When you're riding the rails with those wide open eyes
Well, there's one old south paw you will always fight
And alone on a worn-out throne
Is the reigning queen of the question
Why we blind-footed toddlers ever started out

So don't get into it with me
If I goose-step
Across the kitchen floor
You know I still adore
All your mother's old-fashioned ways
I'm so impressed that you hear
My inventions, and that it matters more
Than what you saw with your eyes

Go along with the plan
Your head will still be there where you put it
Under the bed with the ice cream you could never find
And tonight you go to bed and dream
All the world to be what you want it
You got the girly draw now flaunt it
And keep them all checking their watches
When you're out tonight

So don't get into it with me
When I goose-step across the kitchen floor
You know I still adore
All your mother's old-fashioned ways
I'm so impressed that you hear
My inventions, and that it matters more
Than what you saw with your eyes, oh

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When I Goose-Step Lyrics as written by James Mercer

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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My Interpretation
[cont.] that he sometimes is a bit too active for her, a bit insensitive to her problems, and the presence of her grandma in the house ("the queen of questions") who sits on her old wheelchair, often spouting about her nephew and her friend, about how they're too young and immature to spend together. Perhaps she's just a bit sour because the girl has a friend to keep her company, while she doesn't ("alone on a worn-out throne").

I think the whole situation is viewed by the boy, now a grown man, having long since cut all relations with the girl: it's a childhood memory, an old picture, which explains the way the details pile up one on top of each other in no precise order - the wheelchair, the grandma, the ice cream, the fantasy etc. Also, the sense of a passed time is conveyed by the echo-y, "dusty", indistinct sound of the record. So it's both a sweet memory and a painful one, because the man feels guilty and sad about truncating such a profound relation - perhaps his first love. The guitar countermelody in the second stanza evokes this bittersweet feeling, while the keyboard lick that begins the song evokes a carefree epoch, an innocent time. The pattern the rhythm guitar and drums play reminds me of someone stumbling awkwardly, like someone walking with a crutch (the girl?) or perhaps someone miming a soldier's walk (the boy goosestepping). In an interview James Mercer says that he writes the melody and guitar part to a song before writing the lyrics, and that every melody carries its own particular feel, which inspires the topic of the lyrics, so the idea for what the song is about could come from this weird rhythmic figure. However, it's not the only case where he uses this pattern: in Girl Sailor he plays the very same one. To me this song feels similar to some Neutral Milk Hotel/Jeff Mangum songs, like Sinking Ship, 2HB2 or KCF, in that it has this dreamy, iper-real, bittersweet-memory quality.

And this is all I have about this When I Goosestep. What'd you guys think? :)

[cont.] that he sometimes is a bit too active for her, a bit insensitive to her problems, and the presence of her grandma in the house ("the queen of questions") who sits on her old wheelchair, often spouting about her nephew and her friend, about how they're too young and immature to spend together. Perhaps she's just a bit sour because the girl has a friend to keep her company, while she doesn't ("alone on a worn-out throne"). I think the whole situation is viewed by the boy, now a grown man, having long since cut all relations with the girl: it's a childhood memory, an old picture, which explains the way the details pile up one on top of each other in no precise order - the wheelchair, the grandma, the ice cream, the fantasy etc. Also, the sense of a passed time is conveyed by the echo-y, "dusty", indistinct sound of the record. So it's both a sweet memory and a painful one, because the man feels guilty and sad about truncating such a profound relation - perhaps his first love. The guitar countermelody in the second stanza evokes this bittersweet feeling, while the keyboard lick that begins the song evokes a carefree epoch, an innocent time. The pattern the rhythm guitar and drums play reminds me of someone stumbling awkwardly, like someone walking with a crutch (the girl?) or perhaps someone miming a soldier's walk (the boy goosestepping). In an interview James Mercer says that he writes the melody and guitar part to a song before writing the lyrics, and that every melody carries its own particular feel, which inspires the topic of the lyrics, so the idea for what the song is about could come from this weird rhythmic figure. However, it's not the only case where he uses this pattern: in Girl Sailor he plays the very same one. To me this song feels similar to some Neutral Milk Hotel/Jeff Mangum songs, like Sinking Ship, 2HB2 or KCF, in that it has this dreamy, iper-real, bittersweet-memory quality. And this is all I have about this When I Goosestep. What'd you guys think? :)

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astrokittenon July 01, 2014 Link
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