Jenny from Thebes[1]
Liner notes
JENNY USED TO LET ABSOLUTELY ANYBODY CRASH AT HER PLACE. IT WAS LIKE A YEAR-ROUND CHRISTMAS MIRACLE. IF YOU HAD ANY SECRETS, SHE DIDN'T WANT TO KNOW, AND THE ONES SHE HAD SHE KEPT TO HERSELF. THERE WAS A WALL HEATER DOWN AT ONE END OF THE HALLWAY AND A BIG, DARK LIVING ROOM AT THE OTHER. ONE ELECTRIC LAMP BY THE COUCH IF YOU NEEDED IT, ALL EXITS VISIBLE TO THE EYE FROM THERE. SOME OF THE PEOPLE WHO HAD NEED OF JENNY'S PLACE WERE ALL RIGHT AND SOME WEREN'T EVER GOING TO GET RIGHT, AND SHE'D ALREADY GOTTEN SEVERAL LETTERS FROM THE CITY ADVISING HER TO KEEP A LOWER PROFILE UNLESS SHE WANTED TROUBLE BUT THEN I ENTERED THE PICTURE. BAD LUCK. LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE WHO CAME THROUGH I WAS TRYING TO FIND A BETTER DIRECTION BUT IT DIDN'T WORK OUT THAT WAY. PRYING EYES SHOULD HAVE TENDED TO THEIR OWN BUSINESS. PEOPLE DON'T THINK TOWNS LIKE OURS CAN TURN INTO BATTLEGROUNDS BUT WE HAD A WAR HERE. THERE. I DON'T LIVE THERE ANY MORE EITHER. I LEFT WHEN JENNY LEFT. IT'S JUST A SPOT ON THE MAP NOW. WE RODE TOGETHER FOR A WHILE BUT THEN WE LOST EACH OTHER. SOMETIMES I THINK I HEAR FROM HER BUT OTHER TIMES I THINK I'M JUST DREAMING. NOBODY KNOWS WHERE ANYBODY LANDED. YOU DON'T KEEP IN TOUCH WHEN THE WAR DOESN'T GO YOUR WAY.
The narrator of "Cleaning Crew" —the "I"— is Jenny from All Hail West Texas. She's speaking to the narrator of "Source Decay" from the same album. Enterprising travelers will work out the rest.
Track listing
One from East St. Louis[3] with a scar beneath his eye
Left the kitchen spotless on the day he said goodbye
Breakaway republic[4] dude, supremely filthy mouth
Copiah, Mississippi[5] points much further south
It's never light outside yet when they climb into the van
Remember at your peril, forget the ones you can
Leave home feeling empty, change planes in Taipei[6]
Stay awake the whole time, end up several worlds away
The house was almost full that day, they made a space for you
This world is sad and broken, gotta fix a crack or two
Rest until you're rested, climb back onto the caravan
Remember at your peril, forget the ones you can
And then just when you think you've learned how to forget
You learn it's just the ones who haven't risen to the surface yet
Absence after absence, keep the place secure
This will be the last time that I do this, I'm pretty sure
No one lasts for long in this profession, so they say
Maybe see you again someday
Every endpoint fixed forever on the day its arc began
Remember at your peril, forget the ones you can
Forget the ones you can
You can make out all the exits
From a static position
One quick walkaround will give you
All the relevant information
Never going to break my neck
Falling downstairs
Tan and mustard-yellow I-beam[9]
Visible from the air
Tall space heater
Down the main hallway
Blue pilot light
Hissing all night
We sleep light in the shadow of the cloverleaf[10]
You can light a cigarette
Against the cooktop if you need to
Feel the heat against your forehead
Let it bleed through
You're never going to get by
On three hours' sleep a night
Unless you absolutely have to
And then you get by all right[11]
Move in silence
If you can't stay still
Nobody sees your face
Through the security grille
We sleep light in the shadow of the cloverleaf
You're going to get a wrinkle on your forehead
You're gonna get a click in your knee[13]
You're gonna tell the doctor that you can't sleep
And you're up every night until three
You're gonna make a bargain with the bad guys
You're gonna make some choices you regret
There's no place to hide from the prophecy
Since nobody told you it falls to me
There's only one way out
There's only one way out
There's only one way through
No matter what you do
You're gonna have to watch for the signs
You're gonna have to learn how to read
Nobody's gonna hand you a flashlight
You're gonna have to steal what you need
You're gonna have some trouble at the border
They're never gonna let you forget
I'm just passing on the information
Beaming down to me from a distant station[14]
There's only one way out
There's only one way out
I've been told there's only one way through
No matter what you do
But if all that's true
What about you?
What about you?
Tattoo of the seventh shield[16]
Still wet on my skin
You're all crumpled up at the curb there[17]
I think I'm going to take you in
Always had to follow my instincts
Usually I'm out on my own
You there by the road, wet and helpless
What happens if I take you home?
Well, you may forget the whys and wheres
Of an old tattoo on your forearm there
But usually you recall the day you got one
And usually it fades in the sun
Headed for a season in exile[18]
As the oracle predicted
According to reliable sources
In thirty days I'm getting evicted[19]
Trying not to scratch where it itches
It takes a certain level of discipline
Not even half a second by the light switch
Let the future flood right in
Well, you may forget the whys and wheres
Of an old tattoo on your forearm there
But usually you recall the day you got one
And usually it fades in the sun
Usually the lines grow faint
Like old house paint
Just a way to mark the years gone by
You lay on the couch three weeks
Until the color came back into your cheeks[20]
I'd seen ones like you before
Plenty came through before
Legend on the shield in Greek[ba!]
"What's that say?" you said
I gave you an answer that I thought you'd buy
All of this will disappear in the twinkling of an eye
Well, you may forget the whys and wheres
Of an old tattoo on your forearm there
But usually you recall the day you got one
And usually it fades in the sun
But not this one
You were passed out on the sofa
Cigarette burns and coffee stains
Loose change in your pocket
Naltrexone[22] in your veins
They got a scanner at the airport now
And a dropout in a Kevlar vest[23]
I can hear the timer
Ticking in my chest
What are you gonna do?
What are you gonna do?
What are you gonna do when the cleaning crew
comes through?
When you get out on your own again
If you ever do shake free
If you find yourself in Portland[24]
Ask about me
Dig up the first revision
The one who's got less to lose
Look on every lamppost[25]
From here to Baton Rouge[26]
Ask yourself one question
Then ask yourself again
What are you gonna do?
What are you gonna do?
What are you gonna do when the cleaning crew
comes through?
It's better if you have a plan
It's better if you have a plan[27]
I saw the future in an oil slick[28]
It told me what I needed to know
Leave a little stain behind you everywhere you go[29]
I'm in the repair bay casting spells
Mystic in the glow of the spotlight
Ringing out the funeral bells[31]
Tending the fires, gathering power
May I present the man of the hour
Placing his faith in the strength of the safety visor
Placing his faith in the strength of the safety visor[32]
Leaving only slightly diminished
Older but wiser
I'm down on the concrete with a bucket and rag[33]
When you've got a big job to do
You notice how the moments drag
Live in the present, savor the grind
Relish the time before you have to leave it behind
Placing your faith in the strength of the safety visor
Placing your faith in the strength of the safety visor
Leaving only slightly diminished
Older but wiser
Smarter but scared, now
Wearing an exile's mark[34]
One that's going to glow in the dark[35]
I'm out on the sidewalk, scrubbed clean
Take all your worry and care
Feed it to the big machine
Once you commit to the turn[36], you're going to have to follow through
Cover your eyes when the splash comes[37]
It's the only thing you can do
Placing your faith in the strength of the safety visor
Placing your faith in the strength of the safety visor
Leaving only slightly diminished
Older but wiser
I recall the curb[16]
Waiting for the bus
Flaky yellow paint
What's become of us?
Searching in the snow
For something in the distance
When the vision comes
I have no resistance
It's one of several iterations
It gets hard to keep track
On your custom Kawasaki[39]
With the stinger[40] on the back
Walk across the bridge
Used to get so scared
Signed out AMA[41]
No one really cared
It wasn't in your nature
Taking in the strays
But you handed me your helmet[42]
I clung to you for days
But I am strong now, I am strong now
That was all years back
On your custom Kawasaki
Chrome yellow and black
It's somewhere in a wreckyard now
Never see it again on this earth
Let the scavengers proclaim
How much it was worth[43]
Out here on the median
Not sure what to do
Figure something's got to happen sometime
I wait all day for you
Flak jacket full of holes
Kevlar coated and dusty black
On your custom Kawasaki with the stinger on the back
You were still attached to your Civic sedan[45],
Although the brakes always needed repair
You were headed out to buy some supplies
You could smell the threat of rain in the air
I can only see the scene second-hand[46]
I can only try to understand
How a small amount of pressure in the right place
Breaks the strongest link in the chain
In your car with your head in your hands
At the far end of the Walmart parking lot[47]
Trying not to buckle under the strain
Every single night after prime time[48]
Loud enough to hear in your sleep
The salesman from the lot half a mile from here
Yelling down the hood of his Jeep
I’ll take anything that the others won’t
I can see the value where others don’t[49]
Just a small amount of pressure in the right place
Two fingers to the temporal vein[50]
In your car with your head in your hands
At the far end of the Walmart parking lot
Trying not to buckle under the strain[27]
Striking a bargain with the imp in your brain
Prepared to take another knock for the short gain
But you can ask any veteran running back[51]
Eventually your joints complain
You were headed home at 80 miles an hour
With your fingers sweating under your gloves
Everyone deserves a little light in their hair[52]
Everybody needs to love, and be loved
That’s what all the people say, anyway
I can save my thoughts for another day
Maybe a small amount of pressure in the right place
Anything to help with the pain[53]
In your car with your head in your hands
At the far end of the Walmart parking lot
Trying not to buckle under the strain
Moving lights on an overhead map
Have to be headed somewhere
There's probably going to be a building burning in town
When you smell smoke in the air[55]
Small hopes are seen to still be small ones
When the hour grows late
And a body floating in a water tower
Is bound to take on weight[56]
Somebody comes bearing the standard[57]
Just when you need to see it held high
You never miss your water[58]
Until you're parched, riding home from the slaughter[59]
Oracles are seen emerging
From the northern mists
And a body floating in a water tower
Is bound at the ankles and wrists
Bound at the ankles and wrists
Marks in the skin
From where the ropes have been digging right in[60]
Men of legend built the cities of the prairie
To rise from the horizon at night
Feel something bigger than me
When I see them trapped in the headlight
Head east, head north by northeast[71]
Get my bearing and know
That a body floating in a water tower
Only has one way to go[61]
Float downstream
Let me float downstream
Floating downstream
Jenny was a warrior, Jenny was a thief[63]
Jenny hit the corner clinic begging for relief[64]
Never thought we'd see the day when she wiggled free
But she did
Long before we did
Nights in crackling emerald
Signal hot and live
Fastest in production
As of 1985[65]
Didn't guess we'd ever come to dread that engine's roar
But she did
Long before we did
Nobody will ever know for certain
The names of all the secrets
She held back behind the curtain
Jenny came to get me
She'd been gone for several years
Aging motorcycles purr like cats when they grow near
I was crying, I could barely make the frame out through my tears
She did
Long before we did
She did
Long before we did
Jenny, you did
Long before I did
Nobody's ever gonna pour
Plaster in my tracks[68]
My exit will be clean
When I vanish from the scene
You won't find any thumbprints
To dust your powder into[69]
Just mute donkeys[70] still as statues
In each saloon I've been through
Going to Dallas
As far as anybody knows
Maybe Montana [71]
Depending on the way the wind blows
No blinking red light on the line tonight[72]
Or any night out in the future
Kiss the people you hold dear
Forget that I was ever here
If world should reach you from the field
Be cool
Try not to talk out of school
Make them beat it out of you if they want it
Live like a pack mule[70]
Going to Dallas
As far as anyone's concerned
Maybe Montana
Depending on the way the roads turn
And if they steer me wrong
I'm just going to play along
Remember this when the time comes
Try to let it soften the blow
Let me go to no haven anyone would yearn for
Burn a hole in something for me[73]
Turn around and let me go free[74]
Going to Dallas
In the morning when the wind is fair
Maybe Montana
If I've got enough gas to get there
On the morning when I stop looking back
I'll be up to see the sunrise in deep bruised black[77]
And bright blood red, and pale desert rose
And several other colors like those
Great pirates testing the waves
Great pirates testing the waves
Everybody gone from here
May you all emerge free and clear
And may you do some good where you go
High in the hands of the crosswinds,
or in the arms of the undertow
Great pirates testing the waves
Great pirates testing the waves
And calling the roll - let's see:
Just me
And checking the rigging before
Heading off to war
Peach rose black sky up early
Carry what I need to carry
Bury what I have to bury
Dancing, whistling, singing past the cemetery
Great pirates testing the waves
Great pirates testing the waves
Footnotes
1. The title of the album is a reference to the Aeschylus tragedy Seven Against Thebes, which is about the conflict between the two sons of Oedipus, Polynices and Eteocles, over who has the right to rule the city. The Seven referenced are the champions of Argos, led by Polyneices, the last champion, each of whom carries a shield with a portentous device. The album cover shows the shield that Polyneices carries, which depicts golden Justice leading a warrior, and the text "κατάξω δ᾽ ἄνδρα τόνδε καὶ πόλιν ἕξει πατρῴων δωμάτων τ᾽ ἐπιστροφάς", translated by Herbert Weir Smyth as "I will bring this man back and he will have his city and move freely in his father’s halls." The crux of the story is that Eteocles, instead of readying for battle with the Argive forces, he listens to the messenger describe his ultimate ruin. (JD commented in an interview "The main thing about the tragedy is that you can’t read the message you’re getting until you acquire the language with which to read it.") And, of course, because the play is a tragedy, the brothers kill each other and no one wins, plus Antigone and Ismene get really dramatic over their bodies. As JD put it in an interview, "the connection to the record is that Thebes is a city under assault from which some people will emerge unscathed and others will not." Much like the myriad of unfortunate and tragic characters of the Mountain Goats oeuvre. I am not a classicist, so any allusions I have found are obvious.↩
2. Subtitle: "New arrival at the safehouse"↩
3. East St. Louis is one of the cities mentioned in Color in Your Cheeks. It is located in Illinois, just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri, and has been in economic decline since the 1950s due to a number of factors. I refer the reader to the city's Wikipedia article for further details.↩
4. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the polities that seceded were called "breakaway republics", especially those in the Caucasus: Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia. Likely a reference to "Soviet Georgia" in the lyrics of Color in Your Cheeks, though the lyric video suggests Latvia.↩
5. A county in Mississippi that was a center of Civil Rights Movement activities in the American South during the 1950s and 1960s. There is an Amtrak station on the line going south to New Orleans. Otherwise not sure why this county other than the meter of it.↩
6. The capital of Taiwan, also mentioned in Color in Your Cheeks.↩
7. Subtitle: "There was, en route to greener pastures, a small house in the city".↩
8. Originally titled "SW Ranch", per Twitter (2023-10-27)↩
9. See Peter's comment on From The Nebraska Plant: the connection may be a stretch but he does specifically mention the bike being recycled into I-beams (structurally essential, too), and the use of "yellow" invites it.↩
10. A cloverleaf exit is a common shape found in American highways. Houses that are close to the highway exit may be worth less/cheaper to rent because of the noise and traffic.↩
11. As anyone who has survived medical training and/or newborn parenting can aver. I have never had a newborn but I have been kept up for many a 24 hour period by other people's newborns.↩
12. Subtitle: "They consider one another in the often harsh light of how the world is".↩
13. This couplet connects to several other tMG songs that discuss the physical effects of aging, albeit here with less joy than "Possum by Night" or "Ballad of Bull Ramos".↩
14. A straightforward reference to the All Hail West Texas song Distant Stations.↩
15. Subtitle: "She commemorates her present station on her forearm"↩
16. The seventh shield (as discussed above is that of Polynices, depicting Justice leading a warrior and foretelling the tragedy about to come. The placement is one that's generally pretty visible on one's body on a day to day basis, so this is something she'd want to see. (The curator of this website sports an Up the Wolves tattoo on her left forearm, for full disclosure.)↩
17. Presumably this curb in Fresh Tattoo and From the Nebraska Plant are the same curb, just seen from different points of view.↩
18. The inciting event (at least, proximately, ultimately it's Oedipus's whole...deal, but again, not a classicist) for the tragedy of the Seven is that Eteocles, refusing to share the throne as agreed, exiles Polyneices from Thebes to Argos where he raises an army and fucks both of their shit up. Incidentally, Sophocles took this and ran with it, writing Antigone and also a postscript to Seven Against Thebes to make the connection more obvious.↩
19. The tragedy for Jenny and Eteocles alike is that it's predictable and foreseen, yet inevitable. This tension - which JD describes as the "paradox that crushes you", is the sine qua non of a classical tragedy. JD confirms this as central to the album: "the nature of a Greek tragedy is that there is a symbol which, if you were able to read it, you would be able to avert the tragedy, but the only way you could learn how to read it is to experience the tragedy."↩
20. Straightforward title drop of Color in Your Cheeks.↩
ba ba BA!!! [ba!](ck)
21. Subtitle: "The next best thing to an actual goodbye"↩
22. Naltrexone, also known by the trade name "vivitrol", is a medication prescribed for alcohol use disorder and other substance use disorders. It can be given as a monthly injection, especially before someone discharges from an inpatient or residential treatment facility, to help them maintain sobriety.↩
23. Though the timeline is nonlinear, the events of the album seem to mostly take place in the mid-1980s, which aligns with the introduction of metal detectors in American airports in the late 1970s and early 1980s.↩
24. Portland is the setting of many Mountain Goats songs, especially on We Shall All Be Healed.↩
25. Missing person signs are often stapled or glued to lampposts, a practice that was especially common prior to the ubiquity of the internet and digital social networks.↩
26. Baton Rouge is the capital of the US state of Louisiana. Likely a metrical choice rather than narrative, though I would love to find out I'm wrong.↩
27. That sound is Jon Wurster hitting a vibraslap, a decision that has brought the curator of this website much delight as a former percussionist. A vibraslap is a percussion instrument that the player hits to create a rattling sound. It is not standard equipment on a drum kit but SHOULD BE.↩
28. Ancient Greek eleomancy involved using oil as a method of augury by dripping it on a surface and divining meaning from the patterns. This may also be a reference to Black Pear Tree, which references both divination and oil ("Blossoms black and sweet as Texas crude").↩
29. The Original Sin in Christianity is sometimes described as a "stain on the heart". (I am not enough of a Christian to explain this in a way that makes sense, due to it does not make sense to me beyond "apparently even babies suck").↩
30. Subtitle: "Behold, you may not rezone my house".↩
31. Both mechanic garages (possibly including those located on 18th street) and churches holding funeral bells (as in "for whom the bell tolls") toll bells to mark arrivals. Generally they do not toll bells to announce murders as they're happening.↩
32. Depicted as a welding visor in the music video.↩
33. cleaning blood out of concrete is, as depicted in the music video, not the easiest task when you only have a wet, soapy rag, and also just murdered a dude. (Fire and EMS use either acid or hydrogen peroxide and a pressure washer or a super stiff brush.)↩
34. Eteocles exiled Polynices before the events of Seven Against Thebes. Ostracism was a formal exile practiced in Athens where citizens could vote to kick someone out for 10 years. The mark of Cain is a reference to the book of Genesis, wherein Cain murders his brother Abel and God "sets a mark upon [him]".↩
35. Blood stains appear as a dark spot (full absorption) under ultraviolet light, such as those used in a forensic investigation. Other bodily fluids (urine, semen, saliva) glow. ↩
36. Two implications: the moral turn (see Heel Turn 2) and the physics of turning on a motorcycle. Once you lean into the turn, trying to abort the turn can lead to worse crashing because centrifugal forces and tangents and shit.↩
37. The "splash" here is presumably blood, which can inoculate the eyes with bloodborne illnesses. ↩
38. "The future, seen from a hard place".↩
39. The Kawasaki company has had a plant in Lincoln since 1974, presumably Jenny's cool bike was made there.↩
40. A "stinger" is a device on the tailpipe of a motorcycle that looks like a megaphone, makes a wild shrieking kinda sound. It is very annoying and attention grabbing, which makes me question why Jenny, who is presumably not trying to draw attention to herself, puts the literal most annoying noise possible on her bike.↩
41. Signing out AMA ("against medical advice") can be done from medical facilities and typically requires you to sign a paper that says you know you might beef it if you leave but you are doing it anyways.↩
42. Following the theme of helmets and visors and other protective gear in this album about being under siege.↩
43. From JD's Twitter: "a little story about this one & about the love and wonder of band dynamics before I succumb to the call of the pancakes. the way we work now is this: songs for the album go in a shared folder, then we come up with a list of what we consider the top tier candidates, then we go make the album. I don't think of myself as being in a manic state when I write -- it feels plenty calm at the eye of the storm! -- but my folders tell a different story. multiple invitees, enough folders to feed a congregation, etc. (any and all q's about cryptic folder names will be cheerfully and lovingly ignored!) So when it came time to make the master list for the Jenny From Thebes sessions, I drew up a document and after a few back-and-forths Peter says: "you keep mentioning 'Bike,' it's not in the folder. What is 'Bike'?". Lol oops my bad, it's actually one of my favorite ones I think, I say, I'm going to change the title, didn't realize you guys didn't have it. Here: and I send it. A week or two later I hear from Peter, the member of the band who's worked with me the longest. I take Peter's word on my stuff to heart, he doesn't just weigh in constantly -- when he says he likes something, it carried weight for me. Here's what he said: "Dude I finally got around to Bike and holy shit. That's the centerpiece of the fucking album! One small note that you're free to take or leave re the bridge: Junkyards are profound metaphors. Bc they're not dumps - that bike isn't thrown away. It's going to get picked over for a few weeks/months by cheapskate home mechanics, and then it'll get tossed in the crusher and hauled off to be melted down and subsequently born anew. As another bike, as an I-beam, as tableware, as piano strings, you name it. The cycle of life! Just tossin' that out there, do with it what you will. LOVE the fucking song though!". Well, this really lit a fire under me to make the song occupy a position worthy of my bandmate's high estimation. I think we got there -- I love Alicia's mournful guitar figure, I love Wurster in full Gadd mode just locking it completely down, and I love that this feels like the truest song of the bunch -- the one that tells the story as it actually is, the one that finds the characters where they'd actually be: broken, or lost. I love my band, I love being able to write about a bike I'm never gonna own, and I love sharing this music on release day! I have heard rumors that we're favored for a whole shelf of Grammys on this one, so get in at GROUND LEVEL (it's a song title! it was originally called "SW Ranch" but everybody hates my "here, a title that's really more of a place marker" titles) here! (Twitter, Oct 27, 2023)↩
44. Subtitle: "She trades in her old car and buys a Kawasaki GPz750 Turbo."↩
45. A Honda Civic is an extremely generic and reliable car. I don't think they're known for having issues with the brakes, but any car driven long enough develops New and Interesting Problems, as the 2005 Yaris my spouse and I drove for 300,000 miles attests. ↩
46. All of Seven Against Thebes is told second-hand, by messengers and the chorus of Theban women speaking to Eteocles as he digs himself into deeper and deeper tragic shit. Related to this is the idea of anagnorisis (also a tMG song in its English translation of a "recognition scene"), the part in a Greek tragedy where the hero sees the situation clearly for the first time.↩
47. Walmart parking lots are often open 24/7; a good place to park your car and take a nap on a cross country drive. Or have a quick little menty B before getting back on the road to Montana or Dallas or wherever.↩
48. "Prime time" refers to the evening hours where TV viewership is highest. After these hours the quality of TV, including ads, would plummet, and you would get bizarre local ads which were made with $5 and a dream.↩
49. Local used car ads are a deep source of media weirdness (my hometown has a few that are burned into my brain). JD has talked about the Merle Hay Auto Mile, which seems to have been inflicted on large swaths of rural Iowa. "Same as cash" is a type of predatory financing used by used car dealers.↩
50. The temporal vein isn't one that you can push on to cause problems for your enemies, but it's one of the ones that bulge in your face/head when you yell or, say, sing really loud while playing the guitar like it hurt your children, Mr Darnielle. ↩
51. Straightforward reference to The Fall of the High School Running Back.↩
52. "Light in your hair" is a reoccurring phrase/theme in the Mountain Goats catalog. It appears in, at minimum, Going to Georgia, Idylls of the King, Going to Port Washington and Rockin' Rockin' Pet Store.↩
53. Pressure points/acupressure is a practice sometimes used to treat chronic pain and migraines. ↩
54. Subtitle: "She disposes of the body." If you know the reference in this song to Peter Pan, or if "men of legend" is a reference to something, please tell me. ↩
55. One of the Argive champions in Seven Against Thebes - Capaneus - bore a shield depicting an unarmored warrior on fire, holding a lit torch, reading "I will burn the city". Unsubtle, Capaneus. ↩
56. Bodies (dead, human) in water don't always float, especially in cold water. This is not typically an issue in Texas, but Lake Superior never gives up her dead. Logs are also described as "tak[ing] on weight" while floating downstream in Hopeful Assassins of Zeno. ↩
57. A 'standard bearer' is a soldier who carries the emblem of their military unit.↩
58. "You Never Miss Your Water" is a soul song originally titled "You Don't Miss Your Water", recorded as the former by Otis Clay and written as the latter by William Bell. It includes the lyric "You don't miss your water till your well runs dry" in the chorus. ↩
59. The percussion instrument played here is a guiro. It is, like the vibraslap, not standard on a drum kit, and like the vibraslap, it should be. ↩
60. Even a moderately tight ligature around limbs will grow tighter as a body decomposes when submerged. More graphic details are left to the intrepid reader searching the forensic pathology literature. ↩
61. This begs the question, knowing how water towers generally work, how the fuck did Jenny get the body up on top of a water tower after murdering the dude in a garage?? Is she a goddamn leopard?? Jenny explain.↩
62. Subtitle: "The future, seen with great clarity."↩
63. These first lines started out as a play on an old nursery rhyme nursery rhyme "Taffy was a Welshman; Taffy was a thief; Taffy came to our house and stole a piece of beef." (AZ Sun) I suspect Jenny was stealing shit a bit more valuable and less fungible than beef. ↩
64. Implied to be a methadone clinic - methadone is a synthetic opioid used in medication-assisted treatment for opiate use disorder. Due in large part to mid-century bullshit (fuck you, Nixon) in the US, methadone was restricted heavily in the 1970s to the point where it had to be dispensed one dose at a time, in person, at dedicated clinics. Once more with feeling, fuck you, Nixon. ↩
65. For a brief while, the Kawasaki GPz750 Turbo was the fastest motorcycle in the world, and according to a story told by JD, was the hottest shit for motorcycle enthusiasts after some speed tests in England became public.↩
66. Subtitle: "As far as anyone's concerned."↩
67. Dallas-Fort Worth is the airport mentioned in Color in Your Cheeks.↩
68. A technique for preserving footprints, whether ancient or modern.↩
69. The impressions of fingerprints can be seen on a surface with various fine powders that pigment and adhere to the oils left behind by skin ridges. Typically used by legal forensic investigations.↩
70. Female donkeys are called jennies, and mules are bred by mating a male donkey (jack) with a female horse (mare). Someone (please let me know if this was you! I am sorry I lost the link!) pointed out a connection with 2 Peter 2:16-17: "[Balaam son of Bosor] was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet. These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.↩
71. Night Light references Jenny in Montana and heading east. Also a reversal of the direction the narrator of Jeff Davis County Blues takes - the road that narrator drives takes them west and then south-southeast from Midland, per Jason Nethercut ("supremely Callimachean move") and JD.↩
72. Another reference to Night Light (red dot/red light).↩
73. Burning neat holes is typically something that happens with cigarettes. ↩
74. "Let me go free" recalls the "let him go free" refrain in Clemency for the Wizard King. I would vote for Jenny for Wizard King, if that is indeed an elected position. ↩
75. Subtitle: "The future they both deserve." ↩
76. There is a song from the Threepenny Opera called "Pirate Jenny", notably recorded by Nina Simone. Also a reference to the original Jenny, where the narrator sings "hi diddle dee dee, goddamn, the pirate's life for me."↩
77. "Deep bruise black" evokes the "wine dark sea" of Homer.↩
Credits
Recorded January 16-22, 2023, at the Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Produced, Recorded, and Mixed by Trina Shoemaker, assisted by Isaiah Page and Cade Roberts. Mastered by Brent Lambert. Played by Alicia Bognanno, John Darnielle, Matt Douglas, Peter Hughes, and Jon Wurster, joined by Matt Nathanson and Kathy Valentine. Arrangements for strings and horns by Matt Douglas; strings played by Karen Galvin. Trombone by Evan Ringel.
Jenny from Thebes was released October 27, 2023 on Merge Records.
Release notes from Bandcamp: Today, we release Jenny from Thebes, recorded in Tulsa earlier this year with legendary producer Trina Shoemaker at the helm. This is the first album since Tallahassee to consist entirely of songs about a character or characters from previous songs. That character is Jenny, a woman who rides a motorcycle, was beloved of an unnamed narrator who thought of their life together as resembling that of the pirate—free, criminal, reckless, and joyful—and who, when we first meet her, is about to disappear. In these songs, she hasn’t yet escaped. As with every living human being, there are as many versions of Jenny’s story as there are possible futures; this one’s a little sad and a little sweet and a lot violent. The songs I wrote for the album that we didn’t end up using were perhaps less sad and more chaotic, but still just as violent: what can I say? Some stories merit a little violence. This one’s about somebody who gets an eviction notice she didn’t deserve. Who is to blame when the cleaning crew comes through, I want to ask: the one who made the mess or the one who insisted somebody needed to clean it up? We are so proud of this record.
Press
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AZ Daily Sun
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