This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Well they come and pull me from my house
And they drag my body through the streets
And the sun’s so hot I think I’ll catch fire and burn up
in the summer air so moist and sweet
And the people all come out to cheer
Rocks in the pathway break my skin
And there’s honeysuckle on the faint breeze today
With every breath I’m drawing in
I want to cry out but I don’t scream and I don’t shout
And I feel so proud to be alive
And I feel so proud when the reckoning arrives
Crowds grow denser by the second
As we near the center of the town
And they dig a trench right in the main square right there
And they pick me up and throw me down
And I start laughing like a child
And I mark their faces one by one
Transfigurations gonna come for me at last
And I will burn hotter than the sun
I waited so long and now I taste jasmine on my tongue
And I feel so proud to be alive
And I feel so proud when the reckoning arrives
And they drag my body through the streets
And the sun’s so hot I think I’ll catch fire and burn up
in the summer air so moist and sweet
And the people all come out to cheer
Rocks in the pathway break my skin
And there’s honeysuckle on the faint breeze today
With every breath I’m drawing in
I want to cry out but I don’t scream and I don’t shout
And I feel so proud to be alive
And I feel so proud when the reckoning arrives
Crowds grow denser by the second
As we near the center of the town
And they dig a trench right in the main square right there
And they pick me up and throw me down
And I start laughing like a child
And I mark their faces one by one
Transfigurations gonna come for me at last
And I will burn hotter than the sun
I waited so long and now I taste jasmine on my tongue
And I feel so proud to be alive
And I feel so proud when the reckoning arrives
Lyrics submitted by mdon06
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A beautiful quote from Albert Camus's The Stranger which basically contains the same message/sentiment as Heretic Pride:
"As if that blind rage had washed me clean, rid me of hope; for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself–so like a brother, really–I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again. For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate."
Love this song.
This is great, thanks!
I want to live every day feeling like this song. Every moment will be the reckoning, and god damnit, I want to feel so proud to be alive.
Gives me goosebumps every time I hear it. "I waited so long, and now I taste jasmine on my tongue"? This image is unbeatable.
John Darnielle blows my mind.
Whether or not it was intentional, I always see this as the third act to the story established by New Monster Avenue and If You See Light (which I'm fairly sure are intentionally connected). New Monster Avenue, the narator wakes up and sees the calm of morning disrupted by their neighbors "on their front porches/waving torches". If You See Light he is hiding from the villagers as they come to his door, and then in Heretic Pride he's dragged out and burned at the stake.
Easily my favorite song on the new album.
And Soybomb, I disagree. "New Monster Avenue" was about John, while this song is about a fictional character. Of course you can bring in your own meaning, but I figured I'd mention that.
jakebert.wordpress.com
I have absolutely no idea why this song makes me think of this... But from the first time I heard it it made me visualize the antichrist being pulled from his home and publicly tortured. Happy about being released from his mortal shell and becomming a demon. This is only my second Mountain Goats album (first was Tallahassee) and I'm head over heels about this band.
Absolutely amazing. love the foreshadowing here: And the suns so hot I think I'll catch fire and burn up...
I'm pretty sure this is song about exactly what the title says: heretic pride. A heretic is getting killed, presumably by getting burnt at the stake. Yet, they're proud because this is what they believe in.
I get goosebumps too. I'm amazed and thrilled and cannot get enough of this album.
The pride in living for what you believe. Strong enough to die for it.
This is the most amazing song...
john darnielle and jeffery lewis made a comic explaining each song on the new album, you can look at it here:
thejeffreylewissite.com/Mt-Goats-Press-Kit-08.html