Broom People

I...definitely didn't think he said "I am a battling frog". THAT WOULD BE SILLY

Last night at the show in Boston, John explained that this was a song about the kid who gets beat up by the jocks in high school. But then he finds a girl and falls in love and now he can laugh in the jock's faces because he has someone and they don't (and he's getting laid three times a day).

There's something about Mountain Goats lyrics that make you want to scrawl them all over your bedroom walls in felt-tip marker.

Anyway, like everybody else I think this song is about how you can be so normal and your life can be so inseperably mundane from everybody else's, but if you find someone really special, when your with them your life, your being, everything about you can transcend to a higher, wilder meaning. You become something like an elemental force, apart of nature (babbling brook, wild creature)

I tend to listen to this song mostly in the winter, and it absolutely tears my insides to shreds every time. The comparison of the dreary day-to-day routines & loneliness with the freedom & happiness that comes with finding someone you can share memories with is beautiful.

i love these lines "But down in your arms, in your arms I am a wild creature."

because i can just imagine this kid going through his mundane shitty life, quite and reserved, and then with this person he's just alive and free. i can relate.

I think that the 'wild creature' line is both an expression of his freedom while he's with the girl, and a retaliation against his stepfather's violent oppression. Kind of like saying 'You've pinned me down, I've got back up, and now I've got you, and SHE'S got whatever's left of me to get.'

"Friends who don't have a clue Well meaning teachers But down in your arms, in your arms I am a wild creature."

That throws the whole song into context. Some of my favorite lyrics.

I write down good reasons to freeze to death In my spiral-ring notebook But in the long tresses of your hair I am a babbling brook

This verse makes the song explicit for me. Seen in the greater context of The Sunset Tree as an album, we see that John's relationship with this girl was the only thing that kept him sane through his teen years. She is referenced in a number of songs, and you can easily see the shape of his relationship with her, but this verse is the most important.

You see, John has never disclosed to anyone about his abuse and been taken seriously. He's turned inward, away from his anger and sadness, and 'frozen' himself to keep it bottled up within. But when he meets Cathy he finds a kindred spirit and can finally talk about his feelings - he becomes a babbling brook when in the long tresses of her hair.

Here's where she appears in other songs...

"This Year" and then Cathy showed up and we hung out trading swigs from a bottle all bitter and clean locking eyes holding hands twin high maintenance machines

Cathy and John both had been abused or at least had a terrible home life, hence the "twin high maintenance machines"

"Dance Music" okay so i'm seventeen years old you're the last best thing i got going but then the special secret sickness starts to eat through you what am i supposed to do? no way of knowing so i follow you down your twisting alleyways find a few cul-de-sacs of my own there's only one place this road ever ends up and i don't wanna die alone

He follows Cathy though she is as damaged as he is, and finds out more about his own situation. But he knows the relationship is doomed (also, see Dinu Lipatti's Bones, which is entirely about their relationship)

"Lion's Teeth"

I am dreaming of you

He's thinking of Cathy. That's why this lyric only makes sense in the greater context of the album.

Also, one of the greatest albums of all time. Just sayin'.

i enjoy this song quite a bit. cool lyrics.

i enjoy this song quite a bit. cool lyrics.