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Lakeside View Apartments Suite Lyrics

Downtown north past the airport
A dream in switchgrass and concrete
Three gray floors of smoky windows
Facing the street

Michael pulls the blinds back up
Stares blankly down at the intersection
Watching for the guy who's got the angel dust
Crystal clear connection

Days like dominoes
All in a line
We cheer for the home team every time
Lakeside View, Lakeside View
Lakeside View for my whole crew

Most nights now sleep in the kitchen
Keep my face cool on the floor
And John, John comes by to drop off his envelopes
Still playing postman after all these years

Pull down my army surplus jacket
Dig through some drawers to find the keys
Emerge transformed in a million years
From days like these

Under each eye little greasepaint smudge
You can't judge us - you're not the judge
Lakeside View, Lakeside View
Lakeside View for my whole crew

And just before I leave
I throw up in the sink
One whole life recorded
In disappearing ink

And Ray left a message thumbtacked to the door
I don't even bother trying to read them anymore
Lakeside View Lakeside View,
Lakeside View for my whole crew
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Cover art for Lakeside View Apartments Suite lyrics by Mountain Goats, The

"Veins full of disappearing ink Vomiting in the kitchen sink" -Elliott Smith, A Fond Farewell

So glad I wasn't the only one to be reminded of "A Fond Farewell" here!

Cover art for Lakeside View Apartments Suite lyrics by Mountain Goats, The

Great song, probably my favorite on the album. Never picked up on that Elliott Smith reference. That's pretty cool. Anyway, it seems to be a pretty straightforward piece about a drug den, but it's told in an incredibly evocative manner.

Cover art for Lakeside View Apartments Suite lyrics by Mountain Goats, The

Everytime I hear "You can't judge us - you're not the judge" I think of Darnelle singing it to Judge John Hodgeman.

Cover art for Lakeside View Apartments Suite lyrics by Mountain Goats, The

Recently saw the Mountain Goats live in Bloomington, IN (John's birthplace if you didn't know).

Before this song John said it was about the strange, terrifying places he would go looking for drugs. He talked about now knowing where they were, how long they had been there, or if they even existed at all. They had a certain dark power, and after your time with that dark power you needed to leave. However, there is something special about your time with the dark power.

This song is about the dark power.

Song Meaning

@gnjanson I think John is kind of an unreliable narrator when it comes to the meanings of his songs. I\'ve heard him give completely different explanations to what a song is about before playing it and you can look at songs on here and people talking about what he said and them being different. I really don\'t think most of his songs are as personal to him as you would think (some obviously are) and what the song is about, changes for him and may not be what it was about when he wrote it.

Cover art for Lakeside View Apartments Suite lyrics by Mountain Goats, The

"You can't judge us, you're not the judge" is one of my favorite lines ever. You don't have to have worked in a drug den to be able to empathize and relate to that line. .

 
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