Deserters

Deserters is an unreleased song by the Mountain Goats. A demo of it was posted on the Mountain Goats website by John, along with "Cut Off Their Thumbs #1", in 2005 as a Christmas gift.

Lyrics

The neighbors are cloning themselves
We found their cocoons in the garbage
We'll either stay high forever, or crash in an hour or two
Sleeping the sleep of the blessed
Picking through trashcans with you

The guy on TV is a prophet
You just have to look in his eyes
And we'll either turn our lives over to Christ or we'll just drift off
Trying to better ourselves
Giving up after one or two tries

The high school's a front for Yakuza
Everyone, everyone knows it
And we will all shortly be richer than God if we'll just hold on
As long as we play all our cards right
As long as nobody here blows it
I've drawn up a map of Rialto
The holding tank's full for the night
I heard all about it on citizens band, it's a brand new day
We'll be awake until Thursday
The future's disarmingly bright

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song

• "'Deserters,' technically a 'demo' though the word has always given me fits, is the song that sparked the We Shall All Be Healed album, and has a number of images that are sort of touchstones for me." -- Blog post

Things Referenced in this Song

• The Yakuza are members of an infamous Japanese crime syndicate.

Live Shows this Song Was Played at

Internet releases by John Darnielle

Exclusive: "Acceptable Damages Sutra" • "All Devils Here Now" • "Ballad of the Errant Scallop" • "The Big Unit" • "Brandy Let's Go" • "Bride" • "Counting Song for Bitter Children" • "Cut Off Their Thumbs #1" • "Deserters" • "Down Here Where the Bullet Bills Are" • "Extreme South #1" • "Flower Song" • "For the Krishnacore Bands" • "From TG&Y" • "Going Back to California" • "Going Invisible" • "Hye Kye" • "New Mountain Goats Tape Song" • "New World Emerging Blues" • "Pure Crystal" • "Short Song for Justin Bieber and His Paparazzi" • "Shot, Repeatedly, At Close Range, In the Chest, By Your Love" • "Sign of the Crow 2" • "Song for Sasha Banks" • "There Is Power in a Union" • "Thucydides II-58" • "Tyler Lambert's Grave"• "The Ultimate Jedi Who Wastes All the Other Jedi and Eats Their Bones" • "You and Me and a High Balcony" Released elsewhere: "Alibi • "Daniel 12:8 (first)" • "Exegetic Chains" • "For the Snakes" • "If You See Light" • "Let Me Bathe in Demonic Light" • "Michael Myers Resplendent" • "No Children" • "Ox Baker Triumphant" • "Surrounded" • "Until Olympius Returns" • "Wait for You"