The Mountain Goats Wiki
Advertisement
The Coroner's Gambit
MGNSi

Album

The Coroner's Gambit

Released

2000

Artist

the Mountain Goats

Length

2:55

Previous Track

"Island Garden Song"

Next Track

"Baboon"

The Coroner's Gambit is the fifth song on the album The Coroner's Gambit. An alternative version of the song (the "original take") is available for free download at themountaingoats.net.

Lyrics[]

When death came calling today
I heard the gentle grace of his cadences
I couldn't say no
I couldn't say no

When he showed me his new silk scarves
Laid out on a shiny black plastic tray
Couldn't say, couldn't say, couldn't say, couldn't say, couldn't say no
I couldn't say no

And I'm sorry I couldn't
You know how badly I wanted to
Didn't want, didn't want, didn't want, didn't want, didn't wanna lose you

But his smile was dazzling
And his eyes were sparkling 
Like moonlight on the water at midnight
Couldn't say, couldn't say, couldn't say, couldn't say, couldn't say, couldn't say no
I couldn't say no

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]

  • "I did a totally hilarious thing in, like, 1999. There was a new technology called Napster, developed by a guy named Shawn Fanning... And, uh, and so I had recorded, um... So I had an idea for the next record that was gonna be like, half in a studio-studio, like letting a lot of people play on it, and half home stuff. But I took a Greyhound bus to Omaha and recorded with Simon Joyner and Chris Deden and a bunch of their friends, but I got sick on the bus. Who knew that a Greyhound bus is probably not the best thing to ride en route to a recording session? But I got incredibly sick, so most of what we recorded was unusable. Um, and the version of the title track of the album had been among those. It went totally different... well, that didn't come out so good, maybe it won't be on the album, and then like I did a different version that was totally droney, that did make the album, that became the title track, which was 'The Coroner's Gambit'. So, so then Napster happens, and I had this older version of 'The Coroner's Gambit'. And you know, the Mountain Goats weren't really a [inaudible] proposition, to say, 'Here's a single, it's the other version.' So I went on Napster and uploaded it. And, but it wasn't getting any action, so I found some guy that had a lot of Mountain Goats stuff in his folder and I said, 'You might want to check this out.' He said, 'Where'd you get this?' I said, 'I don't know'. That is how this version of 'The Coroner's Gambit' was up on YouTube fifteen years later. This is the original version of 'The Coroner's Gambit'." -- 2019-04-26 - 9:30 Club - Washington, D.C.
  • "It took a couple years, as it sometimes does, for the sort of -- I think when an old friend dies, you have to sort of look at the you who knew them when, you know what I mean? It's like, if it's somebody you're still in touch with, then it's you today who mourns them, but if it's somebody you haven't seen in a decade, then the younger you who lives inside your body somewhere comes knocking and says 'can we, can I hang out with you inside your body for a minute?' And, uh, it took me about two years to really think it through, because when such a person in your life dies, uh, then part of you goes with them, part of you is gone now, right. The you that they knew, whether that was a person that they would have preferred to kill anyway, right -- a piece of that person goes missing from the earth. I was working in a grain elevator a year and a half or so after Rozz died and working through issues when I wrote the record called 'The Coroner's Gambit'." -- 2021-09-08 - City Winery - New York, NY

Things Referenced in this Song[]

Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]

Videos of this Song[]

References[]


Advertisement