The Mountain Goats
In League with Dragons (Jordan Lake Sessions Volume 2)
[Verse 1]
It's so hard to get revenge
The human element drags you down
Lead a solitary life if you can
Try not to show your face in town
Let the breezes find such scandals as they may
Open up the variables
Find a way

[Refrain]
Make it real, make a deal
Until my protector comes

[Verse 2]
It's so hard to be yourself
When you've already seen the inside
Try to navigate the turns as best you can
Headed on down the slide
Good friends are where you find thеm
People talk all kinds of trash, nevеr you mind them

[Refrain]
Make it real, make a deal
Until my protector comes

[Bridge]
Huge wings blotting out the sun
Remembering everyone
[Verse 3]
It's gonna be so hard to look away
You gotta be strong in the face of suffering
I cut a good figure just in case somebody's watching
Even if it ends up meaning nothing
Let the breezes spread such scandal as they may
Maybe Boris Vallejo paints the back of your head someday

[Refrain]
Make it real, make a deal
Until my protector comes
Until my protector comes

[Outro]
Can I, can I say something real quick? You may
See when we have a crowd, yeah, one thing
I don't think we've ever talked about this, but when we have a crowd
There's, like, I've got a little scene over here
Yeah, you've got the, the, the what are they called, the Matt Massives, yeah, The Mattheads
The Mattheads over here, and Matt Massives was better, Matt Massives is better
But after that solo is over, when you pop, when you're in the pocket
If it's really good, I look over here (And they show you respect), everybody, and they know the deal with me
They know what Matt brings, they know what I bring
And they look and they're like, "Okay, good job, bud" (Yeah, they give you the thumbs up)
Do they hold up like Olympic cards?
Like a nine, eight, seven point five, and there's always a one who won't give you higher than a seven point five
There's always that guy but then when I shit the bed on it
Which is similar to that last one (Nah)
I look over there and I go like this, "Eh"
And they all go, "Eh", it's great, I feel like we have a thing
The thing is, what Matt is saying, the heavy truth behind what Matt is saying is that missing the audience is such a very intense things for us
We're used to playing music, is great at home, and is great with your friends, is great in the studio, and all that is great, but for me
Uh, and this is like something I thought a lot about theoretically when I was in college, you know
And I think about it with poetry too
The place that poetry lives is on the tongue and the place that music lives is in the house, right
That's where, I once uh, Art Garfunkel doesn't use monitors
Speaking of Paul Simon's former writing partner
Uh, doesn't use monitors, he listens to the house
And I get that, because like what, what you all, the audience, bring to us is incredibly special and something we miss terribly
And it winds up showing in our playing sometimes
But uh, yeah, you'll hear me say this again time or two while I got you on camera
But we miss you, it's hard to be without the people who have made our lives as blessed as they are for the last twenty years
And uh, as soon as there's a vaccine, I'll play 200 hundred shows that year
Peter will play 200, I will miss about 50 of those, but Peter will play a wicked bass solo and the audience will give him respect for that
Uh, what are we playing?
This is called, man, I know this song
This song was on Tallahasee (Love that one)
It's called "Southwood Plantation Road"