@@ratt_trap Exactly! The whole point is "to kill". And there is a comment somewhere below saying that so desperate was the mariner to kill that guy that, in his madness, he could have killed a random person thinking that he was the one he wanted...
This is easily one of the best songs I’ve ever heard in my entire life. My favorite part is that at the end there are no words spoken but the mother’s melody, and you just know the man is being torn to shreds.
@@s0vrn I looked it up, and it's based on, or at least frighteningly similar to a poem called the Mariner's Revenge by one Amera Anderson. Here's the link: www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-mariner-s-revenge/
"The Mariner's Revenge Song" We are two mariners Our ship's sole survivors In this belly of a whale It's ribs are ceiling beams It's guts are carpeting I guess we have some time to kill You may not remember me I was a child of three And you, a lad of eighteen But, I remember you And I will relate to you How our histories interweave At the time you were A rake and a roustabout Spending all your money On the whores and hounds (oh, oh) You had a charming air All cheap and debonair My widowed mother found so sweet And so she took you in Her sheets still warm with him Now filled with filth and foul disease As time wore on you proved A debt-ridden drunken mess Leaving my mother A poor consumptive wretch (oh, oh) And then you disappeared Your gambling arrears The only thing you left behind And then the magistrate Reclaimed our small estate And my poor mother lost her mind Then, one day in spring My dear sweet mother died But, before she did I took her hand as she, dying, cried: (oh, oh) "Find him, Bind him Tie him to a pole and break His fingers to splinters Drag him to a hole until he Wakes up naked Clawing at the ceiling Of his grave" It took me fifteen years To swallow all my tears Among the urchins in the street Until a priory Took pity and hired me To keep their vestry nice and neat But, never once in the employ Of these holy men Did I ever, once turn my mind From the thought of revenge (oh, oh) One night I overheard The prior exchanging words With a penitent whaler from the sea The captain of his ship Who matched you toe to tip Was known for wanton cruelty The following day I shipped to sea With a privateer And in the whistle Of the wind I could almost hear (oh, oh) "Find him, Bind him Tie him to a pole and break His fingers to splinters Drag him to a hole until he Wakes up naked Clawing at the ceiling Of his grave There is one thing I must say to you As you sail across the sea Always, your mother will watch over you As you avenge this wicked deed" And then, that fateful night We had you in our sight After twenty months at sea Your starboard flank abeam I was getting my muskets clean When came this rumbling from beneath The ocean shook The sky went black And the captain quailed And before us grew The angry jaws Of a giant whale (oh..) Don't know how I survived The crew all was chewed alive I must have slipped between his teeth But, oh, what providence What divine intelligence That you should survive As well as me It gives my heart great joy To see your eyes fill with fear So lean in close And I will whisper The last words you'll hear (oh, oh)
This gets a lot darker when you consider the Mariner has the wrong guy. His madness and devotion could make him feel like he isn't allowed to die without avenging his mom, so in his last moments, he chooses the other sole survivor in his place.
I would have never thought of this, that's absolutely genius, I mean there's no hint that it's true but there's also no proof that he is the real man but it makes total sense that the man would be so addicted to his revenge and that since he's about to die he would make believe that the man was the actual man. A bit of a fetch again since it's not clearly stated but I really just like that idea, bravo for thinking of that!
I like to pantomime heavily to this song and act out certain scenes. I always have goosebumps the whole time and usually cry because it's so powerful and the buildup makes me explode.
They're definitely underappreciated by this ungrateful new generation! I've met too many fans of the Crane Wives who don't even know 'em! The cheek of kids these days! What are they even teaching 'em in school?!
The thing that's always struck me with The Decemberists is I would have swore that the lead singer is from Belfast, Northern Ireland, but I looked it up and he's not even from Ireland, but from Portland, Oregon. He has to have Irish lineage, his pronunciation of certain words definitely came from here plus they did a song about the Shankill Butchers, who aren't really known outside of Belfast. The connection is there somewhere, I just can't find it.
Am i the only one that feels like the first verse is literally the singer inviting us to a roleplaying scenario? Like... We are supposed to be the man he's talking to.
better yet have him sing certain parts as the play progresses and then have a big finale with the accordion and fiddle at the end of the play, with it going dark as he ties the sailor to a pole.
One way I’ve thought of it is that he has the wrong guy from the beginning overhearing the whaler. The captain could have easily done the same thing as the Boy’s original target, and forgot the exact details. So at the very end, they both die believing vengeance has come at last, when in reality the Boy has killed the wrong criminal.
I would argue that he is a very unreliable narrator under very extreme circumstances. What if he's singing this to no one? Like, the only people he can find in the whale besides him are corpses and he so desperately wants revenge that he just wistfully pretends a random corpse is his lifelong target, still able to be slaughtered? Another possibility while we're spinning fan theories is that, again, there are no other survivors of the wrecks, he's tried everything he can think of to get out and is just spinning yarns to himself to pass the time and not think about being imminently digested. I mean the whole tale is a bit maudlin and fanciful, right? Over the top, that's why we love it so much. The fun never stops with Decemberists music!!!
Thank you to my 8th grade science teacher for introducing me to this song, and by extension The Decemberists. Mr. Chris Morris, I hope you're doing well
We are two mariners Our ships' sole survivors In this belly of a whale Its ribs are ceiling beams Its guts are carpeting I guess we have some time to kill You may not remember me I was a child of three And you, a lad of eighteen But I remember you And I will relay to you How our histories interweave At the time you were A rake and a roustabout Spending all your money On the whores and hounds Oh You had a charming air All cheap and debonair My widowed mother found so sweet And so she took you in Her sheets still warm with him Now filled with filth and foul disease As time wore on you proved A debt-ridden drunken mess Leaving my mother A poor consumptive wretch Oh, oh And then you disappeared Your gambling arrears The only thing you left behind And then the magistrate Reclaimed our small estate And my poor mother lost her mind Then, one day in spring My dear sweet mother died But before she did I took her hand as she, dying, cried Oh, oh "Find him, bind him Tie him to a pole and break His fingers to splinters Drag him to a hole Until he wakes up naked Clawing at the ceiling of his grave" It took me fifteen years To swallow all my tears Among the urchins in the street Until a priory Took pity and hired me To keep their vestry nice and neat But never once in the employ Of these holy men Did I ever once turn my mind From the thought of revenge Oh, oh One night I overheard The prior exchanging words With a penitent whaler from the sea The captain of his ship Who matched you toe to tip Was known for wanton cruelty The following day I shipped to sea with a privateer And in the whistle of the wind I could almost hear Oh, oh "Find him, bind him Tie him to a pole and break His fingers to splinters Drag him to a hole Until he wakes up, naked Clawing at the ceiling of his grave There is one thing I must say to you As you sail across the sea Always, your mother will watch over you As you avenge this wicked deed" And then, that fateful night We had you in our sight After twenty months at sea Your starboard flank abeam I was getting my muskets clean When came this rumbling from beneath The ocean shook The sky went black And the captain quailed And before us grew The angry jaws Of a giant whale Oh, oh, oh, oh Don't know how I survived The crew all was chewed alive I must have slipped between his teeth But, oh, what providence What divine intelligence That you should survive as well as me It gives my heart great joy To see your eyes fill with fear So lean in close and I will whisper The last words you'll hear Oh, oh
The fact that the death rattle from the mother only happens the first time she shows up in the song at the end of her last words and not the other times is really fun imo
I just relised that when the mom speaking you can hear a second quieter raspy voice, my head cannon is that his mom came back as a ghost and is actually talking to him. Wait is this what people think already? Am I just slow….
Whatever interpretation works for you. I'd lean toward he's hallucinating, but they are in the belly of a whale so we're not *super* tied to reality for our setting here, why not ghost.
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Do the Decemberists get any royalties from these views, or does Kill Rock Stars reap the profits from these views?
"But, oh, what Providence, what divine intelligence, that you should survive as well as me"
This gives me the c h i l l s
I can see the demented evil happy smile of his
@@WintersTheSixth And the other guy's confused and terrified look.
it's because of the realization that the man dying wasn't enough, he wanted to kill the man by his own two hands
@@ratt_trap Exactly! The whole point is "to kill". And there is a comment somewhere below saying that so desperate was the mariner to kill that guy that, in his madness, he could have killed a random person thinking that he was the one he wanted...
i heard this song once but i totally forgot what it was called, thank the youtube algorithm for understanding "song about a dude in a whale"
Thumbs up, this comment is sooo underrated
🤣😂🤣
All praise to the holy algorithm. Long may it smile upon us XD
May you never forget this song!
This is easily one of the best songs I’ve ever heard in my entire life. My favorite part is that at the end there are no words spoken but the mother’s melody, and you just know the man is being torn to shreds.
This is Decemberists' "How Soon Is Now". Epic, emotional, magnificent
I just imagined that while the boy stabs his father to death he shouts at him in anger.
@@lenny_1369 moms ex boyfriend. not father.
How do I always find you in the weirdest places.. Not that you respond XD
.
This story would make one hell of a movie.
People forget this is an edger Allen Poe written poem.
@@PrederNationteam74 I don't think it is, actually, but it's definitely inspired by Poe's stuff.
@@s0vrn I looked it up, and it's based on, or at least frighteningly similar to a poem called the Mariner's Revenge by one Amera Anderson. Here's the link: www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-mariner-s-revenge/
it lacks continuity when he actually finds his lone stepfather in a boat "after ten months at sea" as that makes no sense
@@twrk139 why? and that is 20 months not 10, he was on a boat and they had looked for the man for almost two years.
15 years he chased this man, dedication
Could be a lot closer to twenty years going on the lyrics
@@JohnDoe-nf7up imposter
"The Mariner's Revenge Song"
We are two mariners
Our ship's sole survivors
In this belly of a whale
It's ribs are ceiling beams
It's guts are carpeting
I guess we have some time to kill
You may not remember me
I was a child of three
And you, a lad of eighteen
But, I remember you
And I will relate to you
How our histories interweave
At the time you were
A rake and a roustabout
Spending all your money
On the whores and hounds
(oh, oh)
You had a charming air
All cheap and debonair
My widowed mother found so sweet
And so she took you in
Her sheets still warm with him
Now filled with filth and foul disease
As time wore on you proved
A debt-ridden drunken mess
Leaving my mother
A poor consumptive wretch
(oh, oh)
And then you disappeared
Your gambling arrears
The only thing you left behind
And then the magistrate
Reclaimed our small estate
And my poor mother lost her mind
Then, one day in spring
My dear sweet mother died
But, before she did
I took her hand as she, dying, cried:
(oh, oh)
"Find him, Bind him
Tie him to a pole and break
His fingers to splinters
Drag him to a hole until he
Wakes up naked
Clawing at the ceiling
Of his grave"
It took me fifteen years
To swallow all my tears
Among the urchins in the street
Until a priory
Took pity and hired me
To keep their vestry nice and neat
But, never once in the employ
Of these holy men
Did I ever, once turn my mind
From the thought of revenge
(oh, oh)
One night I overheard
The prior exchanging words
With a penitent whaler from the sea
The captain of his ship
Who matched you toe to tip
Was known for wanton cruelty
The following day
I shipped to sea
With a privateer
And in the whistle
Of the wind
I could almost hear
(oh, oh)
"Find him, Bind him
Tie him to a pole and break
His fingers to splinters
Drag him to a hole until he
Wakes up naked
Clawing at the ceiling
Of his grave
There is one thing I must say to you
As you sail across the sea
Always, your mother will watch over you
As you avenge this wicked deed"
And then, that fateful night
We had you in our sight
After twenty months at sea
Your starboard flank abeam
I was getting my muskets clean
When came this rumbling from beneath
The ocean shook
The sky went black
And the captain quailed
And before us grew
The angry jaws
Of a giant whale
(oh..)
Don't know how I survived
The crew all was chewed alive
I must have slipped between his teeth
But, oh, what providence
What divine intelligence
That you should survive
As well as me
It gives my heart great joy
To see your eyes fill with fear
So lean in close
And I will whisper
The last words you'll hear
(oh, oh)
SleepyMongoose ARREST HIM FOR CRUELTY TO WANTONS >:O
JFC, man. Kudos.
@@TheGameFather7178++
This gets a lot darker when you consider the Mariner has the wrong guy. His madness and devotion could make him feel like he isn't allowed to die without avenging his mom, so in his last moments, he chooses the other sole survivor in his place.
Where'd you hear he has the wrong guy?
@@xal7034 I wasn't saying that he actually had the wrong guy, I was just thinking about how much darker it would be if that were the truth.
I would have never thought of this, that's absolutely genius, I mean there's no hint that it's true but there's also no proof that he is the real man but it makes total sense that the man would be so addicted to his revenge and that since he's about to die he would make believe that the man was the actual man. A bit of a fetch again since it's not clearly stated but I really just like that idea, bravo for thinking of that!
@@jacobflematti3325 seeing as it's been 15 years and he last saw the man at age 3 he likely doesn't remember what he really looked like
@@jacobflematti3325 after looking over the lyrics it's probably closer to twenty years by the time he's in the whale
Best song on the album and brilliant tale of revenge! "Find him, bind him, tie him to a pole, and break his fingers, to splinters..." Brillant.
their best song period
Sorry but have you listened to "Eli the barrow boy"?
Find him, blind him, tie him to a pole, and break his fingers, to splinters, till he wakes up, naked crawling at the ceiling of his grave.
I like to pantomime heavily to this song and act out certain scenes. I always have goosebumps the whole time and usually cry because it's so powerful and the buildup makes me explode.
Same. I've got a whole animation in my head for it but will never be able to make it a reality :')
I don't want to say that the decemberists are unerappreciated, because they have received plenty of recognition. Still they are underappreciated.
They're definitely underappreciated by this ungrateful new generation! I've met too many fans of the Crane Wives who don't even know 'em! The cheek of kids these days! What are they even teaching 'em in school?!
Gosh it makes my heart so happy to see that people still appreciate this song. ❤️ This album shaped my taste in music and remains an all time favorite
Decemberists are for always
i saw them perform this live on sunday and oh man. oh man.
jealous
I have no idea how I've missed this band until now! Upcoming show in May in New Haven CT...
This is an amazing song. I absolutely love the story. The wording and pacing is great as well. Great work guys!
The thing that's always struck me with The Decemberists is I would have swore that the lead singer is from Belfast, Northern Ireland, but I looked it up and he's not even from Ireland, but from Portland, Oregon. He has to have Irish lineage, his pronunciation of certain words definitely came from here plus they did a song about the Shankill Butchers, who aren't really known outside of Belfast. The connection is there somewhere, I just can't find it.
His name is Colin Melody. Yeah I think so
Meloy
Am i the only one that feels like the first verse is literally the singer inviting us to a roleplaying scenario? Like... We are supposed to be the man he's talking to.
POV: someone in your d&d party has a way cooler and more thought out backstory than you and all you’ve got is “I’m a rogue”
This is so underappreciated.
Someone needs to make this totally famous, I love it!!!!!!
So…are you saying I should show a Tik Tok kid? 😂
Fabulous Killjoy never
@@comradeScallion Whatever gets people to listen and enjoy.
@@origami_dream thats real actually, idk what me 4 years ago was thinking
this is hands down one of my favorite songs ever
Funny how an awesome alternative rock band's best song is on a channel called Kill Rock Stars
This song sounds like folktale
It’s not alternative rock, it’s folk rock
I don't hear any rock at all
Somebody should turn this song into a play that culminates with him singing this to the other in the belly of said whale.
better yet have him sing certain parts as the play progresses and then have a big finale with the accordion and fiddle at the end of the play, with it going dark as he ties the sailor to a pole.
YES. That’s the way I imagine it
My school did, we were all very proud of ourselves
@@Nico47915 dude
*Tell me what it was like*
I need to know
It could work for one of the Decemberists' live shows
I love this song so much. The entire album is great, but this has to be the best track by far
Reminds me of flapjack oddly enough
Sorry for my english but this is good shit
Limbert Mendoza As a native English speaker, I couldn’t have said it any better.
the only comment that matters
That's not bad English, it's good French!
One way I’ve thought of it is that he has the wrong guy from the beginning overhearing the whaler. The captain could have easily done the same thing as the Boy’s original target, and forgot the exact details. So at the very end, they both die believing vengeance has come at last, when in reality the Boy has killed the wrong criminal.
I would argue that he is a very unreliable narrator under very extreme circumstances. What if he's singing this to no one? Like, the only people he can find in the whale besides him are corpses and he so desperately wants revenge that he just wistfully pretends a random corpse is his lifelong target, still able to be slaughtered?
Another possibility while we're spinning fan theories is that, again, there are no other survivors of the wrecks, he's tried everything he can think of to get out and is just spinning yarns to himself to pass the time and not think about being imminently digested. I mean the whole tale is a bit maudlin and fanciful, right? Over the top, that's why we love it so much.
The fun never stops with Decemberists music!!!
Thank you to my 8th grade science teacher for introducing me to this song, and by extension The Decemberists. Mr. Chris Morris, I hope you're doing well
He was my second favorite
We are two mariners
Our ships' sole survivors
In this belly of a whale
Its ribs are ceiling beams
Its guts are carpeting
I guess we have some time to kill
You may not remember me
I was a child of three
And you, a lad of eighteen
But I remember you
And I will relay to you
How our histories interweave
At the time you were
A rake and a roustabout
Spending all your money
On the whores and hounds
Oh
You had a charming air
All cheap and debonair
My widowed mother found so sweet
And so she took you in
Her sheets still warm with him
Now filled with filth and foul disease
As time wore on you proved
A debt-ridden drunken mess
Leaving my mother
A poor consumptive wretch
Oh, oh
And then you disappeared
Your gambling arrears
The only thing you left behind
And then the magistrate
Reclaimed our small estate
And my poor mother lost her mind
Then, one day in spring
My dear sweet mother died
But before she did
I took her hand as she, dying, cried
Oh, oh
"Find him, bind him
Tie him to a pole and break
His fingers to splinters
Drag him to a hole
Until he wakes up naked
Clawing at the ceiling of his grave"
It took me fifteen years
To swallow all my tears
Among the urchins in the street
Until a priory
Took pity and hired me
To keep their vestry nice and neat
But never once in the employ
Of these holy men
Did I ever once turn my mind
From the thought of revenge
Oh, oh
One night I overheard
The prior exchanging words
With a penitent whaler from the sea
The captain of his ship
Who matched you toe to tip
Was known for wanton cruelty
The following day
I shipped to sea with a privateer
And in the whistle of the wind
I could almost hear
Oh, oh
"Find him, bind him
Tie him to a pole and break
His fingers to splinters
Drag him to a hole
Until he wakes up, naked
Clawing at the ceiling of his grave
There is one thing I must say to you
As you sail across the sea
Always, your mother will watch over you
As you avenge this wicked deed"
And then, that fateful night
We had you in our sight
After twenty months at sea
Your starboard flank abeam
I was getting my muskets clean
When came this rumbling from beneath
The ocean shook
The sky went black
And the captain quailed
And before us grew
The angry jaws
Of a giant whale
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Don't know how I survived
The crew all was chewed alive
I must have slipped between his teeth
But, oh, what providence
What divine intelligence
That you should survive as well as me
It gives my heart great joy
To see your eyes fill with fear
So lean in close and I will whisper
The last words you'll hear
Oh, oh
This deserves more attention
The fact that the death rattle from the mother only happens the first time she shows up in the song at the end of her last words and not the other times is really fun imo
And my d&d warlock has an origin story now...
This came on at bucees and brought me back to riding around with my friends with this blaring
18 The Moon, 15 The Devil, and...
20 Judgement
JoJo reference
I want to make an RPG character out of this
My Ex did this. It ended up being very tragic and very good at the time.
cool idea
I listen to this when I play Sea Of Thieves
I heard somewhere that the mariner whispers near the end “I forgive you, but she doesn’t” or something along those lines. Does he?
4:54 you can hear where Hans Zimmer's Davy Jones Dead Man's Chest music box either came from or inspired.
Ah yes, an ad in the middle of a song. Nice
RUclips at it's finest 🤌
A song about finding God AKA Moby Dick and of vengeance?
I'm The Devil in the bayou.
Well performed and written.
See it live if you can.
So good
This is up there with The Count of Monte Cristo - how people will burn themselves for revenge.
you're just here because of the animated version, aren't you?
How the single moms kid gonna be talking to me in a few years after taking a few fruit snacks from the pantry on my way out
Bloody amazing.
ima make this a dnd character someday
I used to think they were called the Dismemberists. Which kinda fits this song better.
AN AD MID SONG IS DIRTY
I just relised that when the mom speaking you can hear a second quieter raspy voice, my head cannon is that his mom came back as a ghost and is actually talking to him.
Wait is this what people think already? Am I just slow….
yes
@@creamley1851 oh, thought he was just mentally unstable
Whatever interpretation works for you. I'd lean toward he's hallucinating, but they are in the belly of a whale so we're not *super* tied to reality for our setting here, why not ghost.
There once was a ship that put to sea and the name of the ship was Billy o Tea!!!
*cracks knuckles* this isn't the first time someones come a long way to kill me
I'm just over halfway thru the song, and it's been interrupted 3 times by ads. WTF?!
Why are there ads in this
This is not to be confused with the Wellerman.
Found this song through a HLVR:AI animated.
Which one?
There are fiddleback spiders in my house.
How are you gonna put an ad in the middle of a song?!?!?
What is a hound? (I know it's a dog, but I mean in the context of the song)
Dog fighting?
@@Forgotmyprevpassword Dog races. :)
Cool!
A playlist de Hayden
Taka
My hair is blue
Cool
Cool
Cool
Cool
Cool
Pop!!!!
Oh crap
!!!!!!!!!!!!!
three adverts breaks in a 8 minute song. really stupid.
Or worse....treat him like shit.
& audit
Siren record shop 4 lyf
!
How is this band bigger than Sleater-Kinney .
Revoke all Bowery contracts
Revoke all Bowery contracts