From the genus Capra, or mountain goat, a species that survived the ice age, and ranging from the Alpine in Europe to the Nubian in the middle east to the walia or Ethiopian ibex , these specialist climbers have huge horns and spreading feet to help them make death defying climbs and ascents, but how might they have inspired songwriters?
But first, let's enjoy them in hand- or indeed foot-in-mouth action, displaying some extraordinary, death-defying climbing ability as they seek the salt minerals that give them strength and endurance:
Ibex, or indeed the plural also being ibexes or ibices, are also no slouches when it comes to fighting, the males smashing into each other with their antlers at an alarming speed and force to keep claim over the females.
The word ibex is rare in lyrics, and mainly attracts the kind of devil-related goat imagery of death metal that is for listeners with a particular, extreme noise taste, from the band Anciients' song Ibex Eye from 2016's album Voice of the Void, The Black Dahlia Murder's Goat of Departure, to Incantation's Ibex Moon. They generally put the ibex in a far more sinister light than those rock-leaping wonders we've just witnessed.
In more general terms however, there are far more references to mountain goat in lyrics, not to mention the band The Mountain Goats themselves. Here are a couple of examples, even more over the top than the animals’ climbing ability:
And The Black Dahlia Murder’s Goat of Departure":
Azazel the damned ibex
Swath of scarlet ties his neck
To the desert banished yet
Our curse lives on
Embrace the glory the goat
Worship the one who burns below
Heretic liberation of the soul
Perhaps more palatable for the average listener, but only in passing reference, here’s Of Montreal with An Eluardian Instance:
I remember riding bikes on Coaster Island
Planning midnight raids on the Swedish plum trees
That summer, it was too cold to swim, so
We climbed upon the rocky shore and freaked out
On the mountain goats, but they were not impressed,
Or scared of us
Or how about some Super Furry Animals with this offbeat reference in The Roman Road?
When we talked to the mountain goats
I could tell that they understood
That the universe is flat
And trees are made of wood
Even more experimental and a rare B-side, is Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, with his less-than-romantic Jetstream:
You're beautiful
Until I get close
You have the eyes of a mountain goat
A coat of mildew
A bad smell
And the strap broke in my hand
Greg Gobel & the Impermanent Band’s Cloudspotting presents how the mountain goats come with a vertiginous problem for the narrator:
I have walked in the valley of fear for too long
The angels, they flew to the mountain and took me along
Sat with the sage in the altocumulousphere
Problems were mountain goats and lack of air
All my time ... up there
On an sillier level, how about the Lonely Goatherd from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music?
Perhaps more relevant would be Climb Every Mountain from the same musical:
And lastly, there is the Californian band, The Mountain Goats. This song isn’t anything to do with the ibex, but This Year, from The Sunset Tree album, has a different perspective for 2020 than when it came out in 2005.
I'm going to make it through this year
If it kills me …
So then, any further ibex-inspired examples out there likely to help this word-related subject reach new heights? Feel free to share any further ones from songs, or even film, art or other contexts in comments below.
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