the window song

by the time i heard this song i was already a fan of the mountain goats. but it was this song that i was not going to just be a fan. i was going to be a fan. i wasn't going to buy the few cds that i managed to find in 78s. i was going to buy every damn cd if it killed me, i was going to rack down all the vinyl there was to be tracked, i was going to spend hours, countless hours, sifting through the internet and peering hopefully into my pan for a few previously unheard songs. i was going to devote time every day for thinking about the mountain goats, and talking about the mountain goats and, you know, actually listening to the mountain goats.

and it was this song that did it for me. more specifily, it was one line of this song. oh yeah, the wavering quality of the guitar is a thing made of awesome, and the rachel/john dynamic is as stellar as always, but it was not these things that planted the seeds of obsession in my heart. no, the blame for that rests soley on the eggshells line. you know, "i could have walked on eggs right then and not broken a one of them." the 'a' in there grabbed me and shook me and got right up in my face. "look here," said the a, "this is not the kind of band who would settle for 'and not broken any of them,' or 'and none of them broke,' no, no, no. this is not that kind of band, not that kind of band at all." i understood what the 'a' was saying to me. i understood that the mountain goats were not the kind of band to settle for anything short of total commitment from me. i love that 'a.' that 'a' is where it all began for me.

shake!