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Election 2008

The Mountain Goats do Super Tuesday

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The Mountain Goats
(Chrissy Piper)
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We asked the Mountain Goats to write a song about Super Tuesday. And they did!

"Down to the Ark"

The candidates met up in North Dakota
And they donned their black robes there in the chapel hall
They said a brief invocation to their cloven-hoofed prince
And they signed their names in blood on the vestry wall

In Christ you know there's neither high nor low
And the void will claim all creatures small or bright
Seal up the borders or let everybody in
In the order of the serpent, there'll be neither left nor right

And we pull down our blindfolds
And we reach out for the lever in the dark
Get a sticker for our shirts as we head into the sun
Proudly bearing the mark
Headed down to the ark

The applicants went down to Oklahoma
And they hired an accent coach to teach them the western twang
And several post-born babies learned the hard way:
Vampires only kiss you if they've sharpened up their fangs

And as Minnesota fell, so went Missouri
We met at VFWs in the snow
And we voted down the tax codes, and we voted down the war
Ao many names to choose from, just one way to go.

More stories from our Election 2008 series

Comments

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  • By Amy Dyslex

    From New York, NY, 12/09/2010

    Inspiring lyrics! Downloaded the song and I guess I have fallen in love with it already.

    By Anousonne Savanchomkeo

    From Paris, 01/05/2010

    The Mountain Goats live in Paris ! You can watch the whole concert video on http://www.grandcrew.com/videos/the-mountain-goats-point-ephemere-paris-live-concert-video

    By Matt M

    10/29/2008

    A better download tip for getting just the song: click the download link under "Extra Audio".

    By Brandon Miracle

    02/07/2008

    A download tip: Right-click the download link at the top of the page and choose "Save Link As". That will download the episode of Weekend America, about 50 minutes long or so. Then use whatever audio cropping software you have (ringtone editors will also work) to crop from 44:50 to 48:42 for the song, and 48:43 to 50:35 for the interview.

    As for the comment that this is better than Get Lonely and Heretic Pride combined, I strongly disagree. I didn't love Get Lonely as much as any of his previous work, but then, I didn't really like We Shall All Be Healed the first time I heard it, or The Sunset Tree, to some extent. That being said, it has grown on me a little. I'm still really excited for Heretic Pride, though. Sax Rohmer #1 is great and In the Craters on the Moon and Lovecraft in Brooklyn aren't bad either. Anyway, this song is terrific and proves (once again) that Mr. Darnielle can make even the blandest of subjects seem so colorful and vivid.

    By neille i (WeAm Online Editor)

    From los angeles, CA, 02/06/2008

    Due to popular demand, we revisited the "issues." Enjoy!

    By Kate Kaos

    From Denver, CO, 02/06/2008

    The download links worked fine for me today. Yay for tMG!

    By Mike Patrick

    02/04/2008

    This song is better than Heretic Pride and Get Lonely combined.

    By Abby Ladybug

    From Raleigh, NC, 02/03/2008

    So we can't even embed? Poop!

    By Neille Ilel

    From los angeles, CA, 02/02/2008

    Apologies but the Mountain Goats song is not available for download - record label legal stuff that we can't change!

    By Lew Basnight

    From Chicago, IL, 02/02/2008

    You tease us! I'd love to buy both this and the Hearts of Palm song, or download them free, but your links are busted!

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