This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
The sun above me and a concrete floor below
Scratch at the chain links maybe bare my teeth for show
Fed twice a day I don't go hungry anymore
Feel in my bones just what the future has in store
I pace in circles so the camera will see
Look hard at my stripes, there'll be no more after me
Laze by the shoreline while the sailors disembark
Scratch out a place to sit and rest down in the dark
Smell something burning downwind just a little ways
They set up camp and sing and sweat and work for days
I have no fear of anyone I'm dumb and wild and free
I am a flightless bird and there'll be no more after me
In Costa Rica in a burrow underground
Climb to the surface, blink my eyes and look around
I'm all alone here as I try my tiny song
Claim my place beneath the sky but i won't be here for long
I sang all night the moon shone on me through the trees
No brothers left and there'll be no more after me
Scratch at the chain links maybe bare my teeth for show
Fed twice a day I don't go hungry anymore
Feel in my bones just what the future has in store
I pace in circles so the camera will see
Look hard at my stripes, there'll be no more after me
Laze by the shoreline while the sailors disembark
Scratch out a place to sit and rest down in the dark
Smell something burning downwind just a little ways
They set up camp and sing and sweat and work for days
I have no fear of anyone I'm dumb and wild and free
I am a flightless bird and there'll be no more after me
In Costa Rica in a burrow underground
Climb to the surface, blink my eyes and look around
I'm all alone here as I try my tiny song
Claim my place beneath the sky but i won't be here for long
I sang all night the moon shone on me through the trees
No brothers left and there'll be no more after me
Lyrics submitted by mdon06
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Much of this has already been commented on, but I'll add some specific clues/references as well:
The Title: Deuteronomy 2:10 concerns the Emites or Emim, a biblical race of giants that once inhabited the land of Ar or Moab but are implicitly extinct.
Verse 1: Thylacine (aka, Tasmanian Tiger/Wolf) The last thylacine died on September 7, 1936 in captivity at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania, Australia. -"the concrete floor below", "chain-links", teeth-baring, circle-pacing, and stripes are all visible in the previously linked video of the last specimen (youtube.com/watch), which also explains the "so the camera will see".
Verse 2: Dodo, last sighted in either 1662 or 1688 (depending on source reliability) on its home island of Mauritius, east of Madagascar. -"while the sailors disembark": The decline and extinction of the Dodo happened during a period of European exploration in Africa and Asia. Mauritius was often a stopping point for ships full of weary--and hungry--sailors, who hunted dodos for food, deforested their habitat, and introduced foreign species that further threatened the dodo. "Scratch out a place to sit and rest"; "I am a flightless bird": the dodo, which was indeed flightless, nested on the ground. "I have no fear of anyone": Much of dodo's fate was sealed by the fact that, since Mauritius had no predators and few dangers, the dodo was unafraid of humans and foreign animals and therefor quite vulnerable.
Verse 3: Golden Toad (aka, Monteverde golden toad or Alajuela toad) The last golden toad sighting was of a solitary male on May 15th, 1989. -"in Costa Rica"; "the moon shone on me through the trees": The golden toad's only know habitat was a small area of tropical forest near the small town of Monteverde in Costa Rica. -"a burrow underground": It is believed that golden toads spent most of their time in underground burrows. "I sang all night": Toads croak (i.e. sing), usually at night, to attract a mate (which in this case no longer exists).
The song taps into the larger theme of the fragile and transitory nature of life and death that runs through the album, from it's title to the final song.
On a side note, the idea of death meaning the loss of something more than just the individual seems to resonate with "The Witness" by Jorges Louis Borges (web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/borges.thewitness.pdf).