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Multitude of Casualties Lyrics
She drove it like she stole it.
She stole it fast and with a multitude of casualties.
She said I shipped it out from Boulder
Packed in coffee grounds and wrapped around in dryer sheets.
We spent a few months just wandering the Sonoma.
High as hell and shivering and smashed.
We were hoping for a vision quest.
We opened up three buttons.
And all we saw was desert trash.
It's a funny bit of chemistry
How a cool car makes a guy seem that much cooler.
It's worth noting throughout history kids come around corner
To a multitude of casualties.
We spent a few hours circling the city
Like a hawk out on the highways, we were looking around for something that just died.
We heard the deacon's hopeful eulogy.
At least in dying you don't have to deal with new wave for a second time.
After your party we got off the grid.
We just couldn't get with all those clever kids.
And now we forage on the frontage roads.
We drive at nights, I guess it just feels somewhat safer.
Yeah, we scrounge around for sustenance.
We mostly eat it in the back half of the theaters.
We spent a few years nodding off in matinees.
We were high as hell and shivering and smashed.
We were hoping for an action/adventure.
Something loud that we could feel through all the Feminax.
And after the movie, we got off the grounds.
I got in your car and crawled around in lowertown.
Yeah, while she was at the citadel, he was getting high as hell.
When she came to in the matinee, she was asking 'round for someplace else to stay.
While he was down in lowertown, she was feeling out the 5:30 folk mass.
And the night that she got born again, he was getting with her little hoodrat friend.
They did wade into the water into one tin soldier. She started to cry.
Youth services always find a way to get their bloody cross into your druggy little messed up teenage life.
She stole it fast and with a multitude of casualties.
She said I shipped it out from Boulder
Packed in coffee grounds and wrapped around in dryer sheets.
We spent a few months just wandering the Sonoma.
High as hell and shivering and smashed.
We were hoping for a vision quest.
We opened up three buttons.
And all we saw was desert trash.
How a cool car makes a guy seem that much cooler.
It's worth noting throughout history kids come around corner
To a multitude of casualties.
We spent a few hours circling the city
Like a hawk out on the highways, we were looking around for something that just died.
We heard the deacon's hopeful eulogy.
At least in dying you don't have to deal with new wave for a second time.
We just couldn't get with all those clever kids.
And now we forage on the frontage roads.
We drive at nights, I guess it just feels somewhat safer.
Yeah, we scrounge around for sustenance.
We mostly eat it in the back half of the theaters.
We spent a few years nodding off in matinees.
We were high as hell and shivering and smashed.
We were hoping for an action/adventure.
Something loud that we could feel through all the Feminax.
And after the movie, we got off the grounds.
I got in your car and crawled around in lowertown.
When she came to in the matinee, she was asking 'round for someplace else to stay.
While he was down in lowertown, she was feeling out the 5:30 folk mass.
And the night that she got born again, he was getting with her little hoodrat friend.
They did wade into the water into one tin soldier. She started to cry.
Youth services always find a way to get their bloody cross into your druggy little messed up teenage life.
Song Info
Submitted by
flapjack Finn On Apr 28, 2007
More The Hold Steady
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First Night
Citrus
Chillout Tent
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"Multitude of Casualties" is the beginning of Holly's redemption and, most likely, is the counterpoint to "Your Little Hoodrat Friend." There is a hint that Holly's previous life- the suburban "good girl" who attended Mass- is something she actually wants once again. Holly makes her way back to church services while Holly's boyfriend- the narrator from "Hoodrat" and, presumably, Gideon- is shown for what he is.
This is the bridge between the early half of the record and "Crucifixion Cruise."
what is the sonoma? i mean i always assumed it was a desert, but i decided to look it up and couldn't really find anything specific.
"The Sonoma" = the sonoma valley. Gideon is NOT the narrator (the lead singer is-Craig)///Doesn't Holly = Hallelujah= the hood rat friend ("Holly was a hood rat, now you finally know that...") I think it fits, by and large. Of course, the lyrics are pretty layered so it makes things harder to unravel.
Yeah but towards the end of the song it says: And the nite that she got born again he was getting with her little hoodrat friend. And it states several times throughout the album that holly is the "hoodrat" So who is the other hoodrat the male (whom we assume is Gideon) is getting with? Cause it can't be holly, she was at the citadel getting born again..
Holly is a hoodrat and she has hoodrat friends. There's more than one of them.
Holly is a hoodrat and she has hoodrat friends. There's more than one of them.
"We were trying for a vision quest we opened up three buttons And all we saw was desert trash"
A reference to Cattle and the Creeping Things, Holly wears a cross that shows when she opens three buttons on her shirt. The desert trash is the cross.
There's a reference to that song in a George Pelecanos novel called Cut. He writes crime novels that take place in D.C.
I cannot believe nobody has commented on this awesome song.
Pretty simple song. Bunch of teenagers driving around the city looking for something to do.
...and yet also infinitely deeper than that.
...and yet also infinitely deeper than that.