In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
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!
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
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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"