Milk Song | |
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Album |
Hail and Farewell, Gothenburg |
Released |
N/A |
Artist |
the Mountain Goats |
Length |
2:14 |
Previous Track |
|
Next Track |
"Ghosts" |
Milk Song is the fifth song on the unreleased album Hail and Farewell, Gothenburg.
Lyrics[]
When the sky was the color of cream And you started leaving messages on my answering machine Telling me that you were way across town and would Be home in a night or two I started keeping track of my losses There were only one or two I couldn't cover And up there against the milk white sky I saw Fleeting vestiges of you But the way you vanished gradually Has made a bitter man of me Yeah the way you vanished gradually Has made a bitter man of me Where the ocean cleaves the rocks real clean I dropped my answering machine I watched the waves chew it into tiny little pieces Saw the sea foam hissing in the air In the balance sheet I'd been keeping in my mind I entered Two hundred kroners to the left of the debit line It was what the machine had cost me It was a greater loss than I could bear I hear the wheels and knobs whirring down to this very day Long after the ocean has washed it all away I heard the train go by last night And it's a slow train out of here alright But the way you disappeared in slow degrees Has made a very patient man of me, yeah
Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]
- "I said 'answering machine', and I thought, 'answering machine. [pause] Answering machine. There's gotta people in this room who have no idea what, what an answering machine was, right.' Uh, because -- and so now I'm going to sound like an old person, which I'm not yet, but I'm gonna be one, and it's gonna be awesome.... But uh, but an answering machine was when there were no cell phones. It was a very radical invention in the seventies. Prior to that, and I love to imagine this, because it feels like -- it feels like Camelot. Prior to that, if somebody called you and you weren't home, you were free. Don't want to talk to you? I just gotta leave the house." -- 2020-02-22 - Swedish American Hall - San Francisco, CA
Things Referenced in this Song[]
Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]
- 2010-12-14 - Castro Theater - San Francisco, CA
- 2019-11-11 - Pustervik - Gothenburg, Sweden
- 2020-02-22 - Swedish American Hall - San Francisco, CA
Videos of this Song[]
Hail and Farewell, Gothenburg |
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Track list: "Hello, Old Rabbit" • "You're So Vain" • "Four New Trees" • "I Love You, Let's Light Ourselves on Fire" • "Milk Song" • "Ghosts" • "Red Choral Diamond Spray" • "Ending the Alphabet" • "Crane" • "One Frozen River" |