In League with Dragons[1]

Liner notes

Dedicated to the dragons of the western dusk, and of the northern range;
to the dragons of the southern stream, and of the eastern dawn,
to the dragons who guard the breathing jewels, as well as those who menace the forlorn village;
to the dragons of the flashing skies, where all is possible,
and to the dragons of the restless waters where all is uncertain;
to those dragons who lairs lie hidden, and to those who lairs are no more,
and, finally, to those dragons, advanced in age, rich in the twilight of their knowledge:
those one whose scales yet gleam in shades of purple and green where they laze by firelight,
awaiting the time when they must stir their sleeping limbs and rise, their throats full of fire,
into the inevitable sky


Track listing

Done Bleeding[2][3]

Recite the songs that kept me whole
On the day I hand over command control[4]
Try to let them all flow in to this one

List alphabetically
The toxins the doctors found in me
During my time in prison

Count my fingers
Every last one[5]
When I get done

Clean the floors well, sweep and swab
Do a thorough job
Leave the old place nicer than I found it[6]

Wish well as the neighbors cheer and shout
Finally taking their earplugs out
Things were even worse here than they sounded

Grim faced pilots back from the bombing run[7]
When I get done

Take a picture or two
Just to remember the view[8]
Leave a mark on the door[9]
As an empty warning sign
From one who's gone before
But isn't here any more[10]

Let the crust form on my skin in the sun[11]
When I get done

Sweep the front porch[12] make it new
Put the broom away when I get through[13]
No passers-by need to know of my lonely tenure

All this violent end
The shock of leaves
Wind rippling in my sleeves
Swirling against my skin as in a blender[14]

Red thread drying behind me, hand-spun[15]
When I get done

Younger[16][17]

Crank that siren high
Drain the wellspring dry
Map out your coordinates

Send out scouts by day
Dole out mercenary pay
For restless young subordinates

It never hurts to give thanks to the local gods
You never know who might be hungry
It never hurts to scan the windows on the upper floor
I saw a face there once before when I was younger[18]

Set the torch aflame
Call the night by name
Stake out your dark position[19]

Lie in wait
By the gleaming city gate
Try not to lose sight of the mission[20]

It never hurts to give thanks to the broken bones
You had to use to build your ladder

Moment close at hand
Half of you will never understand
And it doesn’t really matter

Big smile on my face
Capsule just in case[21]
Underneath my tongue there

Voices on the breeze[22]
I heard voices once like these when I was younger

Blood rushing to my face
I know that sweet warm taste
And the bitter trace[23]

Storm right down that hill[24]
If I don’t no one will
Follow me right through the chaos

This whole house is doomed[25]
Even the bit-parts get consumed
Prepare a grave for Menelaus[26]

It never hurts to give thanks to the navigator
Even when he’s spitting out random numbers[27]
I knew what those figures meant
And what they hoped to represent
When I was younger[28]

Passaic, 1975[29][30]

Write something down in illegible script
As we're approaching the landing strip
New Gibson SG, inlaid with pearl[31]
Tonight Passaic, tomorrow the world

In a Holiday Inn[32] by a nameless river[33]
Renew the assault on my lungs[34] and my liver[35]
And while I'm waiting for the company man
Slip on my kimono that I bought in Japan[36]

Tell the crowd, tell the world
I want everyone to get high[37]
Tell the press, tell the cameras
I want everyone to get high

And the tech crew in Memphis has a present for me
A screen that scrolls lyrics
Like the ones they have on TV[38]
The deluxe model
One of only four thousand made
Black out that night in front of ten thousand paid[39]

And in the back lounge in between the stops
Contingency plans in case the new one flops[40]
Sometimes I wake up coughing up blood[41]
Tonight Indianapolis,[42] tomorrow the flood[43]

Tell the person next to you
I want everyone to get high
Tell your boss, tell your mother[44]
I want everyone to get high
Get high

Clemency for the Wizard King[45][46]

We who train in the way of the blade
We who sleep in the accursed glade[47]
We come before you now
We come before you now

We who in his favor would stand
Who lovingly await his most fearsome command
We come before you now
We come before you now

Cut loose the handcuffs
Let him go free

We who travel by starlight[48]
We who slipped past your guards in the night
We come before you now
We come before you now

We who boldly lay claim to our own
We who have seen the chamber of the one true throne
We who have seen the kindness of the cracks of his face
We who will die if we must in this place

We come before you
Outnumbered and unafraid
Well-trained in the way of the blade

Cut loose the handcuffs
Let him go free (let him go free, let him go free, let him go free)

Possum by Night[49]

When the house lights[50] all go dark
Shuffle on down to the park[51]
Spent stars[52] in the winter sky
Days of refuge in short supply

All you parasites climb aboard[53]
All you vagabonds praise the Lord

When the compost pile grows high
Climb to the top if I try
Long haul truckers still wide awake
Guard their pathways for Jesus' sake[54]

All you garbage trucks to the curb[55]
True sons of the living word[56]

Try not to get stuck in the intake vent[57]
Grow fat, and grow old, and go blind, and be content[58]

All your pack dogs have your say
Let me just find my own way
Moon in the trees my guide
Walk with my jaw hinged wide[59]

Once more unto the breach[60]
Safe in the spots that the light can't reach

In League with Dragons[61][62][63]

It's so hard to get revenge
The human element drags you down[64]
Lead a solitary life if you can
Try not to show your face in town
Let the rumors find such bridges as they may
Reckon up the variables
Find a way to make it real
Make a deal
Until my protector comes[65]

It's so hard to be yourself
When you've already seen the inside
Try to navigate the turns as best you can
Headed on down the slide[66]
Strong friends are where you find them
People talk all kinds of trash
Never you mind them
Make it real
Make a deal
Until my protector comes[67]

Huge wings blotting out the sun
Remembering everyone

Be so hard to look away
You've gotta be strong in the face of suffering
Cut a good figure just in case somebody's watching
Even if it ends up meaning nothing
Let the breezes spread such scandal as they may[68]
Maybe Boris Vallejo[69] paints the back of your head someday[70]
Make it real
You make a deal
Until my protector comes

Doc Gooden[71]

Wheels down in Seattle[72]
Three years ago in this town
They sent their best and brightest to me
I sent them all back down[73]

Deluxe coach to the ballpark
There's champagne on the snack trays
Summon up the spirit of a brighter time
Looked bad last week against the Blue Jays[74]

When my name was everywhere
None of you were there[75]
When my name was everywhere

Potholes in the parking lot
You feel the jolts a little harder every year
The bat boy[76] hands out yellow slickers
It never stops raining out here[77]

When my name was everywhere
None of you were there
When my name was everywhere

When the speedball would squeal[78]
With the highlight reel
When the headline hype[79]
Was on the front page in extra large type[80]
It was me, for all the world to see

Don’t call it a comeback
I've been here for years[81]
Maximum respect[82] to all the warriors
Who choose to fall down on their spears[83]

When my name was everywhere
None of you were there
When my name was everywhere

Going Invisible 2[84][85] [86]

Look in the cellar where the cinders blaze
Sift through the shadows for days
Look in the corners, but you can't see me
You can't see me I'm free[87]

I'm gonna burn it all down today, down today, okay
I'm gonna burn it all down today
And sweep all the ashes away[88]

Count up the keepsakes in the cabinets
The keyboards and the chemistry sets[89]
Look in the attic where the blinds are drawn
You won't find me I'm gone

I'm gonna burn it all down today, down today, okay
I'm gonna burn it all down today
And sweep all the ashes away[90]

Etch an outline on your heart[91]
I'm gonna blow the whole circus apart

Reckon the remnants when they land at last
The shattered aftermath of the blast[92]
Look for me everywhere the burn marks form
Trying to find a place to keep warm

I'm gonna burn it all down today, down today, okay
I'm gonna burn it all down today
And sweep all the ashes away

I'm gonna burn it all down today, down today, okay
I'm gonna burn it all down today
And sweep all the ashes away

I'm gonna burn it all down today, down today, okay
I'm gonna burn it all down today
And sweep all the ashes away

Waylon Jennings Live! [93]

Drunk at the Meskwaki casino[94]
Right where God intended me to be
Looking up at the one man in this room
Who's handled more cocaine than me[95]

Think back on the good times[96] just an hour or so ago
Before I got myself this drunk
When the valet parked my rented Mitsubishi
With a beat up old brown suitcase in the trunk

Full of firearms and flash drives
Full of passports
And international money orders[97]
For just in case I make it cross the border[98]

Get a postcard from the gift shop[99]
Let my family know I'm doing fine
Looking up at a map up on the ceiling
To find the place where we all meet up further on down the line[100]

Head back to my table
Get another scotch and soda for the road
The band on stage is really working up a head of steam
Close my eyes and lean my head back, dream a little dream[101]

Full of firearms and flash drives
Full of passports
And international money orders
For just in case I make it 'cross the border[102]

Cadaver Sniffing Dog[103]

Hustle up the spiral stairs
See if anyone’s left up there
Teams on the scene from several stations[104]
Everybody, adjust your expectations
Stray clumps of hair and blood and brain
Fragments of bone in the drain [105]
Rookies trying to keep the airway clear
But the damage is too severe

Bring in the cadaver sniffing dog[106]
Bring in the cadaver sniffing dog
Bring in the cadaver sniffing dog
Bring in the cadaver sniffing dog

Army crawlers down ash wet floor
Ready for war
Veterans on their hands and knees
Nobody's ready for days like these[107]
Wait 'til you come up on the smoking wreck[108]
And even then you check
Radio home all clean
If there were any survivors they've fled the scene

Bring in the cadaver sniffing dog
Bring in the cadaver sniffing dog
Bring in the cadaver sniffing dog
Bring in the cadaver sniffing dog

An Antidote for Strychnine[109]

Dig around in the garbage[110]
Save up some halibut bones in a jar
Scrape a winter's worth of salt deposits
From the rusty frame of my car[111]
Ask the experts
Maybe they'll know

Call up my teacher in Cambridge[112]
See what he remembers
Throw white phosphorus[113] in the fireplace
Look for clues in the embers[114]
Call the hotline[115]
Give them a phony last name[116]

Trying to find
An antidote for strychnine[117]

Trying to find
An antidote for strychnine

Time's running short
Always seems to run shorter
Have some supplies sent
From up just past the northern border
Keep a line out
To the people who take the long view

Only share my research
With sick lab rats like me[118]
Trapped behind the beakers
And the Erlenmeyer flasks[119]
Cut off from the world, I may not ever get free
But I may
One day[120]

Trying to find
An antidote for strychnine

Trying to find
An antidote for strychnine

So many suffering from the same affliction[121]
Coming up on a breakthrough
The clock's ticking
Dig down amongst my calculations
Check my map
Up there on the surface
Everybody's getting ready for the bloodbath
Stem the tide, stem the tide[122]
They're calling down for reinforcements

Trying to find
An antidote for strychnine

Trying to find
An antidote for strychnine

Sicilian Crest[123][124]

In these times of wanting prophecy
And false witnesses[125]
Up to all manner of devildry
Drench a kitchen rag in heretic’s blood[126]
Wash your windows and prepare for the flood[127]

Look to the west
Look to the man
Bearing the Sicilian Crest[128][129]

Portents in the sky
Say that the time is near
Dial into the signal
Coming in loud and clear[130]
Sacrificial victims out of the cage
Smiling as they're taking the stage[131]

Look to the west
Look to the man
Bearing the Sicilian Crest

Out of the blue
Everything’s new
All the talk we heard was true
The legends we all heard once
The whispers from the storefronts

Hope for the best
Prepare for the worst
We wait like stockpiled landmines
Ready to burst[132]
Wait all your life to see what you see
Open up your eyes and be free

Look to the west
Look to the man
Bearing the Sicilian Crest

Footnotes

1. This album is about the distances between the self you are today and the one you were at some other point. And when I say "you" I mean "me".↩
2. Done Bleeding was one of the first written for the album, with a title from the Get Lonely notebooks. It was originally sequenced as the penultimate track on the album.↩
3. This brings to mind the medical aphorism that "all bleeding stops eventually", often said to counsel young trainees who are panicking in a critical situation.↩
4. "About deciding that you are done, resolving to no longer indulge the part of you that led you to bad places. For me, at that time, I was on probation...I had to call a guy if I wanted to leave town for three years. When you're doing that, you have to make a decision - am I gonna get busted again at some point, is this the revolving door I'm in, or am I gonna get out of this and never see any of that again. I knew I was exiting that part of my life into something else. Which is melancholy in many ways." (Episode 203 of I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats)↩
5. "I'm leaving here with the same number of fingers I came in with, and that's good." (Episode 203 of I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats) ↩
6. "I think it's about me leaving Norwalk. Um, but when I say 'I think it's about', that's because with many of my lyrics, I'm in the same situation as a reader. I just write what I write. I don't usually say 'let me write about this'." (Episode 203 of I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats)↩
7. The song is rife with situations that give the narrator and by extension, the listener, an external locus of control. One of the reasons people engage in self-harm is a need to control the harm they and their bodies come to, which ties in nicely.↩
8. Aging happens when looking at old photographs - JD says no photos exist of him from 85-87 - which he came to regret because someone had a cache of photos of the City Nightclub, featuring friends long since dead.↩
9. Given the title referencing blood, likely an allusion to the instruction in Exodus given to the Hebrews - "And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it." (Ex 12:7)↩
10. Deciding to be done with self-mutilation, literally done bleeding - the feeling of not being that person anymore, grappling with the impermanence of the definition of self. Richard O'Brien (thank you!) posits that this is an allusion to the We Shall All Be Healed website, that discusses JD’s apartment in Portland that was marred by a scuff mark he left there when coming home drunk. ("I made my way down to my former door which still bore scuff-marks I'd put there myself, and stood before it, a supplicant before an idol").↩
11. Presumably a scab, formed as the coagulation cascade comes to its end.↩
12. [alternate lyric]↩
13. Melodically, this is a reference to Propagandhi’s "Anchorless".↩
14. JD says a very lovely thing in the podcast - which you should listen to - about learning to read Hebrew, and how that first five pages of the textbook is the doorway to another universe, but you must stand in the doorjamb for awhile.↩
15. A reference to Theseus, given red string by his lover Ariadne to escape her father Minos’s deadly labyrinth. As an obsessive fiber artist, I appreciate the epithet "hand-spun".↩
16. The album was initially titled Younger after the song (Ep 201 of I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats), which was written at the Riviera in Chicago, which is an excellent venue, though not my favorite in the city. (That award goes to Lincoln Hall, but the city of tall pizza is spoiled. I can say that, as a former denizen.) 17. The opening bass and guitar motif is taken from No, I Can't. 18. An allusion to the last verse of Get Lonely: "And I will get lonely/And gasp for air/And look up at the high windows/And see your face up there." 19. Recalls "stake up your position/let your armor fall" in Outer Scorpion Squadron. 20. During the Trojan War, the Greeks hid in a (presumably very stinky) wooden horse disguised as a gift for the city. 21. The "suicide pill" was a concealed device containing fast-acting lethal poisons (typically potassium cyanide or a neurotoxin - not, notably, strychnine, which acts too slowly to be useful) that exposed spies or military personnel could deploy to avoid giving information to the enemy. Also calls to mind Blood Capsules (the song) and blood capsules (the concept). 22. Faraway voices carried by various means are a common motif in Mountain Goats songs. References include Going to Reykjavik (“There were voices on the wind, winter coming on in/And I made myself up again, brand new”), Raja Vocative (“And I could hear your voice ringing/I could hear you singing/From all away across the country in Palm Springs/I could hear you now”), Wild Sage (“And then I think I hear angels in my ears/Like marbles being thrown against a mirror”), New Zion (“On the high winds we could hear them/Old familiar tunes), and probably more but we’re reaching the point where the category of reference merits a database all its own. Someday I may make that database. Until then, enjoy the treasure hunt. 23. Supporting the read of this as a Trojan story - Troy was built on particularly steep slopes and the fighting detailed in the Iliad takes place on the plain of Scamander. 24. The house of Atreus, to which Menelaus and Agamemnon belong, is cursed from its beginnings as a wretched pit of incest and betrayal. Aeschylus's Oresteia details the fallout including Iphegenia’s murdering sacrifice by her father Agamemnon, Clytemnestra murdering her ex-husband Agamemnon as revenge for Iphegenia, and also the whole Trojan War thing. It's a complicated but very delicious intrigue and tragedy. Jenny From Thebes is titled after Seven Against Thebes, also by Aeschylus. 25. Menelaus, king of Sparta, features in the Iliad and the Odyssey as Helen of Troy’s husband and Agamemnon’s younger brother. His name translates to “wrath of the people” and he certainly lived up to it during the Trojan War, where he tries very hard to murder Paris for stealing his girl and is only stopped from killing Paris by Athena. He goes to try and kill Helen but she gets her tits out and he drops his sword because he's awestruck by her awesome tits. No joke. A girl can dream. Menelaus notably does not die in any of these tales. (See also Against Agamemnon) 26. Richard O'Brien points out that this suggests the randomness in tabletop board games, given the Dungeons and Dragons setting and inspiration of the album. 27. I shall take this footnote opportunity to comment on how hard the sax solo goes here. It is absolutely bitchin’. I have never seen so many people lose their shit so substantially for a sax solo and in person it is the coolest goddamn thing. All hail Matt Douglas. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39.