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The Alphonse Mambo

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The Alphonse Mambo
MGNSi

Album

The Coroner's Gambit

Released

2000

Artist

the Mountain Goats

Length

2:44

Previous Track

"Insurance Fraud #2"

Next Track

"We Were Patriots"

The Alphonse Mambo is the 15th song on the album The Coroner's Gambit.

Lyrics[]

I could almost hear the rhythm section
Kick in as the sun began to blaze
I saw you walk across the plaza
Figured I'd just play it like it lays
Yeah yeah yeah

I think I'm gonna be real sick again
I think it's gonna happen real soon
And I know I can't afford another night here in this place
With its sixteenth floor view of the ocean and the dunes
And it's gonna be just you and me today
Waiting for the other shoe to drop in Tampa Bay

I could hear the roar of the crowd
In the stadium a couple blocks away
It's the kind of thing that used to get me all worked up
But I don't want to talk about it now okay okay
Okay

I just want to get this whole thing over with
I don't want to deal with it anymore
I hear the cogs all slipping at the same time
And then I see you walk in through the door
And it's gonna be just you and me today
Waiting for the other shoe to drop in Tampa Bay

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]

  • "This is a song about a point you come to where you say No! No. But you don't mean it." 2002-03-01 - Slow Bar - Nashville, TN
  • "It's a song about when you're in a hotel in Southern Florida.... and there's some big college game going on down the street, or maybe it's the Bucs, who knows, uh, and, uh, and everything that you were sort of planning on being the single constant in your life is shortly about to fizzle in spectacular fashion, and so you turn to the person who is not actually there but who you're picturing because you're ranting by yourself alone in this high room, and you say everything you mean to say, but then they never show." -- 2002-03-07 - Independent Media Center - Urbana, IL
  • "This is a song about, uh, one person fixing to come into contact with another person, and that's where they begin to encounter problems." -- 2002-03-08 - The Empty Bottle - Chicago, IL
  • "It's about these people, that you know- well you don't know 'em. And you're glad you don't know 'em. I know 'em, and I wish I'd never met 'em." --2002-03-10 - The Green Room - Iowa City, IA
  • "This is a song, it's about these people, that I know. Well I don't know them, I made 'em up. But- when I first saw them in my mind's eye, it was a bad situation, and I said, "You guys gotta get out of there!" and they said, "Nah, god damn you we're gonna stick it through," and I said "No, look, I've already seen the end of this, you guys, really, just go away, go north, man." And they said, "No, we don't like it up north, it's warm down here."" --2002-11-01 - The Empty Bottle - Chicago, IL
  • "This is a song, about- should you find yourself on the 17th floor of a hotel in southern Florida, and the painkillers are running low, and you say to yourself, 'I'm going to run out of painkillers, fuck that!'" --2004-10-11 - The Black Cat - Washington, D.C.
  • "During the year when I was trying to figure out what to do with my life, I spent the harvest working in the grain elevator in Iowa. That's the kinda- not the kinda work I'm cut out for, and- I mean I know you wouldn't know it from my brawny physique, but- but it was rough stuff, and so, I would finish doing what I could do, without being noticed, and then I would sit in the office, working on lyrics, and I wrote these ones, one day after sweeping up all the little corn hulls." -- 2009-06-13 - Zoop II - Farm Sanctuary - Watkins Glen, NY

Things Referenced in this Song[]

Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]

Videos of this Song[]


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