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.

Waving at You
The Mountain Goats Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Listen, you can tell your lawyer
That he can go to hell
'Cause I can take whatever you're offering up
Reasonably well

And if four long years come to nothing
It's all right
But it's your birthday

It's your birthday tonight

And I went to buy you something
But I caught myself in time
And nothing makes any sense anymore
But everything rhymes

Die hard, die kicking
Old habit of mine
Die hard, die kicking
Old habit of mine

Die hard

Die hard
Die kicking

Overall Meaning

In The Mountain Goats's song Waving at You, the singer seems to be addressing someone they were once close to. The lyrics suggest that the two of them had some kind of legal dispute and that the singer is willing to take whatever the other person is offering. The singer then acknowledges that four years have come to nothing, which could mean that they've been fighting for that long and have made no progress. Despite this, the singer wishes the other person a happy birthday and admits that they were going to buy them a gift, but stopped themselves. The last few lines of the song repeat the phrase "die hard, die kicking" several times, suggesting that no matter how hard things get, the singer will keep fighting.

One way to interpret these lyrics is that the singer has reconciled with the other person but still feels conflicted about the relationship. They are willing to accept anything to make amends, but they are also hesitant to fully commit. The line "nothing makes any sense anymore / but everything rhymes" suggests that the singer is struggling to find meaning in their life, but that they find some solace in the poetry of their words. The repeated phrase "die hard, die kicking" could be interpreted as a declaration of resilience and determination, as if the singer is saying that they will never give up on this relationship.

Line by Line Meaning

Listen, you can tell your lawyer
I don't care if you threaten me with legal action

That he can go to hell
I don't give a damn about your lawyer

'Cause I can take whatever you're offering up
I can handle whatever you throw my way

Reasonably well
I may not like it, but I can deal with it

And if four long years come to nothing
If our relationship doesn't work out

It's all right
I'll be okay with it

But it's your birthday
But today is your special day

It's your birthday tonight
It's your birthday, and we should celebrate

And I went to buy you something
I planned to get you a gift

But I caught myself in time
But I changed my mind

And nothing makes any sense anymore
I'm feeling lost and confused