The Day The Aliens Came (Hawaiian Feeling)
Album: Come, Come to the Sunset Tree
Lyrics
I will wake up at six A.M. again
And I will find my way to the front door
Like a soldier crawling through the smoking carnage
Smoldering bodies at my feet
I'd love to stick around but I've got someone to meet
And I will put my best foot forward
And I'll thank God I made it out of there
On the day when my new friends come
I will present myself in my nice white tuxedo jacket
And I will look out at the day through my dark sunglasses
And take in the scene
The house behind me and the people in it
Will all go up like steam in just a minute
There's gonna be a redefining of some borders
And I will receive my orders
On the day when my new friends come
The rooftops and the sidewalks
Will all melt like plastic
And oh friends, old friends, dear friends
I'm gonna look fantastic
There won't be any reason left to cry
'Cause there won't be any people left to cry for
My memory's gonna vaporize itself
And my Italian shoes, well they will be to die for
I believe I can fly
Might you look up at me and wave goodbye
On the day when my new friends come
Banter
- This was on the vinyl edition of The Sunset Tree...It's a song about how sometimes you find yourself living in a house and you think 'I have to get out of here', but maybe you're too young to get out of there, or you don't have any money, or you don't have any means or anywhere to go, and yet, you cling firmly to the idea that someday you will escape through some means, maybe Batman will show up in his car outside or something, and other people might laugh and say 'Man, John, Batman's not coming to save you', and you think 'Look, man, between me and Batman and you, I'll take Batman.'(2010-06-15 Gothic Theatre)
- This is, like, my favorite song to play. It's about escaping from a place that you really desperately need to escape from, and having to invent fantastic scenarios that allow you to escape through your mind. It's called 'Hawaiian Feeling,' or 'The Day the Aliens Came.'(2012-01-31 Visulite Theater)
- But then after we moved here, I, you know, I wasn't quite sure what we were gonna do and our original contract with 4AD was for three records, and I sort of, because I'm me and I'm kind of defeatist and I have a thing about worrying that nobody actually likes me and someday this will all be taken away, you know, I was like, well, we're gonna get to the third album on the contract and then you have to go back to the nursing business, right, so that's why I sort of like opened up and said, ‘well, I'm gonna tell a story that is true for the third record cause it'll probably be the last Mountain Goats record that ever gets made’ was the thinking in my mind. And I started writing these songs that became the Sunset Tree and one of them we didn't get a studio version I was happy with, but I think it's kind of one of the truer numbers of the bunch that became the Sunset Tree because it's about how if you are in a situation that you cannot get out of and a lot of people say, well I can't get out, but if you are 16 you can't get out, right, you can't leave. You can try, they bring you back and then it sucks worse. So this is a song about wanting someone to come and help you with your awesome plans. It's called The Day The Aliens Came.(2013-01-20 The Pinhook)
Live Performances
Footnotes