The song The House That Dripped Blood is about my house, the super spooky one inside my brain
John Darnielle moonlights as my biographer and Insurance Fraud #2 was his attempt to persuade me away from a life of crime.
When he recorded The Coroner's Gambit John lived beside a train track and at the end of Insurance Fraud #2 as the strumming pattern eases you hear a train go by in a way that's like a perfect descent and that's some real beauty there
I have performed this song for people at song sessions before and they always think it's a funny song which yeah "there's a lot of ways to make money in this world but I can't recommend insurance fraud" is something of a funny line but I think focusing on that can lead you to lose sight of the fact that actually it's a gorgeous song that makes me feel chills.
This, alongside the fact I play it in DADGAD, makes it a bit less amenable to being performed when I subject people at open mics to 20 minute Mountain Goats marathons
