It's gonna be too hot to breathe today
But everybody is out here on the streets
Somebody's opened up the fire hydrant
Cold water rushing out in sheets

Some kid in a Marcus Allen jersey
Asks me for a cigarette
Companionship is where you find it
So I take what I can get

Hubcaps on the car like fun house mirrors
Stick to the shadows where I can
Lovecraft in Brooklyn

Well the sun goes down on the armies of the voiceless
Several hundred-thousand strong
Come without their bandages
Their voices raised in song

When the street lights sputter out
They make this awful sizzling sound
I cast my gaze towards the pavement
Too many blood stains on the ground

Rhode Island drops into the ocean
No place to call home anymore
Lovecraft in Brooklyn

Head outside most everyday
To try to keep the wolves away
Imagine nice things I might say
If company should come

Woke up afraid of my own shadow
Like, genuinely afraid
Headed for the pawnshop
To buy myself a switchblade

Someday something's coming
From way out beyond the stars
To kill us while we stand here
It'll store our brains in mason jars

And then the girl behind the counter
She asks me how I feel today
I feel like Lovecraft in Brooklyn

Yeah!


Lyrics submitted by guanchote, edited by shiftinshapes

Lovecraft in Brooklyn song meanings
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13 Comments

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  • +3
    General Comment

    john darnielle and jeffery lewis made a comic explaining each song on the new album, you can look at it here:

    thejeffreylewissite.com/Mt-Goats-Press-Kit-08.html

    Sunset Rubdownon March 09, 2008   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    Just great! "Woke up afraid of my shadow like genuinely afraid" is probably my favorite line. So epic.

    SamMooCowon February 24, 2008   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    also (i hate to be so nitpicky but it's the mountain goats so you know) there is an additional line after"Head outside most everyday to try to keep the wolves away," it's "Imagine nice things I might say." "mason jars" is plural in the song, and "and then the girl behind the counter, she asks me how i feel today, i feel like lovecraft in brooklyn."

    mdon06on December 30, 2007   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    Just in case anyone doesn't know, the Lovercraft referred to is HP Lovecraft (1890 - 1937) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._P._Lovecraft

    When he lived in Brooklyn he was very down and out (from wiki). "Initially Lovecraft was enthralled by New York but soon the couple was facing financial difficulties. Greene lost her hat shop and suffered poor health. Lovecraft could not find work to support them both so his wife moved to Cleveland for employment. Lovecraft lived by himself in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn and came to intensely dislike New York life[3]. Indeed, this daunting reality of failure to secure any work in the midst of a large immigrant population—especially irreconcilable with his opinion of himself as a privileged Anglo-Saxon—has been theorized as galvanizing his racism to the point of fear, a sentiment he sublimated in the short story The Horror at Red Hook[4]."

    The bit about the brain in the jar reminds me a bit of his story "The Whisperer in Darkness"

    Yer_Maon January 07, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    my favorite song on the new album so far!

    themikemanon December 30, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I think the line is "hubcaps on the cars like funhouse mirrors stick to the shadows when i can Lovecraft in Brooklyn"

    mdon06on December 30, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I'm just wondering... does anyone know what "copenation" is? I can't seem to find anything on the internet to help. Is it just a really obvious spelling mistake that I should have picked up?

    crystal_dreamson January 13, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    "In every set of self if copenation come" is wrong. The line is: "Imagine nice things I might say, if company comes"

    tempophageon February 16, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I think the line is "if COMPANY SHOULD come," rather than "if copenation come."

    pumkinhedon February 19, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    "some kid in a marcus allen jersey asks me for a cigarette. companionship is where you find it, so i take what i can get."

    fuckin' incredible.

    Colosimoon October 19, 2008   Link

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