Lanegan began his musical career in 1984 with Screaming Trees, with whom he released seven studio albums and five EPs before their disbandment in 2000. During his time with the band, he also started a solo career and released his first solo studio album, The Winding Sheet, in 1990. He subsequently released a further 10 solo albums, which received critical recognition but only moderate commercial success. Following the end of Screaming Trees, he became a frequent collaborator of Queens of the Stone Age, and was a full-time member between 2001 and 2005 during the Songs for the Deaf and Lullabies to Paralyze eras.
Lanegan collaborated with various artists throughout his career. In the 1990s, he and Kurt Cobain recorded an album of Lead Belly covers that was ultimately never released. He also joined Layne Staley and Mike McCready in the band Mad Season, and formed the alternative rock group The Gutter Twins with Greg Dulli in 2003, as well as contributing to releases by Moby, Bomb the Bass, Soulsavers, Tinariwen, The Twilight Singers, Manic Street Preachers, and Unkle, among others.
Lanegan struggled with addiction to drugs and alcohol throughout his life, but had been sober for over a decade at the time of his death. Encouraged by his friend Anthony Bourdain, he released the memoir Sing Backwards and Weep in 2020. He followed this up in 2021 with the memoir Devil in a Coma, which focused on his near-death experience with COVID-19. He and his wife Shelley Brien left the U.S. in 2020 and settled in the Irish town of Killarney, where he died two years later at the age of 57. No cause of death was revealed.
Studio albums
The Winding Sheet (1990)
Whiskey for the Holy Ghost (1994)
Scraps at Midnight (1998)
I'll Take Care of You (1999)
Field Songs (2001)
Bubblegum (2004)
Blues Funeral (2012)
Imitations (2013)
Phantom Radio (2014)
Gargoyle (2017)
Somebody's Knocking (2019)
Straight Songs of Sorrow (2020)
Man In The Long Black Coat
Mark Lanegan Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
There's a soft cotton dress on the line hangin' dry,
Window wide open, African trees
Bent over backwards from a hurricane breeze.
Not a word of goodbye, note even a note,
She gone with the man
In the long black coat.
Somebody seen him hanging around
At the old dance hall on the outskirts of town,
He looked into her eyes when she stopped to ask
If he wanted to dance, he had a face like a mask.
Somebody said from the Bible he'd quote
There was dust on the man
In the long black coat.
Preacher was a talkin' there's a sermon he gave,
He said every man's conscience is vile and depraved,
You cannot depend on it to be your guide
When it's you who must keep it satisfied.
It ain't easy to swallow, it sticks in the throat,
She gave her heart to the man
In the long black coat.
There are no mistakes in life some people say
It is true sometimes you can see it that way.
Bridge: But people don't live or die, people just float.
She went with the man
In the long black coat.
There's smoke on the water, it's been there since June,
Tree trunks uprooted, 'neath the high crescent moon
Feel the pulse and vibration and the rumbling force
Somebody is out there beating the dead horse.
She never said nothing there was nothing she wrote,
She gone with the man
In the long black coat.
The song "Man in the Long Black Coat" by Mark Lanegan tells a story of a woman who leaves her partner for a mysterious stranger dressed in a long black coat. The first verse describes the setting: crickets are chirping, the water is high, and there is a hurricane breeze knocking African trees. The woman has left without a word of goodbye, and is now with the man in the long black coat. The chorus of the song repeats this line, emphasizing the sense of loss and uncertainty.
The second verse introduces another character who has seen the man in the long black coat around town. He is described as having a face like a mask and is rumored to quote from the Bible. The song then switches to a preacher giving a sermon about the depravity of human nature, and the idea that one cannot rely on their conscience to be their guide. This idea adds to the sense of uncertainty and fear in the song.
The bridge of the song states that "people don't live or die, people just float," suggesting a sense of powerlessness in the face of fate. The final verse describes smoke on the water, uprooted tree trunks, and a rumbling force -- emphasizing the chaos and confusion of the situation. The woman never speaks or writes anything, and has vanished with the man in the long black coat, leaving behind a sense of unanswered questions and unresolved emotions.
Line by Line Meaning
Crickets are chirpin', the water is high,
The atmosphere is humid and stagnant; nothing seems to be happening, except for the occasional sound from nature
There's a soft cotton dress on the line hangin' dry,
Laundry has been hung out to dry, perhaps implying some sense of domesticity, though one of a suspended nature, given the stagnant environment.
Window wide open, African trees
The landscape is alien and foreign to the singer.
Bent over backwards from a hurricane breeze.
The wind is powerful enough to move towering trees, an almost apocalyptic situation, but the artist seems to be observing the situation from a detached standpoint.
Not a word of goodbye, note even a note,
There was no explanation given for the departure of the woman who left with the man in the long black coat.
She gone with the man In the long black coat.
The woman left with a seemingly dangerous character, although this is not made explicit. The danger is conveyed through the visuals of the trope of the man in the long black coat.
Somebody seen him hanging around
The man in the long black coat had been sighted in the proximity of the woman prior to her leaving with him.
At the old dance hall on the outskirts of town,
The dance hall seems to be a seedy venue, known only to the regulars, who might have seen the man lurking around the periphery.
He looked into her eyes when she stopped to ask
The man showed a certain level of familiarity with the woman, which she seemed to reciprocate.
If he wanted to dance, he had a face like a mask.
The man seemed to be guarded, his expression not revealing any emotion or intent.
Somebody said from the Bible he'd quote,
The man had been associated with biblical texts, which had been quoted in his presence/maybe by him. The implication is that the man was perhaps a preacher or associated with the church, further making him an enigmatic figure.
There was dust on the man In the long black coat.
The man seems to be dusty and enigmatic, maybe even almost ghostlike.
Preacher was a talkin' there's a sermon he gave,
The preacher's sermon had been one of condemnation of human nature, leaving people without guidance or support, except for the church.
He said every man's conscience is vile and depraved,
The preacher argued that human nature is inherently bad and immoral, thereby placing people in a dire situation that cannot be rectified by their own efforts.
You cannot depend on it to be your guide
The preacher implied that one's conscience is an unreliable guide, a sentiment that seems to be shared by the singer, given the woman's choice to leave with the man in the long black coat.
When it's you who must keep it satisfied.
The responsibility for one's actions rests squarely on the individual, which can be an almost unbearable weight to carry.
It ain't easy to swallow, it sticks in the throat,
The sermon doesn't offer any comfort or resolution, only a bitter pill to swallow.
She gave her heart to the man In the long black coat.
The woman gave her affection and trust to a man who seems shady and enigmatic at best, and dangerous at worst.
There are no mistakes in life some people say
The singer is conveying a certain belief system about life that suggests everything is predestined and that things unfold as they should, without human intervention.
It is true sometimes you can see it that way.
The artist concedes that sometimes things do fall into place with a sense of inevitability.
But people don't live or die, people just float.
Life is almost meaningless, reduced to mere existence, a passive act.
She went with the man In the long black coat.
The woman seems to have been at the mercy of her fate once she had decided to leave with the man in the long black coat.
There's smoke on the water, it's been there since June,
There's some kind of environmental or atmospheric disturbance that's been ongoing for some time.
Tree trunks uprooted, 'neath the high crescent moon
The environment is responding to the disturbance by uprooting trees, a sign that the disturbance is significant in nature.
Feel the pulse and vibration and the rumbling force
The environment is alive with an ominous force whose nature is not made explicit.
Somebody is out there beating the dead horse.
There's somebody out there, maybe an agitator, trying to keep the disturbance going for their own reasons.
She never said nothing there was nothing she wrote,
The woman left without a word, leaving no indication of her whereabouts or her motivations as to why she had decided to leave.
She gone with the man In the long black coat.
The woman had been convinced to follow a man who seems esoteric and dangerous, the consequences of which are yet to be known.
Contributed by Jacob M. Suggest a correction in the comments below.