time beating somebody up, really just beats somebody up very, very badly, makes him unrecognizably ugly.... his friend, who is in fact himself, says, 'whoa, where did you go buddy?' That's sort of what I said to myself after I wrote this song, called 'Cut Off Their Thumbs'." -- 2012-03-24 - Merkin Concert Hall - New York, NY

Live Shows this Song Was Played at

• 2004-04-20 - Go! Rehearsal Studios, Room 4 - Carrboro, NC
• 2012-03-24 - Merkin Concert Hall - New York, NY
• 2012-04-02 - The Barbican - London, England
• 2012-10-06 - Reynolds Industries Theatre - Durham, NC
• 2013-09-14 - Atlantic Ocean Comedy and Music Festival
• 2018-08-31 - The Wilbury - Tallahassee, FL

Videos of this Song

• 2012-03-24 - Merkin Concert Hall - New York, NY

Internet releases by John Darnielle

Exclusive: "Acceptable Damages Sutra" • "All Devils Here Now" • "Ballad of the Errant Scallop" • "The Big Unit" • "Brandy Let's Go" • "Bride" • "Counting Song for Bitter Children" • "Cut Off Their Thumbs #1" • "Deserters" • "Down Here Where the Bullet Bills Are" • "Extreme South #1" • "Flower Song" • "For the Krishnacore Bands" • "From TG&Y" • "Going Back to California" • "Going Invisible" • "Hye Kye" • "New Mountain Goats Tape Song" • "New World Emerging Blues" • "Pure Crystal" • "Short Song for Justin Bieber and His Paparazzi" • "Shot, Repeatedly, At Close Range, In the Chest, By Your Love" • "Sign of the Crow 2" • "Song for Sasha Banks" • "There Is Power in a Union" • "Thucydides II-58" • "Tyler Lambert's Grave"• "The Ultimate Jedi Who Wastes All the Other Jedi and Eats Their Bones" • "You and Me and a High Balcony" Released elsewhere: "Alibi • "Daniel 12:8 (first)" • "Exegetic Chains" • "For the Snakes" • "If You See Light" • "Let Me Bathe in Demonic Light" • "Michael Myers Resplendent" • "No Children" • "Ox Baker Triumphant" • "Surrounded" • "Until Olympius Returns" • "Wait for You"