Both as a standalone and as part of the DSOTS album, you can take this lyric as read. As a matter of public record, Jourgensen's drug intake was legendary even in the 1980s. By the late 90s, in his own words, he was grappling with massive addiction issues and had lost almost everything: friends, spouse, money and had nearly died more than once. "Dark Side of the Spoon" is a both funny & sad title for an album made by a musical genius who was losing the plot; and this song is a message to his fans & friends saying he knows it. It's painful to listen to so I'm glad the "Keith Richards of industrial metals" wised up and cleaned up. Well done sir.
cold hands touching my face
don't hide - the snake can see you
old friends you might not remember
fading away from you
the goldheart mountaintop queen directory
the goldheart mountaintop queen directory
and we looked
and we passed
through the hallways of shatterproof glass
she runs through the night as if nobody cares
she screams and she cries and ignores all the stares
she wants me to come, but i'm never going there
the goldheart mountaintop queen directory
the goldheart mountaintop queen directory
don't hide - the snake can see you
old friends you might not remember
fading away from you
the goldheart mountaintop queen directory
the goldheart mountaintop queen directory
and we looked
and we passed
through the hallways of shatterproof glass
she runs through the night as if nobody cares
she screams and she cries and ignores all the stares
she wants me to come, but i'm never going there
the goldheart mountaintop queen directory
the goldheart mountaintop queen directory
Lyrics submitted by one hit wonder
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Step
Ministry
Ministry
Techno Ted
Audioslave
Audioslave
Techno Ted may be a person who caused Chris incredible emotional pain & trepidation as well as moments of peace & happiness but now is removed and awaiting his fate. Darling may be a different person who is also free of him and can live her life free of Ted's tyranny. "In between all the laughing, and daydreams ... lies: a desert of truth" Lies are like a desert or the omission of Truth: Where there were Lies then Truth was absent. The song, "Techno Ted", may be a cathartic celebration of the downfall of this person.
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
i cant make much out of it...but i think its basically about a girl he loves possibly. wonderful song though. one of gbv's best.
Fucked if I know what it means but it's one of my favorite songs. It's alot different then Teenage FBI and the other more popular songs though.
My intuition is that he's singing about a woman he once loved who is having terrible problems with mental illness, and is perhaps confined to an institution.
("...we passed through the hallway of shatterproof glass..." i.e. they can see but they can't touch. The glass imprisons those on one side, while on the other side it protects the "normal" world from being "infected" by insanity)
He desperately wishes he could do something to help, but fears that if he gets too involved with her, his own mental state will succumb to the same downward spiral.
Bob only knows what "goldheart mountaintop queen directory" means. It could be an example of the kind of (apparently?) meaningless "word salad" spoken by people who are schizophrenic or who have brain damage.
Robert pollard once said that this was about how he took acid and looked in the mirror and his face changed into that of his sons. I don't really get how the lyrics convey this though.
I think he's said that the lyrics don't really reflect the experience, just that it inspired the song...as much sense as that means, i can't find the specific quote.
This song has a clear sexual theme. The most prominent example is the second 'verse': "she runs through the night as if nobody cares she screams and she cries and ignores all the stares she wants me to come, but i'm never going there" The literal meanings of these lines are most definitely related to public sex, or exhibitionism. It's possible Pollard is talking about erection dysfunction with the line "she wants me to come, but i'm never going there" and the line "she screams and she cries, and ignores all the stares" is pretty self explanatory here.
"the hallways of shatterproof glass" are a metaphoric reference to the vaginal passage, and "we passed through" is another reference to sex.
"cold hands touching my face don't hide - the snake can see you" This is slightly more tricky, and more perverse. Pollard said in an interview that these lines were relating to a darker side of sex; necrophilia ("cold hands touching my face") and unconsensual sex ("don't hide, the snake can see you" - snake being a common colloquial term for penis)
This leaves the most important, and most cryptic part of the song - the title. At first it may seem like a meaningless sentence, "Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory" but there's actually a story behind the name. In the same interview previously mentioned, Pollard tells of an incident back in 1973 that occurred on a mountain in the Sierra Nevada known to locals as Goldheart Mountain. Apparently the details are sketchy, but Pollard tells the interviewer that there was a building, or encampment somewhere on the mountain that housed captive immigrants or missing girls (Queens) for the purpose of sex. A sort of nonconsensual brothel - clients would enter and pick which girl they would sleep with (the Directory). The operation was discovered and shut down in '73. But it explains the title - The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory.
-- 0037
You're all way off. Bob said himself this song is about an acid trip.
Trough lyrical medium Pollard throws splashes of imagery on a canvas of jagged disconnected thought bubbles. He is the Pablo Picasso of Rock and Roll lyrics.
@Karnenyen Pretty much (and sounds amazing doing it).
"the goldheart mountaintop queen directory"... what the FUCK does that mean
I think by the "she runs throught the night" she's been released from the institution.
The goldheart mountaintop queen directory: It is possible since they have split up or were once in love that one of them has a heart shaped locket made of gold with ones picture inside. not sure about mountaintop. 'Queen' is a synonym( I think) for pretentious manner. not sure about directory either.
for me the song is about a girl you really love, but you know you cant get her because shes a way to good for you. shes the "gold heart mountain top queen directory" .