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Ox Baker Triumphant

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Ox Baker Triumphant
BabylonSprings

Album

Babylon Springs EP

Released

2006

Artist

the Mountain Goats

Length

2:40

Next Track

"Alibi"

Ox Baker Triumphant is the first track from the Babylon Springs EP. A demo of it was posted on the Mountain Goats forums on by John Darnielle on April 15, 2008 along with several other demos to make up for the cancellation of their 2008 Australian tour.

Lyrics[]

I will rise from the swamp where they dumped my private plane
I'll be clutching the life preserver in my teeth
And I will find the highway
And I will flag down a truck 
Worry lines on my forehead, blank stare underneath 

And when I come back to town 
I'm gonna cast my burden down
A little worse for wear
Practically walking on air

I will thank my ride and crawl my way back inside 
To the guts of the building where my enemies
Hide in the dark like roaches
And I will signal the camera crew 
And everyone will do what he's been trained how to do
Sweat dripping from my face as my moment approaches

Click your heels, count to three
I bet you never expected me
A little worse for wear
Practically walking on air

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]

  • "This is a song about a professional wrestler named Ox Baker. Master of the heart punch. You get hit with a heart punch, you could possibly die. That’s the word on the street about Ox Baker, is that if he hits you with a heart punch you could land in the hospital or the grave. That’s a hell of a thing to have happen to you if you just went in, maybe trying to wrestle scientifically, and the god-damn good-guy baby-face going in there. Wrestle, you know, like the holds and the moves, and Ox Baker comes around and he’s six-foot-four. And he has a handle bar moustache. And he’ll punch you straight in the god-damn heart as soon as look at you. That’s the thing about Ox, is that you’re there to score a victory, you know, and to gain glory for yourself and for your family name. Ox Baker has a t-shirt that says 'I Like to Hurt People'. So you guys have different ideologies. One of you has this ideology of like good and evil, and probably courtly love and all kinds of other things. Ox’s ideology is primitive and dark and springs from the rocks underneath us, and we can’t even understand it because we graduated from it a long time ago. But Ox is very interested in these darker, more primitive, base, earthen ideas. But he doesn’t express it that way. He expresses it by punching you in the god-damn heart. So it’s probably going to be hard times for you, when you get into it with Ox, ‘cause he doesn’t really care. You care. Ox doesn’t care. The guy who doesn’t care has a big advantage. In life, generally speaking. He has a disadvantage as far as like feeling at home with the world, but a big advantage over you. This is a song that imagines that Ox Baker has been taken away somehow and dumped because they wanted to get rid of him, because they don’t understand his philosophy, right? But Ox will come back. That’s really, that’s my message. That’s why I’m in this business in the first place, to let everybody know that Ox is coming back. He will come again in a sort of glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. This is called 'Ox Baker Triumphant'." -- 2013-06-17 - Lincoln Hall - Chicago, IL

Things Referenced in this Song[]

  • Ox Baker was an American professional wrestler known for his catchphrase "I love to hurt people!"

Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]

Videos of this Song[]



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