“Only Existing Footage” goes very deep on the problems of creating a film as a metaphor for whatever you need.

Track: “Only Existing Footage”
Album: Undercard (2010)

As far as I can tell, the only other version of “Only Existing Footage” you can find online is this nyctaper version. I highly recommend it, as does the band since they follow the song with some banter saying it’s the best version they’ve ever done. High praise!

Beyond that we have only the studio version, but it’s a beauty. When Franklin Bruno and John Darnielle play live as either The Extra Glenns or The Extra Lens, they often sing songs together or in a kind of a round. I prefer this one with just Darnielle’s vocals, but that’s not to say this is a Mountain Goats song. The distinction between the Extra Glenns/Lens and the Mountain Goats isn’t always a clear one, but songs like this show a little more of a “mood” than the contemporary Goats music did. I’m sure you can find examples that disprove this, but Bruno sometimes seems to add a sort of distant longing that is sometimes more fury or despair with the Goats.

On Tumblr many years ago John Darnielle said he started “Only Existing Footage” but Franklin Bruno wrote part of it as a song about making an album. This is the only song on Undercard where the two share writing credit, but I don’t want to make too much of that. If you didn’t know who wrote which song, you probably wouldn’t ace a quiz. They share sensibilities, which is what makes their work so fascinating. I love the extended metaphor of “Only Existing Footage” and the imagery, no matter what meaning you draw from it.