Distant Stations

Distant Stations
	;
Album	All Hail West Texas
Released	2002
Artist	the Mountain Goats
Length	3:04
Previous Track	"Jeff Davis County Blues"
Next Track	"Blues in Dallas"

Distant Stations is the 11th song on the album All Hail West Texas.

Lyrics[]

I found an old rock in the dry dirt outside
the door of my motel room.
it was a triangle with soft rounded edges
and a split down the middle of one corner.
it was darker than English moss.
green like the soft frills of a peacock's plume.
I waited for you, but I never told you where I was.
it was you who taught me how to write these kinds of equations.
I waited on the steps for you,
and I hid in the bushes whenever a car pulled into the parking lot.
you taught me how to listen to these distant stations.
distant stations.

I saw the sky break.
I threw a rock at a crow who was playing in the mulch of some rose bushes by the motel office.
missed him by a good yard or two.
I sang old songs from nowhere.
Los Angeles.
Albuquerque.
I said a small prayer for the poor and the naked and the hungry.
and I prayed real hard for you.
I waited for you, but I never told you where I was.
it was you who taught me how to write this kind of equation.
I waited on the steps for you,
and I hid in the bushes whenever a car pulled into the parking lot.
you taught me how to listen to these distant stations.
distant stations.

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]

"The song is like a study of inaction, right, of a guy who — if you write indie songs, usually your early narrators are, they think being a stalker is a romantic thing to do. You find this, that all young indie songwriters, myself included, is, they think, 'What is a more romantic figure to cut than a guy who is obsessed with some girl and is stalking her?' Hopefully, though not always, you grow out of that. But you still are interested in these guys who are tormented by these feelings that they have. So, my stalkers don't do jack, that's their new thing, they sort of just think about it and maybe, you know, walk past a building whose name is the same as the state where his intended lives." -- 2007-06-17 - Zoop - Farm Sanctuary - Watkins Glen, NY

Things Referenced in this Song[]

Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]

All Hail West Texas

Track list: "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton" • "Fall of the Star High School Running Back" • "Color in Your Cheeks" • "Jenny" • "Fault Lines" • "Balance" • "Pink and Blue" • "Riches and Wonders" • "The Mess Inside" • "Jeff Davis County Blues" • "Distant Stations" • "Blues in Dallas" • "Source Decay" • "Absolute Lithops Effect"
Reissue bonus tracks: "Hardpan Song" • "Answering the Phone" • "Indonesia" • "Midland" • "Jenny" (alt. take) • "Tape Travel Is Lonely" • "Waco"

Distant Stations

Album	All Hail West Texas
Released	2002
Artist	the Mountain Goats
Length	3:04
Previous Track	"Jeff Davis County Blues"
Next Track	"Blues in Dallas"