Darnielle began the new millennium with The Coroner's Gambit for Absolutely Kosher before signing to 4AD for the release of the surprisingly polished Tallahassee in 2002. We Shall All Be Healed followed in 2004, and one year later, Darnielle was back with The Sunset Tree. Remaining as prolific as ever, Darnielle turned away from the intensity of The Sunset Tree for a calmer, more reflective set of songs on 2006's Get Lonely. The accessible and assured Heretic Pride appeared in 2008. Next up was the Bible verse-inspired The Life of the World to Come, the group's sixth album for 4AD, in 2010. Switching to Merge Records in 2011, Darnielle released All Eternals Deck, which was recorded in four different studios in Brooklyn, Boston, North Carolina, and Florida with four different producers -- John Congleton, Scott Solter, Brandon Eggleston, and Morbid Angel guitarist and Hate Eternal frontman Erik Rutan -- helming various tracks. That year the band was also handpicked by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he was curating in Minehead, England, but they were ultimately unable to appear due to scheduling issues.
Stabbed to Death Outside San Juan
The Mountain Goats Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Take a match in Puerto Rico, why not
Power and adrenaline flowing like amber
From the recesses of the earth, put on your waders
And twitch when the water runs high sometimes
Twitch when the tide ebbs low
See the sights, maybe go downtown
When the blade hits the bone, everybody hears it sing
Shower room full of people, no one hears a goddamned thing
A twitch when the current runs wild sometimes
Twitch when the contact howls
All that racket out there in the arena
I'm on a stretcher, here come the cleaners
And the sky goes dark and there I am
Climbing down the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram
I drop from the top of my tall steel cage
Drop to the concrete floor
In The Mountain Goats's song Stabbed to Death Outside San Juan, the lyrics paint a vivid picture of a violent scene taking place, perhaps in Puerto Rico, with references to powerful elements such as water running high and the heat following you around. The verses seem to contrast the beauty and rawness of nature with the ugliness and brutality of mankind. The mention of a blade hitting bone, in particular, highlights the harsh reality of violence and its sometimes-silent aftermath.
The chorus seems to take a psychedelic turn with references to an arena, a stretcher, and climbing down the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, which is a chart used in astronomy to categorize stars. This imagery is perhaps meant to convey a feeling of being lost or overwhelmed by the chaos of the scene. The final line, "drop to the concrete floor," takes on a finality and darkness that leaves the listener with a sense of unease.
Overall, the lyrics to Stabbed to Death Outside San Juan create a eerie and unsettling atmosphere. The song seems to be a meditation on violence and the ways in which we are often powerless to stop or prevent it from happening.
Line by Line Meaning
The winter's wet, and the summer's hot
The seasons change but life goes on
Take a match in Puerto Rico, why not
Let's do something reckless and dangerous
Power and adrenaline flowing like amber
Intense feelings running high
From the recesses of the earth, put on your waders
Go deep into something unsettling
And twitch when the water runs high sometimes
React to danger in unpredictable ways
Twitch when the tide ebbs low
Even when things are calm, there is always underlying tension
See the sights, maybe go downtown
Exploring new places and experiencing different things
Sometimes you get some heat, sometimes it follows you around
Trouble can come at any moment and from any direction
When the blade hits the bone, everybody hears it sing
Violent acts have a ripple effect and impact many people
Shower room full of people, no one hears a goddamned thing
In situations of violence or trauma, people often remain silent or ignore what's happening
A twitch when the current runs wild sometimes
Behaving in unexpected ways when under stress
Twitch when the contact howls
Reacting to the intense and overwhelming feelings in a difficult situation
All that racket out there in the arena
There's a lot of chaos and noise in the world
I'm on a stretcher, here come the cleaners
After a traumatic event, people come to clean up the mess and move on
And the sky goes dark and there I am
Feeling lost and confused after experiencing something traumatic
Climbing down the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram
Feeling like life is one big science experiment, trying to make sense of it all
I drop from the top of my tall steel cage
Feeling trapped and helpless in a difficult situation
Drop to the concrete floor
Facing the harsh and painful reality of what's happened
Lyrics © ME GUSTA MUSIC
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
bob tod
+TonightWeThrash Sadly, you've been overexposed to the gimmickry that is WWE. The soap opera like storylines and predictable feuds have given professional wrestling a bad name. This album captures the real mystique and grit of wrestling, primarily in the 80s when it was still very much perceived as real.
And it was in many ways. Fans would get riotous over the bad guys (Ric Flair barely made it out of Puerto Rico), the wrestlers would start a fight if you dared to drop the "fake" bomb.
There is something mesmerizing about the atmosphere of a dark stadium lit up only by a grungy ring. I have never existed in the 80's, but watching old school wrestling sure makes me feel like it. The most interesting aspect is the backstage politics. For example, this song covers the story of Bruiser Brody who was stabbed in a shower after a match apparently because of a disagreement with one of the promotions refs.
Back then wrestlers were like independent contractors, going from territory to territory to establish their own name, unlike now where its just a matter if WWE wants to push you. WWE has turned a very unique thing in human culture to a overproduced squeaky clean PC soap opera. Thankfully guys like The Mountain Goats are around to keep that old aura around.
TonightWeThrash
i have never ever in my life been interested in wrestling, but this record seriously makes me feel it
bob tod
+TonightWeThrash Sadly, you've been overexposed to the gimmickry that is WWE. The soap opera like storylines and predictable feuds have given professional wrestling a bad name. This album captures the real mystique and grit of wrestling, primarily in the 80s when it was still very much perceived as real.
And it was in many ways. Fans would get riotous over the bad guys (Ric Flair barely made it out of Puerto Rico), the wrestlers would start a fight if you dared to drop the "fake" bomb.
There is something mesmerizing about the atmosphere of a dark stadium lit up only by a grungy ring. I have never existed in the 80's, but watching old school wrestling sure makes me feel like it. The most interesting aspect is the backstage politics. For example, this song covers the story of Bruiser Brody who was stabbed in a shower after a match apparently because of a disagreement with one of the promotions refs.
Back then wrestlers were like independent contractors, going from territory to territory to establish their own name, unlike now where its just a matter if WWE wants to push you. WWE has turned a very unique thing in human culture to a overproduced squeaky clean PC soap opera. Thankfully guys like The Mountain Goats are around to keep that old aura around.
Jesse Betend
@TonightWeThrash Right? This record is amazing. I finally get it.
Lilac Mesh
STRAIGHT FROM WIKIPEDIA
On July 16, 1988, Brody was in the locker room before his match with Dan Spivey in Bayamón (a city near San Juan, Puerto Rico), when José Huertas González, a fellow wrestler and booker, asked him to go into the shower to discuss business. Brody entered the shower stall and a few minutes later a scuffle ensued, followed by two groans, loud enough for the entire locker room to hear. Tony Atlas ran to the shower and saw Brody bent over and holding his stomach. Atlas then looked up at González and saw him holding a knife. When the paramedics arrived, Atlas carried Brody downstairs to the waiting ambulance, as, due to Brody's enormous stature, paramedics were unable to lift him. Brody's last words (as told to Atlas) were, "Tell my little son I love him, and tell my wife I love her, too."
tim west
I was born on July 16th
tim west
@The Locust God day I was born
The Locust God
Vice did an episode of Dark Side of the Ring on Bruiser Brody, if anyone is interested.
YF Zaouli
damn
Michael Jacques
I've heard this performed twice; once accompanied by a cello, as in this recording, and once with a sax. Both were terrific!
Aaron Kordish
RIP Brody. Your legend still lives on, and will last forever.