The Mountain Goats Album

i was having visions of sugar pastry
cooked up in clarified butter
i tried to turn my visions into prayers
but i built my castle way high up in the air
yeah i came to the gates of the fabled pink city
hungry, and tired, and cold
swing low sweet chariot
chrome tail pipe shining bright as spun gold

my brothers picked me up out of the rushes
handed me into the company of evil men
but I've inched my way down the eastern seaboard
i am coming to Atlanta again
yeah i came to the gates of the fabled pink city
hungry, and tired, and mad as all hell
swing low sweet jewel-encrusted chariot
make me young again
make me well

i am the killer dressed in pilgrim's clothing.
i'm the hard to find stations on the AM band.
i am the white sky high over tripoli
i am the land mine hidden in the sand.

yeah i came to the gates of the fabled pink city
hungry, and tired, and alone
sweet low sweet sweet sweet chariot
coming forth to carry me home

streak the windows.
smear the walls with coconut oil, yeah.
fill a cast iron kettle with water and magnolia blossom.
let it boil.
let the water roll.
let the fire take its toll.
i'm coming home.
i'm coming home.

dust off the idols.
give them something to eat.
i think they're hungry.
i know i'm starving half to death.

i know you're waiting.
i know you've been waiting for a long long time.
and i'm coming home.
i'm coming home.

set the table.
those three extra places --
one for me,
one for your doubts,
and one for god.

let the incense burn in every room.
feel the fullness of time in the empty tomb.
feel the future kicking in your womb.
i'm coming home.
i'm coming home

Seventeen years ago
They told me to teach you everything I know
I let the fire rain down
Rain down

Watched it flare up inside his heart
Saw it tearing him completely apart
Head to toe
I know

And blood will run
Through the streets of Rome today
And roll across the ocean

Fourteen years ago tonight
Watched him tearing through the garden, killing everything in sight
I let my curiosity
Get the best of me

I saw the sourceless anger eating at him from inside
No one around him to stem the rising tide
Evil from his head down to his feet
Quinine's bitter, sugar's sweet

And blood will run
Through the streets of Rome today
And roll across the ocean

i will sail to the far shore,
and i will chop a hole in the hull too big to repair,
and i will turn the soil with my hands,
and i will make my home there.
my garden will grow so high.
my garden will grow so high.
that i will be completely hidden.

i will go where i will go,
and i will jettison all dead weight,
and i will use these words for kindling,
and i will sleep by the garden gate.
my garden will grow so high.
my garden will grow so high.
that i will be completely hidden

when death came calling today,
i heard the gentle grace of his cadences.
i couldn't say no.
i couldn't say no.

when he showed me his new silk scarves
laid out on a shiny black plastic tray,
couldn't say, couldn't say, couldn't say, couldn't say, couldn't say no.
i couldn't say no.

and i'm sorry i couldn't.
do you know how badly i wanted to?
didn't want, didn't want, didn't want, didn't want, didn't want to lose you,
but his smile was dazzling mmmm,
and his eyes were sparkling like moonlight on the water at midnight.
couldn't say, couldn't say, couldn't say, couldn't say, couldn't say, couldn't say no.
i couldn't say no

the sun came up above the strange white plain.
blood red flowers all wet with rain
and the spirit wasn't really willing anymore, but the flesh was very very strong.
and i've got very little money left, and i've got no sense,
but I'll have none of your god damned impudence.
the sun came up above the new white fields,
everything was new again.
pure power, stripped of meaning, sky burning, spring cleaning.

daisies on the hillside like cancer on the skin.
pretty little yellow eyes that flutter in the wind,
I'd be grateful my children aren't here here to see this,
if you'd ever seen fit to give me children.
and my defenses may be working with a skeleton crew,
but I'll be skinned alive before I'll take this from you.
the sun came up above the ocean out west,
all the colors of the rainbow.

stand up straight, you can see the house leaning.
day breaking, spring cleaning

on the way home from the party,
neither of us said a word.
leann rimes on the car stereo
sang that song you know I hate.
the one about the blackbird
and the rain came down on the windshield-
i wished it would wash us both away.
you had to open up your mouth, didn't you?
i knew what you were gonna say.
and you were Bluebeard's wife
opening every cupboard, trying to find the smoking gun.
well i told you i told you,
i told you not to open that one

the way that everybody's voice, comes out muffled when they speak,
the way we take our diminishing inventories,
month to month and
week to week,
the maria callas records on the stereo all the time
you're gonna get yours and i'm gonna get mine.
'cause in this car, in this car,
somebody's bound to get burned.
i know.
i know.
because i've been watching the road turn.

the enigma variations on the radio
the things that i could guess at,
the things that i already know.
and the twelve thousand dollars that turned up in your purse,
you've done something awful.
i've done something worse.
and in this car, in this car,
somebody's bound to get burned.
i know.
i know.
because i've been watching the road turn

as we cruised across the Canadian border
you reached into your handbag, pulled out a micro-cassette recorder,
started quoting Tolstoy into the machine,
i had no idea what you meant.
i guess i'm supposed to figure these things out,
or maybe it's supposed to be self-evident.
but i've gone feral,
and i don't speak the language anymore.
we're headed deep into the forest, i've got the pedal to the floor.
the engine shudders, like a dying man, when you reach out to grab my hand,
you can bring out all your weapons,
you can't make me go to war.

long winding Canadian highways,
innumerable evergreens.
weather forecast on the AM radio
says we'll be expecting highs in the low teens
when i mouth my silent curses at you,
i can see my breath.
i hope the stars don't even come out tonight.
i hope we both freeze to death.
look at the person i've turned into, tell me,
how do you like him now?
no standards of any kind to break, no creeds to disavow
i am right here where you want me
do what you brought me out here for.
you can arm me to the teeth.
you can't make me go to war

the last white slabs of snow
melted off seven weeks ago.
and the geese are headed north again
through the tightening sky,
and i can feel my heart in my throat again
new onions growing in the ground.


the cows come gingerly out of the barn,
and when they see that the ground is warm,
they pick up a little speed,
it makes me feel so good,
and i feel it rushing down my throat -- fresh blood,
i head out onto the earth,
its cold heart is melting,
i don't know if i can stand it.
springtime's coming, that means you'll be coming back around.
new onions growing underground, underground

bluejays and cardinals all come out to play
highway traffic gets out of your way
skies clear up if they're overcast.
pit bulls are gentle when you come past.

stars come out of hiding for you
and i would too.
cause this world couldn't hold you
you slipped free
yeah this world couldn't hold you
you slipped free
without me.


new sheen all over everything
when you open up your mouth to sing.
baseballs travel further when you watch them fly.
apples fatten on the trees when you walk by.
you bring something unreplaceble to each and every day.
or you used to anyway.
but this world couldn't hold you
and you slipped free
yeah this world couldn't hold you
and you slipped free
without me

if you get there before me, will you save me a seat?
if you get there before me, would you save me a seat?
but if i never get there at all,
would you leave the seat empty?

if you get there before me, will you light us a fire?
if you get there before me, will you light us a fire?
but if i never show,
will you watch the embers glow?
would you keep the fire burning?

this is a song for you, in case i never make it through to where you are.
this is a song for you, in case i never make it through to where you are

the rain fell all night and it kept me awake
it was still falling by morning.
it was hard to take.
and you were sleeping on the floor,
breathing free and even,.
if i ever want to drive myself insane,
all i have to do is watch you breathing
and at 5 AM, i turned the radio on,
and an old mans voice sang a short sweet song,
and then the static roared again hungry for blood
i heard the rain falling from the rain spout
down down into the sweet wet mud,
and you punched out all the windows
and the wind began to wail
and you gathered your hair behind your head
like god was gonna catch you by the pony tail,
and then the old voice crackled through the static.
and i felt young and alive
and the hair stood up on the back of my neck
we were rising from the grave, yeah yeah

bag full of oily rags, fifty cent lighter
dreams of retirement in Cancun burning ever brighter
there's a lot of ways to make money in this world
but i can't recommend insurance fraud.

burned out shell of a Volkswagen,
blood stains on the driveway,
torn up Mercedes, by the side of the highway
big plans, big plans
let me tell you something sister,
you will never get away with it.

you were sitting in the recliner with the TV on,
when you said something evil and then you were gone,
explosives in the water main,
a blown fuse
college graduation photograph
splashed all over the six o'clock news
i won't be cashing in your policy,
'til i find out what it is you're trying to do to me

I could almost hear the rhythm section
Kick in as the sun began to blaze
I saw you walk across the plaza
Figured I'd just play it like it lays

I think I'm gonna be real sick again
I think it's gonna happen real soon
And I know I can't afford another night here in this place
With its sixteenth floor view of the ocean and the dunes

And it's gonna be just you and me today
Waiting for the other shoe to drop in Tampa Bay

I can hear the roar of the crowd
In the stadium a couple of blocks away
It's the kind of thing that used to get me all worked up
But I don't want to talk about it now, okay, okay?

Okay

I just want to get this whole thing over with
I don't want to deal with it anymore
I hear the cogs all slipping at the same time
And then I see you walk in through the door

And it's gonna be just you and me today
Waiting for the other shoe to drop in Tampa Bay

clear sky over Calcutta -- a warm wind.
Dvorak on the short wave
clear signal coming in
la la la
la la la la la la
la la la
la la la la la la la
long vowels spill like liquid from your mouth.
i hang on every word you say.
an army of transistor radios on the bookshelf left on all day.
let them play, yeah let 'em all play on and on and on.
let 'em all play longer and louder and long after you're gone
la la
la la la la la la
la la
la la la la la

clear sky sheltering our fragile little house
listening to the radio all the time
your hand on my forehead as though to check for a fever
yeah big plans in mind.
la la la la
la la la la la
la la la la
la la la la la la la
la la
la la la la la la
la la