What makes this band different from The Magnetic Fields is that any glimmer of hope is absolutely extinguished.
Discography:
- The New Despair - EP - (Merge, November 1997)
- The Tragic Treasury: Songs from A Series of Unfortunate Events - LP - (Nonesuch, October 2006)
The Tragic Treasury... is a collection of songs originally released as music for the audio book version of Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events". There are thirteen songs corresponding to the 13 volumes in the series, plus two bonus tracks.
The Gothic Archies briefly toured to promote the album featuring Merritt on ukulele and Daniel Handler as Lemony Snicket on accordion.
The Gothic Archies have also produced music for the audio book of Neil Gaiman's "Coraline".
http://www.houseoftomorrow.com
The Tiny Goat
The Gothic Archies Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And sent out invitations to its friends
But when the day came none of them remembered
So it gouged out its eyes with fountain pens
The world is cruel
And the moon remote
Suicide was not an option for the tiny goat
The tiny goat was very, very ugly
And like all ugly things it fell in love
When twenty years of waiting turned to nothing
It swallowed lye and lay down on the stove
When the world bites
There's no antidote
Who would want to spend forever
With a tiny goat?
The world's a leech
Crawling down one's throat
One would rather be a tick
Than be a tiny goat
The Gothic Archies' "The Tiny Goat" is a hauntingly beautiful song that narrates the tragic ending of a tiny goat who had two unmet desires. The first was wanting a birthday party, which it planned for by sending out invitations to its friends. However, the day of the party came, and none of its friends showed up. This disappointment was understandably too much for the tiny goat. So, it gouged out its eyes using fountain pens, presumably to never see the world's cruelty again.
The second desire of the tiny goat was to find love, but it was incredibly ugly, and people rarely find love interesting in things they consider ugly. So, after waiting for 20 years without ever finding love, the tiny goat took its own life by swallowing lye and laying down on a stove. That sense of hopelessness was too much for it to bear anymore, and given that suicide was not an option, it sought the only escape available to it.
The lyrics of "The Tiny Goat" poignantly depict how cruel the world can be, particularly to those deemed undesirable by society's standards. The song powerfully portrays the danger of seeking happiness externally by putting one's faith in the world's fleeting pleasures. In the end, the tiny goat's unquenched desires led to its tragic demise, underscoring the importance of finding contentment from within.
Line by Line Meaning
The tiny goat wanted a birthday party
The little goat desired to have a celebration for its birthday
And sent out invitations to its friends
It distributed requests to its mates to attend the party
But when the day came none of them remembered
However, on the day of the party, none of them recollected the event
So it gouged out its eyes with fountain pens
As a result, it took out its own eyes by using fountain pens
The world is cruel
The environment is vicious
And the moon remote
And the moon is far
Suicide was not an option for the tiny goat
However, committing suicide was not an alternative for the little goat
The tiny goat was very, very ugly
The small goat was exceptionally unattractive
And like all ugly things it fell in love
Just like all unsightly things, it became infatuated
When twenty years of waiting turned to nothing
When its anticipation over twenty years was in vain
It swallowed lye and lay down on the stove
It ingested caustic soda and reclined on the stove
When the world bites
When the environment harms
There's no antidote
There's no remedy
Who would want to spend forever
Who would desire to live forever
With a tiny goat?
With a tiny goat?
The world's a leech
The surroundings is like a parasite
Crawling down one's throat
Climbing down one's throat
One would rather be a tick
One would prefer to be a parasite
Than be a tiny goat
Instead of being a small goat
Contributed by Charlie A. Suggest a correction in the comments below.