Heretic Pride

Lyrics

Well they come and pull me from my house
And they drag my body through the streets
And the sun’s so hot I think I’ll catch fire and burn up
In the summer air so moist and sweet

And the people all come out to cheer
Rocks in the pathway break my skin
And there’s honeysuckle on the faint breeze today
With every breath I’m drawing in

I want to cry out but I don’t scream and I don’t shout
And I feel so proud to be alive
And I feel so proud when the reckoning arrives

Crowds grow denser by the second
As we near the center of the town
And they dig a trench right in the main square right there
And they pick me up and throw me down

And I start laughing like a child
And I mark their faces one by one[1]
Transfiguration’s gonna come for me at last
And I will burn hotter than the sun

I’ve waited so long and now I taste jasmine on my tongue
And I feel so proud to be alive
And I feel so proud when the reckoning arrives

Banter

• This is a song about how sometimes you reach a point where you know they're going to kill you. And when you come to that point, for a while, you feel resentful about it because you don't want to die. But then, you start to really settle into your role as the person who must be killed and start to say to yourself, Yeah, when they kill me, I hope my blood gets on them. That's going to be awesome; to see the gore from my innards spattering their guilty, filthy faces as they destroy me from top to bottom. Man, I wish they would do it today. They just need to stop putting it off. They think I don't know that they’re coming. (2008-10-14)
• This is a song about the ardent wish of all we Catholics, and former Catholics, to be burned alive in front of people, so that others may know that we suffered. (2013-06-15 - Buskirk-Chumley Theatre, Bloomington )
• [In which JD introduces a cool new heresy called "Jesus Christ was A Literal Vampire] We're gonna attempt one more. We've got a couple, old reliables that we could pull out, but instead, we're gonna play this one that we've never played before as a four-piece. I don't know if Matt's even ever heard it. But it's the song that's in my heart. Because the stone has been rolled away, and there's nobody in the cave when there was somebody last night, when vampires walked the earth, seeking the blood of innocent victims, converting them one by one by one. (2015-04-04 - The Jinx, Savannah)
• This is a song about lighting the saints on fire. (2018-05-29)

Live Performances

• 2013-06-05 - Maxwell's, Hoboken (JD and Peter duo - recording)
• 2013-06-07 - Center Church on the Green, New Haven (JD and Peter duo)
• 2013-06-11 - Carnegie Music Hall of Homestead, Munhall PA (JD and Peter duo)
• 2013-06-12 - Majestic Theatre, Detroit (JD and Peter duo - recording)
• 2013-06-14 - Taft Theatre Ballroom, Cincinnati (JD and Peter duo - recording)
• 2013-06-15 - Buskirk-Chumley Theatre, Bloomington (JD and Peter duo - recording)
• 2015-04-04 - The Jinx, Savannah (recording)
• 2021-08-19 Gothic Theatre

Footnotes