Untitled - dubbed "Stack Em Up"
Lyrics
Louder than your Windsor V8, dusty tennis shoes
Ten years since I’d seen you, on the day I heard the news
No one riding shotgun for seven years at least
Short of breath and bitter on the 60 headed east
Stack em up
Like unanswered letters
Stack em up
You got sick and you never got better
Six foot two and flawless, still some baby fat
Two of us, one year later, here we are, imagine that
Dan went to prison, he shot someone you said
Your beautiful blonde ringlets stacked up around your head
Stack em up
Try to understand it
Stack em up
Too pretty for this planet
Some you lose track of
Some you have to bury
Some dash back toward the darkness they emerged from
Some you have to carry
In dreams your face is radiant, in dreams your laugh is loud
In dreams I see you standing right before me young and proud
What was it like for you when your moment arrived
I knew you before the amber got you, when you were alive
Stack em up
Keep your candle burning bright
Stack em up
To sleep in your shadow every night
Banter
- It is incredibly special to be up here with you. I can't. I imagine the same is true for people in the audience - for me, and I know for my band, the amount of anticipation is - I'm not given to fantasies of fame, that's not my style. I like to fantasize about, y'know, being eaten by a monster from outer space or something. We all have our things. But over the past year or so, I've found myself dreaming, daydreaming - and this is a strange thing, because under normal times, we're out 4 or 5 months a year. I do not daydream about getting back out, because usually it's going to be 4 weeks from now. And over the past 6, 7, 8 months, it's what if we could stand up and sing Mountain Goats songs! And I expect to say this a lot over the next few weeks, but you all held us up during this time and we will never forget it. And by way of saying thanks, I'd like to do the other thing that I sometimes do in solo sets, which is play something you haven't heard. No way in hell you've heard it. It's not a happy song. And all the people in it are real, but I want to send it out to the person in the second verse, Brad, the first person who ever addressed me by feminine pronouns without asking me. He called me Miss John all the days of his life. (2021-08-06 The Orange Peel)
Live Performances
Footnotes