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Prowl Great Cain

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Prowl Great Cain
All Eternals Deck

Album

All Eternals Deck

Released

2011

Artist

the Mountain Goats

Length

3:15

Previous track

"High Hawk Season"

Next track

"Sourdoire Valley Song"

Prowl Great Cain is the eighth song on the album All Eternals Deck.

Lyrics[]

Gather jewels from graveyards,
when I get home bury them again
Wonder if you'll ever get the chance
to ask me why I turned you in
I saved my own skin but I live to fight,
I live to fight another day
Still remember how brave you were
when they came to take you away

And I feel guilty
but I can't feel ashamed
Prowl through empty fields, great Cain

Thought I'd seen the ghost up on the
boulevard, between the broken bits
It's hard to tell gifts of the spirit
from clever counterfeits. 
Sleepwalk through my days and mark
the hours until these dark times fade
Like a caterpillar crawling
out along the surface of the blade

And I feel guilty
but I can't feel ashamed
Prowl through empty fields, great Cain

Rummage through the gutted
storehouse now
And lick the sweat from my brow
Saw the trucks roll out this morning,
not sure when they're
coming back again
Feel the prickings of my conscience
in my chest every now and then

Sometimes a great wave
of forgetfulness
rises up and blesses me
And other times the sickness howls
and I despair of any remedy

And I feel guilty
but I can't feel ashamed
Prowl through empty fields, great Cain

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]

  • "You know how, um, when you live in Cambodia in 1976, and the situation is very bleak, because the government isn't just mad, they're genuinely evil, and there comes a point where it's you or somebody else, and you wish you were the kind of person who could say 'better I should go to the terrible place than sell out somebody who's not guilty,' and you wish it really hard that you were that person, but you are not –– you know how that happens sometimes? This is called Prowl Great Cain." –– 2011-03-28 - Bowery Ballroom - New York, NY
  • "This is a song about betrayal. A lot of songs about betrayal are about betrayal and redemption. Not this one." -- 2011-04-08 - Cat's Cradle - Carrboro, NC
  • "This song is about a guy who gets out of prison. [cheers from the crowd] I'm with you: free all the prisoners. But especially this guy." -- 2012-01-31 - Visulite Theatre - Charlotte, NC
  • "A few of [All Eternals Deck's] titles have a direct, object relation...but 'Prowl Great Cain', you sort of have to figure it out. And I had that phrase for a long time and there were a couple of songs that tried to be 'Prowl Great Cain' and I was like 'What's it really about? What is the Cain figure who I want who has betrayed his brother?' And then I got it, you know, and then I put it in Cambodia in '79." -- 2011-05-11 - WXPN Session - World Cafe - Philadelphia, PA
  • "Like so many songs, this is a song about a guy who catches sight of somebody who once tortured him in a secret prison. He has some feelings about that and chooses to share those feelings in song. " -- 2022-04-28 - The Regent Theater - Los Angeles, CA

Things Referenced in this Song[]

  • The major reference in this song is to Cain; he and his brother Abel's story is found in the Bible in the Book of Genesis. God was pleased with Abel's sacrifice, but not Cain's sacrifice, so Cain killed his brother. God cursed Cain so he could grow no crops, leaving him to wander. God also marked him so that if anyone were to harm him, that person would be paid back sevenfold, ensuring that he would live the rest of his natural life in a cursed exile.
  • "The prickings of my conscience" may be a reference to the 14th-century English poem "The Prick of Conscience".

Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]

Videos of this Song[]


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