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.
I'll make you a deal
Like any other candidate
We'll pretend we're walking home
'Cause your future's at stake
My set is amazing
It even smells like a street
There's a bar at the end
Where I can meet you and your friend
Someone scrawled on the wall
"I smell the blood of Les Tricoteuses"
Wrote up scandals in other bars
I'm having so much fun
With the poisonous people
Spreading rumors and lies
And stories they made up
Some make you sing
And some make you scream
One makes you wish
That you'd never been seen
But there's a shop on the corner
That's selling papier-mâché
Making bulletproof faces
Charlie Manson, Cassius Clay
If you want it, boys get it here, thing
So you scream out of line
"I want you, I need you
Anyone out there? Any time?"
Trés butch little number whines
"Hey dirty, I want you
When it's good, it's really good, and when it's
Bad I go to pieces"
If you want it, boys
Get it here thing
Well on the street where you live
I could not hold up my head
For I put all I have in another bed
On another floor, in the back of a car
In the cellar like a church
With the door ajar
Well, I guess we've must be looking
For a different kind
But we can't stop trying 'til we break up our minds
'Til the sun drips blood
On the seedy young knights
Who press you on the ground
While shaking in fright
I guess we could cruise down
One more time
With you by my side
It should be fine
We'll buy some drugs
And watch a band
Then jump in a river holding hands
Like any other candidate
We'll pretend we're walking home
'Cause your future's at stake
My set is amazing
It even smells like a street
There's a bar at the end
Where I can meet you and your friend
Someone scrawled on the wall
"I smell the blood of Les Tricoteuses"
Wrote up scandals in other bars
I'm having so much fun
With the poisonous people
Spreading rumors and lies
And stories they made up
Some make you sing
And some make you scream
One makes you wish
That you'd never been seen
But there's a shop on the corner
That's selling papier-mâché
Making bulletproof faces
Charlie Manson, Cassius Clay
If you want it, boys get it here, thing
So you scream out of line
"I want you, I need you
Anyone out there? Any time?"
Trés butch little number whines
"Hey dirty, I want you
When it's good, it's really good, and when it's
Bad I go to pieces"
If you want it, boys
Get it here thing
Well on the street where you live
I could not hold up my head
For I put all I have in another bed
On another floor, in the back of a car
In the cellar like a church
With the door ajar
Well, I guess we've must be looking
For a different kind
But we can't stop trying 'til we break up our minds
'Til the sun drips blood
On the seedy young knights
Who press you on the ground
While shaking in fright
I guess we could cruise down
One more time
With you by my side
It should be fine
We'll buy some drugs
And watch a band
Then jump in a river holding hands
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The candidate is a political figure trying to get elected for some high-ranking office, and he's setting everything up- "I'll make you a deal like any other candidate- we'll pretend you're walking home because your future's at stake..." The amazing set must be used to create scenes that look real and will help the candidate get into office, and the bar at the end with scandals written on the walls will help blacken the names of his opponents. What exactly the candidate is running for, and why these acted scenes and pretending to walk someone home will help him with the election, is ambiguous. I think the "you and your friend" are the narrator from Sweet Thing and his girlfriend/prostitute from that song.
"Having so much fun with the poisonous people, spreading rumors and lies and stories they made up" is self-explanatory. Politicians are corrupt. The next lines describe the reactions to the lies/stories/rumors by the common people, and then I can't decipher what the next lines with "papier mache" are all about... But then it returns to the chant from Sweet Thing, and I think the girlfriend/prostitute has started selling sex to the candidates and elected officials because the boyfriend stopped paying attention to her because he was all caught up in the election and helping the candidate get into office. Feeling neglected, she shouts "I want you! I need you! Anyone out there? Any time?" A response comes from one of the poisonous people- "Hey, dirty, I want you..." and the deed is done.
The last verse is odd... I think the male character found out about his girlfriend and reminds her of all the times she's been with him... on a floor, in the back of a car, in a cellar... He can't move on from her because he has put all he has "in another bed." He put his pain into her during Sweet Thing and cannot let go from emotional attachment. I don't know what the "different kind" they're looking for is (a new form of satisfaction? Replacing sexual comfort with political comfort?) The next line sounds like rape- "seedy young knights who press you to the ground while shaking in fright"- and then it returns to the romantic (like in Sweet Thing).
One last thing I didn't have time to add before, regarding the end of the song- after the girl has betrayed the guy, he feels resigned. If the person he could trust in betrayed him (by selling sex to the candidates), how can he trust in anything? This is where the unsureness of the lines beginning with "I guess..." come in, and his feeling that suicide is an option- "We'll buy some drugs and watch a band..." etc. The last line of this song is probably my favorite line on the album. This sets up for the weariness of Sweet Thing (Reprise).