Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington
Album	The Long Secret
Released	1995
Artist	the Mountain Goats
Length	2:31
Previous Track	"My Favourite Jumper" (The Ampersands)
Next Track	"Quilting Bee" (Six Cents and Natalie)

Duke Ellington is the fourth song on the compilation The Long Secret. It was re-released on the compilation Protein Source of the Future...Now!.

Lyrics

Light hit the rings
Glimmering on his fingers
The light came down
And his hands hit the keys
It utterly wasted me
In Sweden

Horns punched the air
The aftermath fell around everywhere
I saw the spotlight land on his rings
And I'd had just about enough losing things
In Sweden, in 1962
Quite some distance from you

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song

• "One of two pieces written for the song-cycle Sweden and intentionally left off of the album. Standing all by itself, this song took on, for me, an almost mystical sadness. Then again, I'm always pretty sentimental where the names of dead jazz musicians are involved." -- Protein Source of the Future...Now! liner notes

Live Shows this Song Was Played at

• 1994-08-22 - The Middle East - Cambridge, MA
• 1998-10-10 - The Rocket Bar - St. Louis, MO
• 2008-03-20 - First Unitarian Church - Philadelphia, PA
• 2009-11-14 - The Fillmore - San Francisco, CA
• 2019-04-26 - 9:30 Club - Washington, D.C.
• 2023-02-11 - The Loud - Huntington, WV