Lyrics
We got in your car and we hit the highway[4]
Eastern sun was rising over the mountains
Yellow and blood red bits
Like a kaleidoscope
And flaming swords may guard the garden of Eden[5]
But we consulted maps from earlier days
Dead languages on our tongues
Holding on to our last hope
And the day was bright and fine
And the highway sign said, "San Bernardino welcomes you"
I checked us into our hotel[6] and filled the bathtub
And you got in the warm warm water
I pulled petals[7] from my pocket
I loved you so much just then
And it was hard but you were brave, you are splendid[8]
And we will never be alone in this world
No matter what they say
We're gonna be okay
We were safe inside
and our new son cried, "San Bernardino welcomes you"[9]
Banter
- This is a song about a couple having a baby in a hotel room at the freeway near where I grew up. It's not at this one hotel, but there's a hotel out Route 66 in California called the Wigwam. It's wigwams. You see it when you're a teenager and you think, 'Man, someday I'm going to stay there and it's going to be hilarious.' And then you get old enough to stay in hotels and, 'I'm never going to stay at the Wigwam. That's not cool.' So I thought of that hotel when I wrote this song, but I should like to tell you it's not at the Wigwam, it's down the road a little ways from there. 'Cause what's good in this story would be less good if the baby had to be born at the Wigwam. (2009-03-20)
- Having now been in a labor and delivery room, like, the idea of, like, a really tranquil, like, rose petal scene and everybody's all, 'Oh, here's the lovely little baby' — and in a Motel 6, that ain't happening. That motel has blood on the walls. Cops are coming, 'Why are people screaming for eight consecutive hours in that room? Oh, because a very large thing is trying to push itself through a very small space. (2011-06-27)
- This song takes place in the Wigwam Motel. (2014-06-17)
- I can play a song that betrays my naïveté as a guy who had not actually spent time in the labor and delivery room. This song has a birth in it in a motel room. Now, that’s all very romantic if you haven’t been at a birth. After I went to my first birth… well, the motel room would have a little less tenderness and probably a lot more screaming and police. Certainly the blood would be more prominent than it is in this otherwise very sweet little song that means well and comes from a position of relative myopia. [ed: police seems unnecessary but it is generally a bloody experience, moreso than, I would say, the majority of murders.] (2017-09-16)
Live Performances
Footnotes
1. "This is a song about a young unmarried couple giving birth in a cheap motel off the 10 Freeway out towards the high desert in California." — Heretic Pride press kit. ↩
2. Here, however, the story is pretty clear, or I hope it is, and the song gave me a pretty good punch in the face as soon as we were done recording it, because I just lost my mind for about five minutes. Gone. Slumped over a piano a few feet from the microphone I'd been singing into, Erik Friedlander sitting in his chair where he'd been playing. (I did my vocal live with one of the cello parts, sitting facing Erik as he played.) I was thinking again about people who others talk down to: young mothers and fathers who have no prospects, no money, nothing going on.
The two kids here give birth in a cheap motel somewhere in San Bernardino, probably right off the freeway, and the young man tries to express his love for the girl who's about to give birth. Which she does, and they feel at home in the world, even though the world isn't giving them its best yet. I feel hope for them, because they love each other. I know that that is a corny thing to say, so for people who have corn allergies I apologize. But these two, they're going to be the future, so it'd be awesome if we could give them enough leeway to become who they're gonna become, and encourage them when we can. I have a fondness for them though I barely know them. Their feeling for one another inspires me, is what it is. February 15, 2008, My Five Favorite Mountain Goats Characters, eMusic Magazine ↩
3. This song is part of the informal series of Biblical references. San Bernardino is a city located in the Inland Empire area of Southern California, near where John began playing music. (Credit: Annotated TMG) ↩
4. As mentioned in the above footnote, the highway most likely refers to the 10 Freeway, an interstate freeway which runs through the southern part of San Bernardino. It is also referenced in Short Song for the 10 Freeway. (Credit: Annotated TMG) ↩
5. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. (Genesis 3:24, KJV, reference credit Annotated TMG) ↩
7. "motel" instead of "hotel" (2017-06-01, 2019-05-07, 2023-10-02, 2023-10-03, 2023-10-28, 2023-10-29) ↩
8. "rose petals" instead of "petals" (2017-06-01, 2019-05-07, 2023-10-02, 2023-10-03, 2023-10-28, 2023-10-29) ↩
9. I [a licensed physician, and therefore not just delivering babies willy-nilly] have quoted this on multiple occasions to people who have just given birth, and it goes over well as a sentiment. Thanks, John. (Note: I actively do not recommend having a waterbirth in a motel. Please have a water birth if you want and you are medically eligible for one, they're awesome, but do it somewhere with a blood bank and oxygen and shit available, things motels typically do not stock. Thank you for coming to this portion of the footnotes.) ↩
10. "we welcome you" appended (2023-10-28, 2023-10-29) ↩