June 26 - Song For Dennis Brown

A small and occasionally visited microgenre of The Mountain Goats is that of songs of the last moments. Early in this year we had Jimi Hendrix. Later on we'll have artists and bluesmen. Here it's a reggae singer whose influence outstrips his fame.

But this is also not a sing about Dennis Brown. It's a song about how normal the world is when someone isn't going to be part of it any more. The Last Day Of Jimi Hendrix's Life was about how normal the world was for Jimi before his death. This is a sing about how normal the world will be for everyone else when it's someone else.

This is less a morbid song and more a song about morbidity. The narrator isn't John as he was when he wrote and recorded it, but John as he was years before, out from the boundaries of an abusive home but not out from its shadow, and carrying its ghosts with him. An optimal time to be wondering what it would actually mean if you weren't there any more.

It's also beautiful. Almost all of John's quiet songs are.