The Mountain Goats
The Mountain Goats
The Mountain Goats
The Mountain Goats
The Mountain Goats
The Mountain Goats
The Mountain Goats
The Mountain Goats
The Mountain Goats
The Mountain Goats
The Mountain Goats
The Mountain Goats
The Mountain Goats
Track #13 on The Mountain Goats‘ ninth studio album The Sunset Tree.
Upon hearing of his abusive stepfather’s death, Darnielle was flooded with a number of long-repressed memories and emotions. One such memory was of his stepfather bringing him to the racetrack, which he recounts here. Though the p...
[Verse 1]
Got up before dawn
Went down to the racetrack
Riding with the windows down
Shortly after your first heart attack
You parked behind the paddock
Cracking asphalt underfoot
Coming up through the cracks
[Chorus]
Pale green things
Pale green things
[Verse 2]
You watched the horses run their workouts
You held your stopwatch in your left hand
And a Racing Form beneath your arm
Casting your gaze way out to no man's land
Sometimes I'll meet you out there
Lonely and frightened
Flicking my tongue out at the wet leaves
[Chorus]
Pale green things
Pale green things
[Verse 3]
My sister called at 3 AM
Just last December
She told me how you'd died at last
At last
That morning at the racetrack
Was one thing I remembered
I turned it over in my mind
Like a living Chinese finger trap
Seaweed in Indiana sawgrass
[Chorus]
Pale green things
Pale green things
Pale Green Things was written by John Darnielle.
Pale Green Things was produced by John Vanderslice.
The Mountain Goats released Pale Green Things on Tue Apr 26 2005.