On ‘For A Reason’

Last year when the Mountain Goats came through Glasgow, John Darnielle performed the (unreleased) ‘Sign of the Crow 2’ (link to an earlier performance) with specific reference to my attending the show (‘There’s a guy who wrote a religious paper about my band’s last album I think maybe is here, and I know that he might like the more ecclesiastically-based stuff’). I was honoured, of course, and didn’t mind in the least when partway into the second verse he interrupted the song ’cos he’d skipped ahead.
 
As he paused to explain that he’s missed out a verse, Jon Wurster leaned back onstage and turned off the mike for the trap drums. John D. noticed this and observed,

‘See? Everything happens for a reason — I don’t believe that at all, by the way. It’s one of those things they tell you in order to keep the chaos at bay. “Oh, everything happens for a reason.” You go on telling yourself that. This song is about how everything happens for a reason, but we don’t know what the reason is, and if you knew, you’d be angry!’

 

I mention this in connection with the recent circulation of ‘Ten Things Christians Should Never Say’, among which ‘everything happens for a reason’ was listed, and because I hadn’t transcribed the observation before.
 
Plus, he’s giving away one of the tracks — ‘Cry For Judas’ (!) — from the Mountain Goats’ forthcoming album here, or you can buy it from iTunes. I’m-a go listen to it now.
 

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