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Damn These Vampires Lyrics
Brave young cowboys
Of the near north side
Mount those bridge rails
Ride all night
Scream when captured
Arch your back
Let this whole town hear
Your knuckles crack
Sapphire Trans-Am
High beams in rain
Drive wild broncos
Down the plain
Push up to the corner
Where the turbines hiss
Someday we won't
Remember this
Crawl 'til dawn
On my hands and knees
God damn these vampires
For what they've done to me
Tie those horses
To the post outside
And let those glass doors
Open wide
And in their surface
See two young, savage things
Barely worth
Remembering
Feast like pagans
Never get enough
Sleep like dead men
Wake up like dead men
And when the sun comes
Try not to hate the light
Someday we'll try
To walk upright
Crawl 'til dawn
On my hands and knees
God damn these bite marks
Deep in my arteries
Crawl 'til dawn
On my hands and knees
God damn these vampires
For what they've done to me
Of the near north side
Mount those bridge rails
Ride all night
Scream when captured
Arch your back
Let this whole town hear
Your knuckles crack
High beams in rain
Drive wild broncos
Down the plain
Push up to the corner
Where the turbines hiss
Someday we won't
Remember this
On my hands and knees
God damn these vampires
For what they've done to me
Tie those horses
To the post outside
And let those glass doors
Open wide
And in their surface
See two young, savage things
Barely worth
Remembering
Never get enough
Sleep like dead men
Wake up like dead men
And when the sun comes
Try not to hate the light
Someday we'll try
To walk upright
On my hands and knees
God damn these bite marks
Deep in my arteries
Crawl 'til dawn
On my hands and knees
God damn these vampires
For what they've done to me
Song Info
Submitted by
concreteblues On Jan 19, 2011
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I saw the Mountain Goats in Leeds last night, and before this song John explained it with something along the lines of the following; 'You have friends and you think that they're the greatest people in the world, but there comes a time when you realise, all at once or it can come upon you gradually, that your friends aren't the greatest people in the world but they're actually parasites sucking the blood from you - not because they need the blood but just for their own entertainment. And then you have like one friend on your shoulder saying you're just being neurotic, your friends are great, and yourself in the middle saying 'no they're not, look at the facts''.
I just saw The Mountain Goats last night. Before he played this song, John mentioned a house he lived in for 9 months in Portland, OR. Apparently, there is some sort of evil presence there that wouldn't let him sleep. He mentioned that he passes this house every chance he gets.
This song is about his Heroin addiction. The vampires is a metaphor for the users and sellers surrounding him during his addiction sucking the life out of him. He then refers to the Bite marks being the trace marks from injections.
John writes about past experiences always pretty much. So he has many songs referencing to his drug addiction as well as his abusive stepfather.
This isn't really true. He's said many times that the only autobiographical albums are The Sunset Tree and We Shall all be Healed. Outside of those two albums, I have no idea what's going through his head.
This isn't really true. He's said many times that the only autobiographical albums are The Sunset Tree and We Shall all be Healed. Outside of those two albums, I have no idea what's going through his head.
@OctaVariuM8on So Goths and Beat the champ aren't autobiographical? The heroin analogy scans perfectly and it supported by parsing the text.
@OctaVariuM8on So Goths and Beat the champ aren't autobiographical? The heroin analogy scans perfectly and it supported by parsing the text.
And misleading Friends can also fit into this but only as the people who helped feed his addiction
Definitely a symbolic song, but I'd just like to say that I also love the story at its face value. Brave young cowboys, looking for the vampires who hurt them, most likely having killed someone close to them, and finally the find where they're hiding, opening the door to find "two young, savage things barely worth remembering", and then it switches perspective, and you see that the vampires hate living this way, and they're saying the same thing as the cowboys, "God damn these vampires for what they've done to me."
The "two young savage things, barely worth remembering" are human. They are seen in the reflection of the glass on the front door of the house, and vampires don't cast reflections.
The "two young savage things, barely worth remembering" are human. They are seen in the reflection of the glass on the front door of the house, and vampires don't cast reflections.
This is a song about people who are bad for other people. They hop on metaphorical rails, get the two of you arrested, arch their backs as they are handcuffed... they speed you along in metaphorical muscle cars, driving others off the road... whatever blood they drink is the vice that has gripped them and you, so that when you look in the mirror you see the mess they've made of you and them, or maybe you are the one responsible for the two young savage things in reflection.
The song seems to be about the world changing and becoming more built up against his will. The first verse is kind of the horses and cowboys on the plains. Then pretty soon he is in a trans-am. The verse ends about how they won't remember it. I think it kind of boils down to how everything advances and becomes built up; sometimes the past gets lost in that. Not sure about any of that- just the way it seems to me.
I can't help but think this is just a song about some guys who are bitten by vampires, and as time passes they have a harder and harder time remembering what life was like before the change. It plays like a narrative from a horror film.
I'm with you on this Recoveringmale, need the song have a deeper meaning? It's beautiful as it is.
I'm with you on this Recoveringmale, need the song have a deeper meaning? It's beautiful as it is.
It seems like it's about heroin addicts to me or just drug addicts in general. Lines like "god damn these bite marks, deep in my arteries" scream heroin to me.
@doortodoor Then you don't know much about heroin - or blood circulation. Heroin is injected in veins, and only veins, because veins soak up oxygen to carry to the heart. As soon as you puncture an artery, blood shoots everywhere. Actual or metaphorical vampires would go for arteries, and get the oxygen rich blood. Junkies go for veins every time, because they're putting stuff in. It's about vampires.
@doortodoor Then you don't know much about heroin - or blood circulation. Heroin is injected in veins, and only veins, because veins soak up oxygen to carry to the heart. As soon as you puncture an artery, blood shoots everywhere. Actual or metaphorical vampires would go for arteries, and get the oxygen rich blood. Junkies go for veins every time, because they're putting stuff in. It's about vampires.
I never thought of the heroin idea, but now that I think of it, it makes a lot of sense. The imagery of a needle as vampire's teeth is pretty interesting, and that's just what the song sounds like to me.