On the day that Dennis Brown's lung collapsed Spring rain was misting down on Kingston And down at the harbor Local cops were intercepting an inbound shipment And for a while there it was chaos As they handcuffed and then roughed up some sailors On the day my lung collapses It's not gonna be much different On the day that Dennis Brown's habits caught up with him Schoolchildren sang in choirs And out behind the Chinese restaurants Guys were jumping into dumpsters And the stench was overbearing But they were past the point of caring On the day my habits catch up with me I'll be down among the jumpers And when the birds come home in spring We will fill them full of buckshot And jets of contaminated blood Will cloud the rivers and the lakes It took all the coke in town To bring down Dennis Brown On the day my lung collapses We'll see just how much it takes

Love this

This is my favorite song that no one has heard of.

how did the monkey get there 🗣️🗣️🗣️

2:46 gutpunch every time

I have this shirt (in blue), a date bought it for me at a show 11 years ago.

I’m so happy I could see this live. Especially live at pioneer square.

Whom else heard this live last night while sitting on the red steps in question

Aaaaaaahhhh he played this song in Portland last night in Pioneer Square!!!!!

haha hell yeah, fuck Meier and Frank

Welp commenting 9 years later, but do you know if there are any other recordings of this show out there?

So fucking good

Sounds like a mountain goats song title ngl

Lyrics: You clean out your junk-drawer, you mop up some blood While the first of the new creatures rises from the mud Cursing the moment that saw him draw breath The ghost on your doorstep is starving To death You spray down the windows, you wipe them all clean And you douse your old clothing with fresh gasoline And the ghost on your doorstep is soaked wet with rain And he clutches his stomach and howls At the pain And you can stay busy all day He's never going away So let all the lights blaze, keep your heart light Play really loud music all hours of the night And when you set the table, set it for two The ghost on your doorstep has to eat, same as you Same as you

Can't believe I hadn't heard this before this morning. It's gorgeous

lets see how much its gonna take!!!

Yes.

Constantine

my favorite flavor of optimistic nihilism

I was at this show.

This is my favorite Mountain Goats song. Wish it was on Spotify!

I was raised Mormon, and my church & family did everything they could to stop me from making the kind of music I had always wanted to make. I’m in my mid 20s now and have been out of the church since I turned 18. My family wouldn’t talk to me about anything but coming back to church for years and my friends in the church stopped talking to me altogether. Next year, I’ll be inviting all of them to the only piano recital I ever plan on holding, and I’ll be closing it out with this song, “Hail Satan” and all. It just feels right.

Algún en vivo, live?

100 thumbs up 0 thumbs down, so perfect.

1:40 I know exactly who he’s referring to

Shuffled up Sixth Street in the rain Kept my head down as I looked past the people And in the department store I found what I was looking for This is the church This is the crucible They come out to Broadway and they look for me I'm on the red steps smoking a cigarette Easy to recognize Black bandages on my eyes This is the church These are the congregants Sun sets on the broad square and lights come up Feel like this town's gonna put a quick end to me But if I came here to drown I'm gonna take a few people down This is the church Occupied by the enemy

You know that guy Who swept your girlfriend off her feet and out of your arms In the summer between the sixth and the seventh grade You know how his name sits in your brain like a tumor And how his bright eyes shine in your memory Even now Let it bug you if you really want to but Friend, let me assure you he's gonna die You can take it to the bank that he's gonna die some day He's gonna die Maybe a few years before you do Maybe a few years later What does it matter in the long run You know that girl who you told your secrets to back in high school The one who faithfully broadcast all of them Throughout the generous pool of your mutual acquaintances And made it sound like you were psycho And in need of professional help Yes yes, yes you do remember Well you can carry that grudge or you can let it go But as sure as I'm singing this song you know She's gonna die She's gonna die, yeah she will Five'll get you ten, she'll meet the same undignified end That I will, and you will And everyone we know It may happen twenty years down the line Or it may happen an hour from now What does it matter What does it matter in the long run Everyone who's done you wrong Everyone who's done you favors Everyone you like, everyone you can't stand the sight of What does it matter What does it matter in the long run

Please buy the shirts The shirts are so nice You'll look stylish In your Mountain Goats shirt Ooh ooh ooh People see you walking down the street, they say Who's that handsome person In the Mountain Goats shirt You will seek out your family who you haven't seen in ten years and you're kinda worried how the whole thing's gonna go And you show up at the door and they say God It's good to see you In your Mountain Goats shirt After the College of Cardinals was done voting And it was announced that Cardinal Ratzinger, who leans rather far right, was gonna be the new Holy Father for better or worse He could've made a better first impression on the world media In his Mountain Goats shirt So if you're lonely Or shirtless Stop by the merchandising table and check out Mr. Vanderslice He's attractive and I hear he's available And he's got a whole table full of Mountain Goats shirts

shoplifting from the Meier & Frank then hiding out at Pioneer Square

The banter transitioning into John singing in spanish, that one fan helping him remember the lyrics. Man what an awesome recording

well this hurts severely

why were people laughing during that story??? wtf

holy fuck i love his voice so much

This stuff is like edgy and underground

Really has some Arthur Miller vibes

Great music

I love the weird mosquito chirp of the drum machine in this one very much

I love the literalism of this. It's like "okay, so he's actually scared of his own shadow" and "so Rhode Island is actually not there anymore. Just a crater now"

that's what john vanderslice called the song when he released it.

I love this.

💅🏼💅🏼💅🏼

Great version of the song. Hail Satan! Hail west Texas!

I was super surprised at just how awesome this was. Thank you.

Where was the picture taken? John looks so young!!

Great Song! Love this band and your username!

I work in that kind of unit. The audience laughed but we’ve had kids take MP3 players into their rooms, smash them, and self harm with the pieces.

This is genuinely pretty great. Well done

Oh I love your head, honey, and everything in it I just forgot you were human for a minute

there’s a violent flaming meteor hurtling towards earth and it’s burning bright and awful, hitting cues for all it’s worth there’s an ever present dread but you’ve got rocks inside your head if you’re gonna waste your energy on something so long dead that thing, that thing, it doesn’t mean to hurt anyone that thing, that thing, it doesn’t actually mean anything that thing, that thing, it’s really just an afterglow that thing, that thing, it doesn’t know it’s moving hitting a stone won’t give you more to drink it’ll just stop you getting where you’re going hitting a stone with your magic stick won’t accomplish anything except you’ll end up wandering forty years for nothing that thing, that thing, it isn’t blameless but its current will only drag you down the more you fight it that thing, that thing, it’s just an ashy dying flame try to kick it dead, you’ll only reignite it turn, turn, turn and let the embers burn turn, turn, turn and let the embers burn

rattle the chains till it sounds like an orchestra fix up your cell till it feels like home get past how you’re never gonna get past anything make friends with your demons so you’re not alone chew down your hope until you cant remember the taste take what you’re given and perch on your throne of old skulls of all those who tried to get through to you someday your ghost tries to chat up the bones wake from a nightmare, wake up in your nightmare wake in your glass house, wake up throwing stones wake up half-convinced that you are the monster that you are the reason that you are alone outside’s too bright, it is too brilliant all of it alien, all of it wrong scamper back to what you once called prison document details only to write songs fear crawling up and down your throat like acid peeling the paint on the words you can summon limbs frozen stiff by the years of confinement hold down the doors, don’t let anyone come in ignore, ignore, the fingers scrabbling at the door the spacemen scrutinizing the sights giving up when they can’t spot a sign of life fall through the cracks you'll regret it all once its too late to go back or so they say but you made them up anyway