The Mariner's Revenge Song

This song is about a young boy whose mother takes in a teenager who turns out to be a wreck. The teenager ruins the boy and his mother's life, as the mother dies and the boy gets left out on the streets. The boy grows up and receives a job as a mariner aboard a boat. Aboard the boat, he battles a giant whale, and eventually the entire crew ends up stomached. The boy survives, and by some odd chance, the teenager he once knew a long time ago ends up the only other survivor with him inside the whale.

This song is a trademark Decemberists act, being their most popular number at live performances. The typical performance line-up: Chris Funk on mandolin, Nate Query on stand-up bass and bowed bass, Colin Meloy on vocals and guitar, John Moen on floor tom and Jenny Conlee on accordion. This ensemble is accompanied sometimes by a prop whale's jaw, with the audience being encouraged to scream in terror during the whale attack.

The album version of "The Mariner's Revenge Song" was recorded live at Prescott Church in Portland in one take around a single microphone. The track was produced by Death Cab for Cutie's Chris Walla. To achieve the effect of volume control for the instruments, band members stepped closer or farther away from the mike relative to their part. The drums had to be all the way at the back of the room. This process is even documented in the DVD The Decemberists: A Practical Handbook. Chris Funk recalled to Uncut: "We were being naive about the recording process. We thought a bigger space bought a bigger sound - not true at all! It's by no stretch of the imagination our best sounding record, but you can really hear the room. It doesn't sound like anything else we've made."