Only One Way^[1]

Lyrics

You're going to get a wrinkle on your forehead
You're gonna get a click in your knee^[2]
You're gonna tell the doctor that you can't sleep^[3]
And you're up every night until three^[4]

You're gonna make a bargain with the bad guys
You're gonna make some choices you regret^[5]
There's no place^[6] to hide from the prophecy
Since nobody told you it falls to me^[7]

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^[8]

You're gonna have some trouble at the border
They're never gonna let you forget
I'm just passing on the information
Beaming^[9] down to me from a distant station^[10]

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?

Banter

• JD: We're about to play a new song. [everyone goes nuts]. I have a tendency to blank on the top of the second - yes! but Jon Wurster has it! [JD fetches his lyrics from Wurster]
  Peter (deadpan): It's a reeeeally good song. [ed: he's right]
  JD: Jon Wurster: remembering my lyrics for me so I don't have to stand here with a Teleprompter like a dumbass. [woo!] This is called Only One Way. (2023-10-03 - The Belasco, Los Angeles)
• What I like about some of the new songs is that I don't have to play anything. Like, I wrote them, I could play them if I wanted to. But I don't have to. I get to like, pop my collar a lot. It's very important. Very nourishing and fulfilling to get back to the collar popping that I was born to do. This is from a record we got coming out soon, called Jenny from Thebes. It's called Only One Way. (2023-10-05 - August Hall, San Francisco)
• [audience yells something about coming back] Yes, sir, we will be back. [raucous cheers] This is a sold out show, so that sends a message to the band. [more cheering, drumming] That either there's a whole bunch of people I borrowed money from in 1998 who came to collect, or there's a whole bunch of people who want to hear the Mountain Goats. Or both. (2023-10-07 Ace of Spades)
• I've said it before, I'll say it again. I work a job where a couple guys clap when I drink water. I want you to know, out there in civilian life, when you drink water, I'm on the bus applauding for you. It's a solemn ritual, I say, fellas, you gotta get out of your bunk. It's time to clap for the people who are drinking water with nobody to clap for them. In an elliptical way, this song is kind of about that. (2023-10-10 The Knitting Factory)
• Okay, I might be taking baby steps towards writing contemporary Christian music. [one person shrieks in what is presumably delight, audience laughs and cheers] I'm starting with the titles. This is called Only One Way. [song] I just hope somebody's taping on the night I remember the correct verse order on that one. Like when the Dead busted out Dark Star after 5 years of [unintelligible] - yeah! he got them all in order! it was amazing! [ed: this finally happened at 2023-12-02 and someone was in fact taping, and it's great] (2023-10-28 Longhorn Ballroom)
• This is just a little cheat sheet. I keep flipping the order of the verses and it's driving me insane. [laughter] The thing with my cheat sheets is that they're as useless as knots on a board. There'll be some words, I'll look down and say, no one can read that. (2023-12-02 - The Queen, Wilmington)
• JD: That's exactly what I'm talking about! Going to Palestine, not played live since 1994 [ed: 2010, but whatever], every word stuck here. Only One Way, tracked it just back in January, blanking on the second verse every night. [laughter]
  Peter: It's just - it's had less time to sit in your brain and solidify.
  JD: And as the front row crew can attest, some nights I just try to ad lib, but it's just - it's got rhymes, you know. [laughter] I can freestyle a little, on a good day. I ate my Wheaties but I don't...When you just sing the same verse again, you're not fooling anybody here. They were all right there when you sang it before! And then, if you don't say something like that, people go, why'd he choose to sing the same verse twice? [ed: guilty as charged.] I'll clue you in: couldn't remember the other one. (2023-12-05 - Higher Ground Ballroom, Burlington)
• [inaudible] All the songs could double as hymns if a youth pastor were to introduce them. [televangelist voice] Friends, I don't need to tell you much more about this song, than what it's called. It's called Only One Way. (2023-12-08 - Homer Center for the Arts, Homer)
• JD: I keep - my brain isn't always my best friend in the world. I keep fucking up the first couplet of the second verse of this song, but I'm going to fix that right now. I'm going to google my own song. [laughter] Thank you google. What if it turned out this was an [inaudible], like they paid me? That would be the funniest thing ever. Like, yeah, they gave him 50 bucks to google something on stage. We need the money, we don't have a lot of money, we're really struggling right now.
  Peter: The hard times search engine.
  JD: We need the help of indie rock to really get through. I got it. It's literally just the one line, the way my brain works is, if I get what I call the 'feeder line', I'll get the next ones. That's how Going to Scotland happened, I haven't played that song in God knows how long, [ed: surprising me and probably JD too, 10 months] but each line feeds into the next one. Then you write other songs where each line sorta stands by itself. Totally different style of writing, those ones are really fucked up to try to remember live. [starts song, immediately fucks up the first line] I keep going on about the second verse...it's great, this song is about symptoms of aging. (2023-12-15 - The Bier Hall at Intuition Ale Works, Jacksonville)
• Last time we were here, a guest game to our dressing room, and just to spoil it for you, it turned out to be Kathy Valentine from the Go-Gos. And, y'know, I said, hey, we're making a record in Tulsa in January, you gonna be around? She said, yeah, nah, I'm going back to Dallas, well, Dallas is pretty near Tulsa! So she came up and sang with us, it was a huge honor, and it's a gigantic honor to welcome her to the Roundhouse. [cheering and drumming] This is really exciting for me. [more cheering and various noises] (2024-05-22 - Roundhouse, London(

Live Performances

• 2023-10-03 - The Belasco, Los Angeles (recording)
• 2023-10-05 - August Hall, San Francisco (recording)
• 2023-10-07 - Ace of Spades, Sacramento (recording)
• 2023-10-09 - Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox, Spokane
• 2023-10-10 - The Knitting Factory, Boise
• 2023-10-11 - The ELM, Bozeman
• 2023-10-28 - Longhorn Ballroom, Dallas (recording)
• 2023-10-29 - The Heights Theater, Houston (recording)
• 2023-12-01 - Hangar 1819, Greensboro
• 2023-12-02 - The Queen, Wilmington (recording)
• 2023-12-03 - Aura, Portland ME
• 2023-12-05 - Higher Ground Ballroom, Burlington (recording)
• 2023-12-07 - Town Ballroom, Buffalo (recording)
• 2023-12-08 - Homer Center for the Arts, Homer (recording)
• 2023-12-10 - Thunderbird Music Hall, Pittsburgh (recording)
• 2023-12-12 - Georgia Theatre, Atlanta
• 2023-12-13 - Vinyl Music Hall, Pensacola
• 2023-12-15 - The Bier Hall at Intuition Ale Works, Jacksonville (recording)
• 2024-04-09 - Kalamazoo State Theatre, Kalamazoo
• 2024-04-12 - The Palace, St. Paul (recording)
• 2024-04-13 - The City Center, Champaign
• 2024-05-22 - Roundhouse, London (recording - with Kathy Valentine!)
• 2024-05-24 - Barrowland, Glasgow
• 2024-05-25 - Albert Hall, Manchester
• 2024-05-26 - Vicar Street, Dublin

Footnotes