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Marduk T-Shirt Men's Room Incident Lyrics
Slumped up against the sink
Hair plastered to her cheeks
Marduk t-shirt sticking to her skin
Refugee from a disco in old east Berlin
weightless formless blameless nameless
Stray syllables were gurgling
From her throat one at a time
Face hidden from my view
I let myself imagine she was you
Only weightless, formless, blameless, nameless
And when I washed my hands
I ran the water hotter than I could stand
Half rising to a crouch
Sinking back down to the floor
when you’re walking keep your head low
Try to leave no traces when you go
Stay weightless, formless, blameless, nameless
Hair plastered to her cheeks
Marduk t-shirt sticking to her skin
Refugee from a disco in old east Berlin
From her throat one at a time
Face hidden from my view
I let myself imagine she was you
I ran the water hotter than I could stand
Half rising to a crouch
Sinking back down to the floor
when you’re walking keep your head low
Try to leave no traces when you go
Song Info
Submitted by
mdon06 On Dec 29, 2007
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what's this girl doing in the men's room in the first place is what I want to know
I think I see this as more of rape than simply cheating on his lover... She's extremely drunk or something of the sort, passed out against the wall of the men's room (possible implication that he's not the first one who's had this idea..?)... It reminds me of the movie Kids.
I never thought of this as cheating or rape. I just thought of it as a sordid encounter initiated in an attempt to fill the hole left by a lost love. Someone who left him or who he left. I think his intention was for the girl in the men's room to be "weightless, formless, blameless, nameless." He wants her to be an anonymous, featureless surrogate for someone he can't have anymore.
I never thought of this as cheating or rape. I just thought of it as a sordid encounter initiated in an attempt to fill the hole left by a lost love. Someone who left him or who he left. I think his intention was for the girl in the men's room to be "weightless, formless, blameless, nameless." He wants her to be an anonymous, featureless surrogate for someone he can't have anymore.
East Berlin, he's a long way from home. He sees this unfortunate girl. No-one pays any attention to her but he is able to summon up some empathy by imagining its someone he loves. I think it's about how people's troubles lack impact on us (are weightless and formless) until we make the effort to empathise. Washing his hands with hot water is another sensitising action. I believe that with this empathy he is beginning to forgive the woman back home who, after all, is not blameless. Just a humble opinion.
I don't think he is washing his hands in scalding water because he thinks the girl is disgusting. He just let himself imagine that this completely drunk and vulnerable woman that he knows nothing about is his lover... he imagines for a moment being intimate with her cuz she means nothing to him (wieghtless, formless, blameless, nameless) and he feels guilty. Which might be what captainmycaptain meant, too. Anyway... I think this is just one of the most touching and haunting songs on the album. Oh, and one correction... The line is in your walking...
It seems pretty simple to me. The narrator goes into the mensroom and sees a young woman, either very drunk or drugged, leaning against the wall. There's an implication that she's been sexually assaulted but he doesn't make this explicit. He feels compassion for her and imagines how it would feel if she were the partner to whom he's addressing the song. He washes his hands in very hot water because whatever it was that happened to her makes him feel dirty. I don't see that he's saying she's dirty or disgusting...after all he makes it very clear that he considers her blameless.
Oddly, I found it rather a beautiful song. it may have been the melody, or his attitude, or both.
ouch
Especially the part about washing his hands / running the water hotter than he could stand. It's like... you just feel sort of... dirty after you do something like that, right? But it's a feeling that you can't wash off.
john darnielle and jeffery lewis made a comic explaining each song on the new album, you can look at it here:
http://www.thejeffreylewissite.com/Mt-Goats-Press-Kit-08.html
The line "I let myself imagine she was you" is the most haunting bit in the entire song, for me.
This is not a song about cheating. It's a song about missing someone, and how impossible it is to forget about them, no matter what you do.