January 17 - Billy The Kid's Dream of the Magic Shoes

There are many archetypes of a Mountain Goats song, but one of my favourite ones is a cheerful ditty about death.

This is a short bouncy number with a lot of lyrical repetition, about a guy facing his end with sanguinity because of his special shoes. As such it's a great example of not so much whistling past the graveyard as whistling into the abyss, which is absolutely a Mountain Goats special.

This doesn't have the tragedy of something like Heretic Pride, where the joyful narrator is speaking in immediate anticipation of the reckoning. Billy knows what it happening and he doesn't care. Because he has special shoes. Even if they're a dream

I hope you all have something in your life like that. Everything can go to hell, but if you have your one fixed point it's still a net positive. May you have your dream of special shoes.