The Great Gold Sheep

The Great Gold Sheep
Album	Getting Into Knives
Released	October 23, 2020
Length	5:03
Previous Track	"Bell Swamp Connection"
Next Track	"Rat Queen"

The Great Gold Sheep is the ninth song on Getting Into Knives. It was written around summer 2019. It was originally called The Nebuchadnezzar League.

Lyrics

 I'm going to do what I like
 I'm going to live how I want
 I'm going to build myself a great estate
 With lots of statues out front
 
 Choirs from the Curtis Institute 
 Singing me to sleep
 Wake up and worship the great gold sheep
 
 I'm going to walk the pathways of the ancients
 I'm going to let my name be known
 I'm going to seek the wild haunts of this world
 And carve a place out all my own
 
 Heat up the iron until it glows 
 Burn the brand so deep
 Wake up and worship the great gold sheep
 
 There's only one, splendid and fine
 The ages attest it's wondrous design
 You and me stand somehow above the fray
 And name everyone who's throwing their chance away
 
 I'm going to write my name on everything
 I'm going to leave a lasting legacy
 And when my body's thrown with great force from a window
 The dogs will fight for whatever's left of me
 
 Shallow grave among the weeds
 Where the pale worms creep
 Wake up and worship the great gold sheep

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song

• "This is from last summer, uh, I think, uh, but it is -- it was originally called 'The Nebuchadnezzar League', because the guy -- it's the book of Daniel, where he has an image -- I think it might also be a bull, though I forget -- a gold image that you're supposed to worship. But then, my son was, uh, in -- this was four or five years ago, uh -- in a Jewish day camp, right, and, and he would come home singing songs, but his speech wasn't very clear yet, and, um, and he was singing -- '[incomprehensible] the great gold sheep'. And we recorded it to try to figure out what he was saying, and I said, well, the first three sounded like he was saying 'aleph bet vet', and I studied Hebrew for a year in college. I said, this is probably the alphabet song, and what sounded like 'the great gold sheep' was probably 'shin'. But meanwhile, it already phonetically sounded like 'The Great Gold Sheep', which was a name I liked, and that's sort of -- I wrote it in a notebook, and the title sat in a notebook for about four or five years, and then I was wanting to write one day and opened up the notebook, and, 'oh, great gold sheep, let's do that one.' ....It's about idolatry, obviously." -- 2020-06-15 - WNYC Session - New York, NY

Things Referenced in this Song

• The Curtis Institute of Music is a conservatory in Philadelphia. It is one of the most selective higher education institutions in the world.
• "When my body's thrown with great force from a window/the dogs will fight for whatever's left of me" is a reference to the death of Jezebel in 2 Kings 9:30-37. In the Biblical account, Jezebel is closely associated with worshipping idols.

Live Shows this Song Was Played at

• 2020-06-15 - WNYC Session - New York, NY

Videos of this Song

• 2020-06-15 - WNYC Session - New York, NY