Analyzing The Song 'Up The Wolves'

The Song “Up the Wolves” by The Mountain Goats (not actual goats) is a song about two guys who want to kill some people in a town. This song has the weirdest stanzas, all with different tones and connotations. In Verse one the speaker is talking about how everyone holds grudges against someone else and how some are more difficult to forgive, then it goes on to say that one day you will be free from those grudges. The chorus is about a roman myth about the myth that the two people who founded rome were orphans. The second verse is saying that the speaker and his friend are going to hack into a radio station and broadcast a message to their neighbors. The chorus plays as the song ends, again referencing the roman myth. This song, “Up the
Wolves” has many connotations. Starting in the first verse, “There’s bound to be a ghost in the back of your closet” is saying that there is always a grudge in the back of your head, whether you know it or not. “But there's going to be a party when the wolf comes home” they are personifying the wolf, because they do not have parties nor do they attend them. “Our mother has been absent ever since we founded Rome” is symbolism for a great thing, Rome was a powerful empire and being like them is a great thing. “You'll rise up free and easy on that day…...Just when that day is coming, who can say? Who can say?” this is saying that one day you will be free, but no one knows when that day is coming, which is ironic. “Our mother has been absent ever since we founded rome, but there's gonna be a party when the wolf comes home” this is a clear allusion to the myth about Romulus and Remus, the two who supposedly found Rome, according to the myth they were raised by a wolf. The song “Up the Wolves” has few different tone changes throughout the entire song. In the beginning the song starts with a sad tone, it sounds as if something bad has happened, this tone changes in the third stanza. The chorus sounds happy, maybe because the thing that raised them is “coming home”. The middle turns into resentment, the first half of the last verse, it sounds like this because they plan on attacking the townspeople. The last stanza, the second half of the second verse sounds like the speaker is really angry about something, they put their plan into action and disrupt the town. The title is almost like another way of saying that the speaker is acting like a wolf. The theme is that some guy is sad and realizes that everyone holds grudges and that one day everyone will be free from them. In the second half of the first verse the speaker hacks the radiowaves to tell the neighborhood what is happening. The first half of the second verse is the speaker and someone else plan to disrupt the townspeople. The second part of the last verse is about them getting ride of the higherups in the town.