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Steal Smoked Fish Lyrics
Across the Burnside bridge
Before anyone shot their movies there
We hid from the whipping rain
When we had run out of cocaine
Dispatch down to plaid pantry
Two on point and two on sentry
Ah, the joys that the lesser days bring
Make you throw back your heads and sing
God bless all petty thieves
With tins of oysters up their sleeves
Feast when you can
And dream when theres nothing to feast on
Across a different bridge today
Over the river and down Broadway
Feels so good to have you here
Some of you will be dead next year
I see your destinies above you
Like angels who don't love you
Let them kiss you and hold you tight
As long as the money's right
God bless all my old friends
And god bless me too, why pretend?
Feast when you can
And dream when theres nothing to feast on
God bless the guys from my old neighborhood
Gone past the point where any blessings can do them any good
Attach the C-4 where you must
Disappear in a cloud of dust
But spare a thought for what it covers up
Pour a triple and raise your cup
We were here once, me and my friends
But we destroyed all of the evidence
And vanished into the night
At least we got that one right
God bless us, all of us
We who learn to shun the light
God bless all vampires every night
Feast when you can
Feast when you can
Feast when you can
Feast when you can
Before anyone shot their movies there
We hid from the whipping rain
When we had run out of cocaine
Dispatch down to plaid pantry
Two on point and two on sentry
Ah, the joys that the lesser days bring
Make you throw back your heads and sing
With tins of oysters up their sleeves
Feast when you can
And dream when theres nothing to feast on
Over the river and down Broadway
Feels so good to have you here
Some of you will be dead next year
I see your destinies above you
Like angels who don't love you
Let them kiss you and hold you tight
As long as the money's right
And god bless me too, why pretend?
Feast when you can
And dream when theres nothing to feast on
Gone past the point where any blessings can do them any good
Disappear in a cloud of dust
But spare a thought for what it covers up
Pour a triple and raise your cup
We were here once, me and my friends
But we destroyed all of the evidence
And vanished into the night
At least we got that one right
We who learn to shun the light
God bless all vampires every night
Feast when you can
Feast when you can
Feast when you can
Feast when you can
Song Info
Submitted by
lionelhutz On Sep 30, 2012
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I just wanna give some input that some may not know. It may add a little clarity to the song.
The burnside bridge is in Portland OR. Burnside is the street that divides the city north and south, so it is a pretty main street. Also, the thing about shooting films, I believe it was in the 90s when people, especially Gus Van Sant for example, shot films in Portland. In fact, his movie Paranoid Park (which was filmed much later, but still) was filmed in the Burnside Skatepark, underneath the east side of the Burnside Bridge.
Also, Plaid Pantry is a really prominent gas station chain in Portland OR. They tend to be not well maintained though.
Finally, the other bridge thing... The bridge north of Burnside is the Steel, and then just north of that is the Broadway bridge
I am fairly confident that this song is a prequel of sorts to "Damn These Vampires," released one year earlier on All Eternals Deck. Musically and lyrically they seem tied together, especially the naïve new vampire of this song saying "God bless all vampires every night," who then becomes the jaded, worn voice saying, "God damn these vampires for what they've done to me."
@bfreeby You've got it backwards. I had a twitter exchange with JD about it: https://twitter.com/mountain_goats/status/590747030571614208?cn=cmVwbHk%3D&refsrc=email.
@bfreeby You've got it backwards. I had a twitter exchange with JD about it: https://twitter.com/mountain_goats/status/590747030571614208?cn=cmVwbHk%3D&refsrc=email.
"God damn" is who he was in 1986, "God bless" is who he became.
"God damn" is who he was in 1986, "God bless" is who he became.
Recently saw the Mountain Goats live in Bloomington, IN (John's birthplace if you didn't know).
He told us that this was a song about the friends he would run around with looking for drugs in Portland. He said they were all good people mostly, but they were fucked up and many of them died.
This song is an ode to those old friends, dead and alive.
I've done the Boys's Program through the American Legion. I'm using the line "Feast when you can, and dream when there's nothing to feast on" as my motto. When we can eat, we eat like crazy, and when not, we dream about the things we don't have.