Goths

Title: Goths
Released: 2017
Label: Merge Records


Liner Notes

(end of lyric booklet):

sending this album out to Kim & Quinn & Lanny & Devon & Wes, forever perfect in the strobe’s embrace 1

NO COMPED VOCALS
NO PITCH CORRECTION
NO GUITARS


Table of Contents

  1. Rain in Soho
  2. Andrew Eldritch is Moving Back to Leeds
  3. The Grey King and the Silver Flame Attunement
  4. We Do It Different on the West Coast
  5. Unicorn Tolerance
  6. Stench of the Unburied
  7. Wear Black
  8. Paid in Cocaine
  9. Rage of Travers
  10. Shelved
  11. For the Portuguese Goth Metal Bands
  12. Abandoned Flesh

Album Credits
Footnotes


Rain in Soho 2 3

No one knows where the lone wolf sleeps
No one sees the hidden treasure in the castle keep
No one learns the secret name 4
No one burns in the absent flame
No one broke D.B. Cooper’s 5 fall
No one hopes to hear the bagman call
Children piping in the main square
But no one’s dancing, no one’s dancing down there 6

The river goes where the water flows
But no one knows when the Batcave 7 closed
The river goes where the water flows
But no one knows when the Batcave closed

No promise sweeter than a blood pact
Nothing harder to go through with than a vanishing act
No morning colder than the first frost
No friends closer than the ones we’ve lost
Nothing sharper than a serpent’s tooth
Nothing harder than the gospel truth
Though you repent, and don sackcloth, and try to make nice,
You can’t cross the same river twice 8

The river goes where the water flows
But no one knows when the Batcave closed
The river goes where the water flows
But no one knows when the Batcave closed

There’s a club where you’d like to go
You could meet someone who’s lost like you 9
Revel in the darkness like a pair of open graves
Fumble through the fog for a season or two

No town more barren than our town
No haven safer than the one they tore down
No greater love than to lay my life down for a friend 10
No sweeter pleasure than to see the credits clear through to the end
No one knows where the lone wolf’s gone
No one sees him camped out right there on the front lawn
We played for you but you would not sing
No one's going to get away with anything

The river goes where the water flows
But no one knows when the Batcave closed
The river goes where the water flows
But no one knows when the Batcave closed


Andrew Eldritch is Moving Back to Leeds 11

There's indifference on the wind, but a faint gust of hope
At a club nobody goes to with a musty velvet rope
Guys in Motörhead 12 jackets who knew him way back when
Haven't raised a drink in years but now meet up again
To remember how it was when they all thought they'd move away
And ride in Lotus Sevens 13 through the London streets one day

Nobody ever gets away
Even the best of us come back someday
To the unmarked rooms where the dry dust breeds
Andrew Eldritch is moving back to Leeds

There's a rusted fog machine in a concrete storage space
Letter-number combinations with no meaning on its face
They won't make these any more, it's a wooden coach-and-four
No one will even steal it if you leave it by the door
With no sign to mark its going, no tombstone for its grave
There will be goodbyes by dozens, so practice being brave

No one anticipates the rush
The breezy feeling of the faceless crush
At the end of things where the selvage bleeds
Andrew Eldritch is moving back to Leeds

They don't throw him a parade
He just comes in on a train
One suitcase in his hand, and an old army backpack
From the second World War
From a Leipzig 14 second-hand store

Pick the keys up from the agent, everything's been taken care of
No big changes in the roadways since you left that I'm aware of
A few old buildings gone to dust, and some new ones in the way
They'll look just like the old ones when the winds have had their say
See the children bound for London, you'll all be back too
Everybody tests the membrane, but no one pushes through

Come on boys, that'll be enough
You'd think your old friends wouldn't play so tough
Like a basket by the Nile hiding down among the reeds 15
Andrew Eldritch is moving back to Leeds


The Grey King and the Silver Flame Attunement 16

In the secret caverns underneath West Covina 17
Half desperate for peace with the surface dwellers
But coming to no conclusions
And now we emerge, sky grey and misty

The Grey King in his new Pontiac 18
Some of us sworn to the effort, trying to get our shapes back
Teeth filed down to fine points
Framework too tight, strain at the joints

And I'm hardcore but I'm not that hardcore
I'm hardcore but I'm not that hardcore
I'm hardcore but I'm not that hardcore
I'm pretty hardcore but I'm not that hardcore

Load into the Grand Am, 18 doomed sailors
Borne high by the waves, wild with wonder
Leather and lace, and good friends
Most of them good, most of them friendly

The Grey King at the rail, sparks flying
Three of us in the car with him, scared of dying
All eyes on the front seat
Assuming his form, reborn in the heat

And I'm hardcore but I'm not that hardcore
I'm hardcore but I'm not that hardcore
I'm hardcore but I'm not that hardcore
I'm pretty hardcore but I'm not that hardcore


We Do It Different on the West Coast

The papers write about it back in England
It's practically a lifestyle in Berlin
There's probably some pockets in Ohio
Almost always something happening in Ohio

I heard some bad reports about Long Island
I don't trust what people say about Long Island
I heard some good things from some friends about Chicago
I gotta see with my own eyes about Chicago

We do it different on the west coast
We do it different on the west coast
We do it different on the west coast
We do it different on the west coast

I heard they had a problem with some skinheads
At a show in a machine shop in Pomona 19
I feel like half my friends have moved to San Francisco
I think I'm gonna bleach my hair this weekend

And Dave went to New York, I don't care
You can't shut people up
Once they get back from their Christmas out there

Skim through such magazines as I can get my hands on
Glue circuitboards to plywood on the weekend
Trellis modulation 20 for the children
There's a whole new world just up around the corner

We do it different on the west coast
We do it different on the west coast
We do it different on the west coast
We do it different on the west coast


Unicorn Tolerance

Drawn to the dark
Covered by the blood, 21 when possible
Called to the corners
To any open crucible
Easy to reach
Bearing every mark unmissably
Want to leave behind some token
Of what I carried with me
Search in the storm drains
Sleep in the underpasses
Try hard to look hard
Behind my blackout sunglasses

But I have high unicorn tolerance
I have high unicorn tolerance
I have high unicorn tolerance
I have high unicorn tolerance

Swim with real sharks
Those who never speak when spoken to
Hard limits fade into memory
Once broken through
Scaling the well 22
Every single day, instinctively
Feel shame, real shame
For what my friends must think of me

Dig through the graveyard
Rub the bones against my face
It gets real nice around the graveyard
Once you've acquired the taste
And when the clouds do clear away
Get a momentary chance to see
The thing I've been trying to beat to death
The soft creature that I used to be
The better animal I used to be

Draw where I'm drawn
Seldom wonder why, just follow You 23
Never blame the rags that swaddled me
For the place the river took me to 24
Long life to the spiders!
Safe travels to the crow!
Love to the ghosts
Who taught me everything I know

But I have high unicorn tolerance
I have high unicorn tolerance
But I have high unicorn tolerance
I have high unicorn tolerance


Stench of the Unburied

Incoherent but functional
Speeding like a dead comet
Purple crushed velvet waistcoat
Flecked with Maalox 25 and bits of dried vomit
Say what you will for the effort,
You can't fault the technique
Still conscious at sunrise
For the third time this week

But when the blue lights flash
I know we're going to crash

And outside it's 92 degrees 26
And KROQ 27 is playing Siouxsie and the Banshees 28

Blaupunkt 29 in the dashboard
Cracks in the cylinder block 30
Heading up the Golden State Freeway 31
Toward Eagle Rock 32
Ice chest full of Corona 33
And pineapple Crush 34
It'll take twenty years
For the toxins to flush

And when the sirens wail 35
I know we're going to jail

And outside it's 92 degrees
And KROQ is playing Siouxsie and the Banshees

Follow the flame to freedom
The flickering lights of Armageddon
Find the foot of the ladder
Way down in the pit
Keep climbing forever
Try to keep the torch lit

And outside it's 92 degrees
And KROQ, the Roq of the 80s 27, is playing Siouxsie and the Banshees


Wear Black

Rain every day
Fog all night
Wind in the evergreen cypresses
See me, Lord of Wind and Rain
See me, Guardian of the Underpasses

Wear black when it's light outside
Wear black when there's no light
Wear black following the left hand path
Wear black when I get right

Waves at night
Hard waves at dawn
All this coast is vanishing
Check me out, I can't blend in
Check me out, I'm young and ravishing

Wear black on your forgotten radar
Wear black in the present tense
Wear black when you come around
Wear black in your absence

Wear black high as a kite
Wear black dead sober
Wear black when the trouble starts
Wear black when it's over

Sun through the trees
Head for the sun
Can't find the path back to the main road
See me, Lord of The Thomas Guide 36
See me, Keeper of the Source Code

Wear black to the intervention
Wear black back to the car
Wear black wherever I go
Wear black wherever You 23 are


Paid in Cocaine

Crusty boots in the corner of the closet by the tackle box
Once-proud shining silver buckles safe behind the normalcy locks
Baubles and bangles, a lost age
Still all aglow with the radiance of the stage

That's who I was, this is who I am
Work to pay down the interest on the mortgage
Used to get paid by the gram

Long Beach
Long Beach, can you hear me?
Can you hear me, Long Beach?
Long Beach
Long Beach, can you hear me?
Can you hear me, Long Beach?

Master tape from the show we did at Fender's back in '85
Dark paisley from Retail Slut
All four of us still fresh and alive
Flashes and phosphenes, it's hard to believe that's me
Strapped in, visibly sweating
As happy as I'm ever gonna be

You're by my side
Five years left on your card
You're cashing out, all dressed up
For your date with the emergency ward

Long Beach
Long Beach, can you hear me?
Can you hear me, Long Beach?
Long Beach
Long Beach, can you hear me?
Can you hear me, Long Beach?


Rage of Travers

Close the balcony at the Rainbow
Because the promoter says so
Aviators and a buckskin frontier hat
How come they dress like that
They break the news to me so gentle
But I start to feel sentimental
This used to be the place to go
Still draw pretty good in Ontario

Nobody wants to hear the 12-bar blues
From a guy in platform shoes

Let's just have a good time when the show's done
Ask where the good clubs are, and go find one
Roll up to the curb, spill out of the car
Everyone's dressed up like corpses, I brought my guitar
Set it down by the stage
The singer's locked up in a steel cage
Shaking the bars, eyes wild with fear
I don't belong here

Nobody wants to hear the 12-bar blues
From a guy in platform shoes


Shelved

I want to ride the hydraulics
Lit up like the North Star
I want to wallow in the spoils before the crowd
I want to play my guitar
Not gonna sit up and beg
Not gonna do tricks
Not gonna stand here on a soundstage
Tethered to a crucifix

The ride's over, I know
But I'm not ready to go

I want to flash my pastel colors by the rail
On a windy day at Pimlico
Don't wanna write songs with this clown they set me up with in a Los Angeles rehearsal studio
Not going to tour with Trent Reznor
Third of three, bottom of the bill
You can't pay me to make that kind of music
Not gonna swallow that pill

The ride's over, I know
But I'm not ready to go

Maybe Dad is right: I'm still young
And I can write C++ just as good as anyone
I know this guy at LucasArts, he says they're looking for hands
In fifteen years I'll be puttin' back beers with my feet in the sand


For the Portuguese Goth Metal Bands

Sift the spectrum for the greyscale, that's better
Favor bold fonts in blackletter
Star-crossed lovers and their tragic fates
And that one Celtic Frost record almost everybody hates

Candlelight playing its tricks on the walls of the cave
Hauling these songs to the light from the mouth of the grave

Mark the map out for the treasure, don't say where
Find the octave in the shadow, and stay there
Sleep till sunset, stay up late
Bleed bile all night into an SM58

Candlelight playing its tricks on the walls of the cave
Hauling these songs to the night from the mouth of the grave

Finally head west, but it's a dead end
Come home dead broke but still among friends
Keep what's precious, drop what's not
Without a second thought

There's not so many of us
But you don't know any of us
Work like a gravedigger, let the blood spill
Headline really big festivals every other summer in Brazil

Candlelight playing its tricks on the walls of the cave
Hauling these songs to the light from the mouth of the grave


Abandoned Flesh

Robert Smith is secure at his villa in France
Any child knows how to do the spiderweb dance
Siouxsie has enough hits to keep the bills paid
Every New Year's in Los Angeles, you can still see Richard Blade

But the world forgot about Gene Loves Jezebel
Yes the world forgot about Gene Loves Jezebel

They charted once or twice, they were on a major label
When the singer went solo, he left money on the table
The two main guys are related, they're at war with each other
Now there's two Genes loving Jezebel – One for each brother

But the world
Came to agree
What you see is what you get
And what you get is what you see
Whether you're The March Violets or The Bolshoi
Bands who had to leave the darkness for the sun
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry were on Cherry Red, I think
They've been playing clubs since 1981

To be fair to Gene Loves Jezebel, Billy Corgan brought them onstage
It was in 2011, it's on their Wikipedia page 37
But for the most part, however big that chorused bass may throb,
You and me, and all of us, are going to have to find a job

Because the world will never know or understand
The suffocated splendor
Of the once and future goth band


Album Credits

all songs words & music by John Darnielle except “Shelved,”
words by John Darnielle and Peter Hughes, music by John Darnielle
© 2017 Cadmean Dawn (ASCAP) administered worldwide
by Pacific Electric Music Publishing

vocal arrangement for “Rain in Soho” by Don Perry, performed by members of the Nashville Symphony Chorus: Anne Floutt, Eric Wiuff, Jill Boehme, Eric Boehme, Mark Filesa, Jordan Williams, Daniel Gordon, Alesia Kelley, Amanda Dier, Maiken Knudsen, Stuart Garber, Theodore Weckbacher. vocal arrangement for “We Do It Different on the West Coast” and “Wear Black” by Robert Bailey, performed by Robert Bailey, Everett Drake, Jason Eskridge, and Michael Mishaw.
all woodwinds arranged by Matt Douglas

recorded at Blackbird, Nashville, Tennessee – thanks to Sean Badum for tireless assistance and to everyone at Blackbird for making these goth visions real

John Danielle: vocals, piano, Fender Rhodes
Peter Hughes: bass, vocals
Matt Douglas: woodwinds, vocals, additional keys
Jon Wurster: drums and percussion

illustrations by Leela Corman
design by Rob Carmichael, SEEN
the Mountains Goats graciously represented by Ryan Matteson for C3


Footnotes

  1. The font used in the lyric booklet is difficult to read, so these names may be misspelled. ↩

  2. Soho is the entertainment district in London, England and the location of the Batcave club. ↩

  3. A demo version of "Rain in Soho" was released on Marsh Witch Visions. ↩

  4. Possibly the Tetragrammaton - the secret name of God that has been lost to time. ↩

  5. DB Cooper is a famous plane hijacker who, in 1971, stole $200,000 and jumped out of the plane, never to be found again. ↩

  6. Possibly referencing Luke 7:32 "They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other: ‘We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry.’" (New International Version) ↩

  7. The Batcave, a club in Soho, London that hosted many goth bands mentioned in the album, closed in 1985. ↩

  8. This is similar to something the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus was quoted as having said in multiple testimonies, e.g. "Heracleitus [sic] is supposed to say that all things are in motion and nothing at rest; he compares them to the stream of a river, and says that you cannot go into the same water twice." – Cratylus by Plato, translated by Benjamin Jowett. ↩

  9. The song "How Soon is Now" by the Smiths contains the lines "There’s a club if you’d like to go / You could meet somebody who really loves you." ↩

  10. Possibly referencing John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." (New International Version) ↩

  11. Andrew Eldritch is the main singer of the goth band the Sisters of Mercy. Eldritch moved to Leeds around 1978, and the Sisters of Mercy were formed there in 1980. He left Leeds by 1985, but has an "industrial super villain place" there as of 2023, so it can be assumed that he returned sometime in-between. ↩

  12. Motörhead was an English rock band formed in 1975. ↩

  13. The Lotus Seven is a sports car manufactured by the British company Lotus Cars from 1957 to 1973. ↩

  14. Leipzig is a city in Germany. It has a substantial goth scene, including hosting the large festival Wave-Gotik-Treffen every year since 1992. ↩

  15. In Abrahamic religions, the prophet Moses was set adrift in a basket on the Nile river when he was an infant. Exodus 2:3 "But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile." (New International Version) ↩

  16. "I get off work, uh, and I go to the onramp to the freeway. You can see the scene depicted on our tour poster back there at the table. And there's some people that are my age, maybe a year or two older, but they're clearly a little deeper into some scene than I am. I don't think they're probably working eight hours a day shifts. They're probably quitting jobs a little quicker. And they have long hair that's feathery and, and, the roach clip, you know, with the feathers you can put in your hair, looks - still looks good today, a fashion trend that will never die. And there was a guy, right, one of those guys whose shoulders seem to have widened a little earlier than everybody else's, you look at him and he, like, radiates testosterone, you know, uh, uh, and, you know, and then, like, three women in the car. And he's wearing shades, and we're both getting onto the same freeway. I'm not even trying to stare at this guy. I'm just looking over, making sure I'm aware. And he sort of catches me with his sunglasses. Makes sure I'm looking at him. He smiles. He had fangs. I wrote this song about him." – Saturn, Birmingham, AL, May 25, 2017. ↩

  17. West Covina is a city in Los Angeles County, California, near the Inland Empire area where John grew up. ↩

  18. The Pontiac Grand Am is a car model produced by General Motors's Pontiac division. From 1973 to 2005, a variety of compact and mid-size sedans and coupes have used the Grand Am name. ↩ ↩2

  19. Pomona is a city in Los Angeles County, California, very near the Inland Empire area where John grew up. ↩

  20. The technique of trellis modulation was used to increase dial-up internet speeds in the late 1980s and early 1990s. ↩

  21. "Covered by the blood" is an Evangelical phrase meaning one who is saved by Jesus; also the title of a 1904 Christian hymn. ↩

  22. Scaling is buildup of minerals in a well-pipe that eventually may make the well useless. ↩

  23. In the lyric booklet, this "You" is capitalized, indicating that it means God. John has confirmed this: "There are two songs, 'Unicorn Tolerance' and 'Wear Black,' with 'you,' the second person or addressee, where I went back and forth on whether to capitalize the 'Y' or not. If I didn’t capitalize the 'Y' it’s only because I wanted people to figure it out, right? I don’t like to telegraph my punches. So those are the big theological songs on this record." — Observer interview, May 2017, retrieved January 2025.↩ ↩2

  24. Possibly another reference to the story of Moses being set adrift in a basket on the Nile river when he was an infant. ↩

  25. Maalox is an over the counter brand of liquid antacid that contains aluminum hydroxide and magnesium hydroxide, with the occasional addition of simethicone, an anti-gas compound. ↩

  26. In addition to being a temperature, "92°" is the title of a song by Siouxsie and the Banshees. ↩

  27. KROQ is an alternative rock radio station in Southern California. "The Roq of the 80s" ("Roq" pronounced the same as "rock") is a tagline the station has used. ↩ ↩2

  28. Siouxsie and the Banshees were an influential English goth band. ↩

  29. Blaupunkt was a German audio equipment brand. This line likely refers to a Blaupunkt car radio. ↩

  30. The cylinder block is a fundamental component of an internal combustion engine which contains the cylinders where combustion takes place. If a car's cylinder block is cracked, the entire engine is likely damaged beyond repair. ↩

  31. The section of Interstate 5 in California south of Kern County is called the Golden State Freeway. ↩

  32. Eagle Rock could refer to either a rock formation in Los Angeles or the surrounding neighborhood, which bears the same name. ↩

  33. Corona is a brand of beer. ↩

  34. Crush is a brand of fruit-flavored soda. ↩

  35. Possibly a reference to the song "Vision Thing" by the Sisters of Mercy, which contains the line "When the sirens wail." ↩

  36. The Thomas Guide is a series of street maps of metropolitan areas. They were culturally significant in Southern California. ↩

  37. That same Wikipedia page now mentions how this song references it. ↩