Cadaver Sniffing Dog
Lyrics
Hustle up the spiral stairs
See if anyone’s left up there
Teams on the scene from several stations
Everybody, adjust your expectations
Stray clumps of hair and blood and brain
Fragments of bone in the drain
Rookies trying to keep the airway clear
But the damage is too severe
Bring in the cadaver sniffing dog
Bring in the cadaver sniffing dog
Bring in the cadaver sniffing dog
Bring in the cadaver sniffing dog
Army crawlers down ash wet floor
Ready for war
Veterans on their hands and knees
Nobody's ready for days like these
Wait 'til you come up on the smoking wreck
And even then you check
Radio home all clean
If there were any survivors they've fled the scene
Bring in the cadaver sniffing dog
Bring in the cadaver sniffing dog
Bring in the cadaver sniffing dog
Bring in the cadaver sniffing dog
Banter
- [audience request] I wish I could hear you. [more unintelligible audience] So we're doing in-ear monitors this tour, which everybody else transitioned to 10 years ago. And for me, there's many things about them that are bad. And if you have the misfortune of getting 5 minutes alone with me you will hear many of them. BUt one of the worst things is that generally speaking there's a give and take between things that you say and that the things that I say back. Though on bad nights that gets out of control, where you want to say, 'NO sir, you have said four things already. This is not actually a private conversation between you and me. We can do that later, but no we can't also. But now when you yell, all I hear is, um, like the teacher on Charlie Brown. I'm grateful I hear the tone but I don't know what you said. I wanna say this song is about that but it's not at all. That would just be a good transition. This song is about a dog that they bring in to find corpses. (2019-04-30 Brooklyn Steel)
- This song it will shock you to learn is an extended metaphor about a decaying relationship. I know, I know. I didn’t come to the Mountain Goats show for that shit! What are you talking about? I come for absolutely literal stories about police dogs sniffing for corpses. I’m not looking for deeper meanings than that. Well, I’m sorry to break the news to you: but there is no dog and there are no cops. There’s just one very aggrieved partner saying something to another in the hopes that they land a punch. (2019-09-04 The Showbox)
- This is a song about forensics. (2023-07-13 The Vanguard)
Live Performances
Footnotes