The Big Unit

The Big Unit is an unreleased song by the Mountain Goats. It was posted on the Mountain-Goats.com forums by John Darnielle on September 8, 2009 with a request that anyone who downloaded it also donated to p:ear, an organization that provides art education to homeless youth in Portland, Oregon.

Lyrics

I sunk all of my money into Swiss gold
And I watched the market slide
And I stood on the edge of the Pacific and watched
The hypodermic needles coming in with the tide
There are two guys just outside of Chicago
Looking for me tonight
But Randy Johnson throws a baseball 97 miles an hour and
I'm gonna be all right

I had a fully loaded junk bond portfolio that
Didn't work out like it was supposed to
There's a mountain of money in the bond market
That I can't seem to get close to
I've been headed down the road to ruin
The end is nowhere in sight
But Randy Johnson throws a baseball 97 miles an hour and
I'm gonna be all right

Things Referenced in this Song

• "The Big Unit" is a nickname for Randy Johnson, a former Major League Baseball pitcher.

Live Shows this Song Was Played at

Internet releases by John Darnielle

Exclusive: "Acceptable Damages Sutra" • "All Devils Here Now" • "Ballad of the Errant Scallop" • "The Big Unit" • "Brandy Let's Go" • "Bride" • "Counting Song for Bitter Children" • "Cut Off Their Thumbs #1" • "Deserters" • "Down Here Where the Bullet Bills Are" • "Extreme South #1" • "Flower Song" • "For the Krishnacore Bands" • "From TG&Y" • "Going Back to California" • "Going Invisible" • "Hye Kye" • "New Mountain Goats Tape Song" • "New World Emerging Blues" • "Pure Crystal" • "Short Song for Justin Bieber and His Paparazzi" • "Shot, Repeatedly, At Close Range, In the Chest, By Your Love" • "Sign of the Crow 2" • "Song for Sasha Banks" • "There Is Power in a Union" • "Thucydides II-58" • "Tyler Lambert's Grave"• "The Ultimate Jedi Who Wastes All the Other Jedi and Eats Their Bones" • "You and Me and a High Balcony" Released elsewhere: "Alibi • "Daniel 12:8 (first)" • "Exegetic Chains" • "For the Snakes" • "If You See Light" • "Let Me Bathe in Demonic Light" • "Michael Myers Resplendent" • "No Children" • "Ox Baker Triumphant" • "Surrounded" • "Until Olympius Returns" • "Wait for You"