Your Belgian Things Lyrics
They'll store them for you in an airplane hangar
There's guys in biohazard suits
Mud caking on their rubber boots
They've come to keep your pretty things from danger
They'll spend the whole day hauling them downstairs
I shot a roll of thirty-two exposures
My camera groans beneath the weight it bears
Playing the points for all you're worth
Walking gingerly across the bruised earth
They waltzed right through the door and went flourescent
Their boots were black and shiny and your treasures gleamed like stars
Bones from deep down in the fertile crescent
There's too much information in the pipes
I saw the mess you left up in the east bedroom
A tiger's never gonna change its stripes
I guess
I guess but Jesus what a mess
One way in and no way out
And only I was here to see them do it
I wish you had a number where you are
It's hard with no one here to help me through it
Playing the points for all you're worth
Walking gingerly across the bruised earth
I think its about someone getting sent to jail for meth because We Shall All Be Healed is about the meth people John used to know. He said that Belgium is where the meth users are trying to go when they do meth, I think. Or something like that. It's about losing someone because they went to jail.
"There's guys in biohazard suits" is cause they wear those when they clean up meth labs.
"I shot a roll of thirty-two exposures My camera groans beneath the weight it bears" is photgraphing the evidence.
"They waltzed right through the door and went flourescent" is cause it was like biohazardous.
"Their boots were black and shiny and your treasures gleamed like stars Bones from deep down in the fertile crescent" is cause meth is kind of shiny... maybe.
"A tiger's never gonna change its stripes I guess I guess but Jesus what a mess One way in and no way out" cause it's hard to change when youre addicted to drugs.
"I wish you had a number where you are It's hard with no one here to help me through it" Cause he wishes he knew how to contact this person, and its hard losing them.
I agree with this theory, though I always thought this song and Mole were linked, so that instead of jail, the person he's singing about went to the hospital because of the meth lab explosion.
I agree with this theory, though I always thought this song and Mole were linked, so that instead of jail, the person he's singing about went to the hospital because of the meth lab explosion.
Maybe the bes Mountain Goats song ever. It almost made me cry when I first reall paid attention to the lyrics.
Parts of the song are cryptic, but it's clearly about the death of a close friend. I'm not sure what "Belgian Things" are, but maybe they simply refer to the corpse of the deceased. (After all, they are refered to in one line as "bones from deep down in the fertile crescent.")
The best lyrics are late in the song. My favorite line: A tiger's never gonna change its stripes. I guess, I guess, but Jesus what a mess." Something about the way he sings that line is so heartbreaking.
I can see everyone's interpretation making sense here, but for me this song will always be about suicide by gunshot. "One way in, no way out." "I saw the mess you left up in the east bedroom."
I this interpretation is possible. Death by suicide or injury, injury, or arrest are also, strictly speaking, compatible with the lyrics. The only thing that gives me pause about the suicide angle is the "a tiger's never gonna change it's stripes" line that's sandwiched into the part about the east bedroom. It seems the mess he's referring to is the result on an ongoing trend in the addressed character. I would say this makes more since in a situation where the bedroom was simply trashed in a moment of rage (this was my initial mental image). Alternatively...
I this interpretation is possible. Death by suicide or injury, injury, or arrest are also, strictly speaking, compatible with the lyrics. The only thing that gives me pause about the suicide angle is the "a tiger's never gonna change it's stripes" line that's sandwiched into the part about the east bedroom. It seems the mess he's referring to is the result on an ongoing trend in the addressed character. I would say this makes more since in a situation where the bedroom was simply trashed in a moment of rage (this was my initial mental image). Alternatively this could be about the mess caused by a meth lab explosion which may have killed or maimed the person he's "talking" to. This all to foreseeable conclusion to continually cooking something like meth could make the tiger never changing it's stripes about a person who, no matter what can't stop cooking. This also makes sense of the "one way in, no way out" line since the character got into making meth and was at some point going to die doing it.
When I listen to this song, this is the feeling it evokes: losing someone you love, too young, perhaps to cancer, and being left to pick up the things they left behind. It is an incredibly painful process. My sister had to do this when her husband died at 33 years--his desk, his motorcycle tools, his clothes. The things that are left behind.
i didn't really realize how emotional this song was until i saw them play last night, and watched him perform it. the audience was completely silent and still, and he sang it so well. the "i guess, but jesus, what a mess" was definitely the finest point -- the whole thing is fantastic.
incredible song. i love the emotion and beauty of it.
I definitely agree that this song seems to be about loss, though I'm not sure the loss of a life. The album was written about Darnielle & Co. using drugs in Belgium, but everything's gotta come to an end. I'd like to think this song is quite simply the removal of their possessions and transport into an airplane hangar - where they would be shipped elsewhere. The mess left up in the east bedroom may be the continuation of bad behaviors, instead of packing someone was strung out. Live, however, this song's culimating lines state "Tracy I can see you in my sleep," and that makes the death angle more probable. Especially given Darnielle's (?) camera "groaning beneath the weight it bears." This is conjecture. The song is still tear-elicitingly beautiful.
In another live version, he's sung "Jackie I wish you had a number where you are." Maybe this song is about multiple passings. Or maybe none.
I think xcats is pretty correct about everything. The treasures gleaming like stars and everything going florescent is the cops using black light to clean everything up. naturally, stuff would have been spilled, and that (as well as everything else) is glowing under the black lights.
the "i wish you had a number where you are, it's hard with no one here to help me through it" could be a few things. The person the song is about (or people) either died, or probably arrested, or just left. John (the "me") is having a hard time coping with everything, maybe even trying to get off meth, but is having trouble with no motivation/people to help him.
i heard that this song is specifically about a friend whose meth lab blew up