In the Craters on the Moon

In the Craters on the Moon^[1]

Lyrics

If the strain proves too much
Give up right away
If the light hurts your eyes
Stay in your room all day

When the room fills with smoke
Lie down on the floor
In the declining years
Of the long war

Well the blood’s in the water
And the shark’s gonna come
And we swim in the dark^[2]
Until our bodies are numb

Blind desert rats in the moonlight
Too far from shore
In the declining years
Of the long war

Empty room with a lightbulb
Where the phone starts to ring
Everybody gets nervous^[3]
Nobody says anything

The next day someone’s initials
Show up on the door^[4]
I think I’m gonna crack
Can’t live like this anymore

Ugly things in the darkness
Worse things in store
In the declining years
Of the long war

Banter

A couple of people have said there's political stuff in this record, I hadn't really — I mean, I gather 'In the Craters on the Moon' has the word 'war' in it, so people think I'm talking about a specific war, but when I say a 'long war', a 'long war' is not five or ten or fifteen years, a 'long war' is hundreds of years. (2011-03-11)
This is a song about living in a cave and saying, 'I think I'll stay in my cave.' (2017-06-01 The Fillmore)
This is a song about that homey sweet feeling of the creeping sense of dread that eases in under the crack under the door that you think about jamming with a towel and then you think that might be overplaying your hand. (2017-11-08)
This is a song about a small place in your heart that can never get clean. (2017-11-12)

Live Performances

Footnotes

^{1. "It is the natural condition of my characters, when a few of them have gathered together, to find themselves secluded in a near-lightless room waiting for some unspecified disaster. Frankly I suspect that this is the natural condition of a pretty hefty percentage of the general populace. The people in this song have reached a point of comfort with their dread: ready for panic to set in, relishing the moment." — Heretic Pride press kit

John has emphatically stated that this is not a political song. See the Largehearted Boy interview with Sam Means cited above and the March 11, 2008 WNYC session. (Annotated TMG)↩}
^{2. Repeated 3x (2017-06-01)↩}
^{3. Appended "except for this one kid, John Darnielle, he doesn't ever get nervous" (2017-06-01).↩}
^{4. "show up carved on the door" (2017-06-01)↩}