Mobile

Mobile
Album	Dark in Here
Released	June 25, 2021
Length	3:42
Previous Track	"The Destruction of the Kola Superdeep Borehole Tower"
Next Track	"Dark in Here"

Mobile is the third song on Dark in Here. It was scheduled to be released as a single on April 20, 2021, but became available on streaming services on April 18. John Darnielle read the lyrics in a Poetry Magazine podcast released January 12, 2021, and mentioned it would probably be on the next record.

Lyrics

Jonah went down to the docks to flee from the wrath of the Lord 
but the mark on his forehead was visible to everybody on board 
They threw him down to the water but he did not drown
I’m on a balcony in Mobile, Alabama, waiting for the wind to throw me down 

Now the Lord told the great fish, be free of your burden
And Jonah emerged from his darkness like a dancer crashing through the curtain
And the plant grew but it withered and it shriveled up and turned brown
I’m on a balcony in Mobile, Alabama, waiting for the wind to throw me down

Lord, if you won’t keep me safe and warm
Then send down the storm
Send down the storm

Jonah was sure he heard voices, maybe just one voice but real clear
And where he went, the voice followed, sometimes hardly loud enough to hear
“Shall I not spare the wise with the wicked? Hold back my wrath from this town?”
I am on a balcony in Mobile, Alabama, waiting for the wind to throw me down

May I address the foreman of the jury? 
Why do you hold back your fury? 
Don’t hold back your fury 

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song

• At 2021-10-22 - College Street Music Hall - New Haven, CT, John Darnielle revealed that, contrary to the lyrics, he wrote the majority of this song in the greenroom of the venue in New Haven, CT (likely during 2019-08-09 - College Street Music Hall - New Haven, CT), not on a balcony in Mobile, Alabama.

Things Referenced in this Song

• This song references the Book of Jonah in the Bible.

Live Shows this Song was Played At

• 2021-09-09 - Judge John Hodgman - London Podcast Festival - Virtual
• 2021-09-24 - Gateway City Arts - Holyoke, MA
• 2021-10-22 - College Street Music Hall - New Haven, CT
• 2021-10-25 - Brooklyn Made - New York, NY
• 2023-04-02 - Soul Kitchen - Mobile, AL
• 2023-04-11 - The Slowdown - Omaha, NE
• 2023-04-12 - The District - Sioux Falls, SD
• 2023-04-14 - Badger State - Green Bay, WI
• 2023-07-02 - SPACE - Evanston, IL
• 2024-07-27 - Bearsville Theater - Woodstock, NY

Dark in Here

Track list: "Parisian Enclave" • "The Destruction of the Kola Superdeep Borehole Tower" • "Mobile" • "Dark in Here" • "Lizard Suit" • "When a Powerful Animal Comes" • "To the Headless Horseman" • "The New Hydra Collection" • "The Slow Parts on Death Metal Albums" • "Before I Got There" • "Arguing With the Ghost of Peter Laughner About His Coney Island Baby Review" • "Let Me Bathe in Demonic Light"