The Mountain Goats are an American band formed in Claremont, California, by… Read Full Bio ↴The Mountain Goats are an American band formed in Claremont, California, by singer-songwriter John Darnielle. The band is currently based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. For many years, the sole member of the Mountain Goats was Darnielle, despite the plural moniker. The Mountain Goats are, for all practical purposes, the endlessly clever and prolific John Darnielle and whatever musicians he surrounds himself with, which means that while the soundscape may change from project to project, the overall tone and feel of Darnielle's work remains remarkably consistent. At his best, he writes finely observed, slightly surreal, impressionistic vignettes that manage to mix life as we live it with life as we wish we could live it, and as such he has more in common with a novelist than he does with the typical singer/songwriter, which is fitting, as he's also a published author. Darnielle's early Mountain Goats releases were lo-fi, cassette-recorded efforts cut with a rotating lineup of musicians, such as 1995's Nine Black Poppies and 2000's The Coroner's Gambit. By 2005's The Sunset Tree, his recordings had become cleaner and less cluttered, but his characters studies were just as vivid, and as the Mountain Goats finally cohered into a stable lineup (with Darnielle joined by Peter Hughes, Matt Douglas, and Jon Wurster), they recorded tuneful, thematically unified albums such as Beat the Champ (2015) and Goths (2017) that ranked with their finest work.
Darnielle began the new millennium with The Coroner's Gambit for Absolutely Kosher before signing to 4AD for the release of the surprisingly polished Tallahassee in 2002. We Shall All Be Healed followed in 2004, and one year later, Darnielle was back with The Sunset Tree. Remaining as prolific as ever, Darnielle turned away from the intensity of The Sunset Tree for a calmer, more reflective set of songs on 2006's Get Lonely. The accessible and assured Heretic Pride appeared in 2008. Next up was the Bible verse-inspired The Life of the World to Come, the group's sixth album for 4AD, in 2010. Switching to Merge Records in 2011, Darnielle released All Eternals Deck, which was recorded in four different studios in Brooklyn, Boston, North Carolina, and Florida with four different producers -- John Congleton, Scott Solter, Brandon Eggleston, and Morbid Angel guitarist and Hate Eternal frontman Erik Rutan -- helming various tracks. That year the band was also handpicked by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he was curating in Minehead, England, but they were ultimately unable to appear due to scheduling issues.

The Recognition Scene
The Mountain Goats Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

We broke the doorknob off the door
The door swung open easily
We sauntered into the poorly-lit store
And looked around lazily

We stole every bit of candy they had inside
Gobbled it all up greedily on our three month ride
I'm gonna miss you when you're gone

I'm gonna miss you when you're gone

You headed out to the getaway car
And hit the open road
I saw something written in tall, clear letters on your face
But I could not break the code

We had hot caramel sticking to our teeth
And the only love I've ever known burning underneath
I'm gonna miss you when you're gone
I'm gonna miss you when you're gone

I'm gonna miss you when you're gone
I'm gonna miss you when you're gone

Overall Meaning

The Mountain Goats' "The Recognition Scene" is a song about two people who break into a store and steal all of the candy inside before heading out on a journey together. The lyrics capture a sense of youthful recklessness and a desire for adventure. The line "We broke the doorknob off the door / The door swung open easily" sets the tone for the song, suggesting that the two protagonists are not afraid to break the rules and take risks. The fact that they "sauntered into the poorly-lit store / And looked around lazily" reinforces this idea of carefree abandon.

As they steal and eat all the candy they find, the lyrics take on a slightly darker tone. The line "And the only love I've ever known burning underneath" suggests that this adventure is a moment of escape from a life that is perhaps a little more mundane or even unhappy. The song ends with the repeated refrain "I'm gonna miss you when you're gone," which suggests both a sense of connection and a looming separation. The exact nature of the relationship between the two protagonists is never made clear, but the intensity of the emotion conveyed through the lyrics suggests that it is a deep and meaningful bond.

Overall, "The Recognition Scene" is a poignant meditation on the nature of youthful adventure and the connections we make during those moments.

Line by Line Meaning

We broke the doorknob off the door
We forcefully removed the doorknob from the door

The door swung open easily
Due to the missing doorknob, the door opened without much resistance

We sauntered into the poorly-lit store
We casually walked into the dimly lit store

And looked around lazily
We glanced around the store with little interest or enthusiasm

We stole every bit of candy they had inside
We took all the candy they had in the store without paying for it

Gobbled it all up greedily on our three month ride
We ate all the candy quickly and with a strong desire for more as we traveled for three months

I'm gonna miss you when you're gone
I will feel a sense of longing or sadness when you're no longer here

You headed out to the getaway car
You went towards the car we planned to use as a means of escape

And hit the open road
You began driving quickly away from the scene of the crime

I saw something written in tall, clear letters on your face
I noticed that there was a noticeable expression or emotion on your face

But I could not break the code
I was unable to decipher or understand the meaning behind the expression on your face

We had hot caramel sticking to our teeth
The candy we ate had caramel inside which had melted and become sticky on our teeth

And the only love I've ever known burning underneath
I felt a strong passion or deep affection burning within me at that moment

I'm gonna miss you when you're gone
I will feel a sense of longing or sadness when you're no longer here

Contributed by Chloe S. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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Most interesting comment from YouTube:

arctictis

4y↑5

we broke the doorknob off of the door.
the door swung open easily.
we sauntered into the poorly lit store,
and looked around lazily.
we stole every bit of candy they had inside.
gobbled it all up greedily on our 3 month ride.
I'm gonna miss you when you're gone.
I'm gonna miss you when you're gone.

you headed out to the getaway car
and hit the open road
I saw something written in tall clear letters on your face
but I could not break the code.
we had hot caramel sticking to our teeth
and the only love I've ever known burning underneath
I'm gonna miss you when you're gone.
I'm gonna miss you when you're gone.

I'm gonna miss you when you're gone.
I'm gonna miss you when you're gone.

All comments from YouTube:

vidiia

6y↑28

"This is a song about how there's a moment in every relationship where you look at the person you love and you think inside yourself: "Well, I don't actually love you anymore. What am I gonna do now? I don't want to say that, y'know, I mean what would happen if I said that?" Well, nothing would happen - right, I mean, you would just have a conversation, but you think inside yourself something disastrous will happen, so you don't say nothin'. Then it's next week, and you still feel the same way - now what are you going to do? Now you've spent a week living a terrible lie. So, well, you've already got a week invested, you might as well give it another year. That's what this song is about, it's called The Recognition Scene." -- 2003-06-27 - Mains D'oeuvres, Mofo Festival - Paris, France

D Cedrick

and this is one of the many reasons as to why I adore the fucking shit out John Darnielle -- actively encourages the audience to bootleg his live shows cuz dude, so much lore is disclosed in such intimate settings.