It’s hard to know how to pronounce “Hye Kye” or just what’s happening in it beyond all the Christmas trees.

Track: “Hye Kye”
Album: Unreleased (Released online by John Darnielle in 2008)

Before we talk about it, John Darnielle asks that people donate to one of two charities if they download “Hye Kye” so here is that link. He released this song and two others after the fanbase donated to help a friend of his who was mugged and hurt badly. He’s put out a number of older songs over the years in similar situations, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t drop the link.

I have no idea how you say “Hye Kye.” I am guessing it rhymes and the first part is “high,” but I have absolutely nothing to base that on. The usual sources are stumped on the name, though Kyle Barbour at The Annotated Mountain Goats did the legwork of pointing out that Indian Hill is also in “From TG&Y” and that Gemco is a defunct department store chain.

It’s a classic Mountain Goats story. Our narrator comments on the weather and then does something odd. There’s really not all that much to decode here. It isn’t better or worse off for that reason, it’s just what it is. This is someone who is carrying a Christmas tree to a parking lot and then they get overwhelmed and lie down among the trees. Is it after Christmas, and is this all the waste? Is it before Christmas, and this is all for sale? But then why is our narrator carrying a tree to where all the others are? When I hear a song like this I don’t care about that answer, but I do wonder what this meant to John Darnielle when he wrote it. The name can stay a mystery, but I’m fascinated by the premise.