Heel Turn 2

Heel Turn 2
	;
Album	Beat the Champ
Released	April 7, 2015
Length	5:58
Previous Track	"Choked Out"
Next Track	"Fire Editorial"

Heel Turn 2 is the sixth song on Beat the Champ. On March 1, 2015, it was released for download on iTunes. It was featured as the weather in episode 63 of the Welcome to Night Vale podcast. It also appears as the seventh song on the 2020 live album The Jordan Lake Sessions: Volumes 1 and 2.

Lyrics[]

Get stomped like a snake
Lie down in the dirt
Cling to my convictions
Even when I get hurt
Be an upstanding well-loved man about town
In your child’s mind that's how it goes down

But I tried
The losing side
I don't want to die in here
I don't want to die in here

Drift down into the new dark light
Without any reservations
You found my breaking point
Congratulations
Spent too much of my life now trying to play fair
Throw my better self overboard, shoot at him when he comes up for air

Come unhinged
Get revenge
I don't want to die in here
I don't want to die in here

Stay good under pressure
For years and years and years and years
President of the fan club up there
Choking on his tears

Let all the trash rain down
From way up in the rafters
I'm walking out of here in one piece
Don't care what comes after

Drive the wedge
Torch the bridge
I don’t want to die in here
I don’t want to die in here

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]

"There are times in your life where you say 'fuck it. I'm not going to do what's right anymore. I tried that for a while, what did it get me? Hard times!' So you think, this is going to be kind of traumatic to suddenly start doing wrong all the time. And maybe you, in your life, try a wrong thing or two and think 'Oh man everybody hates me now I can't do that'. Make some changes and seek the righteous path again. In professional wrestling, when you turn from a 'face', which is short for babyface, which means good guy to 'heel', which is short for heel, that means bad guy, that turn is total. And it is beautiful, because you see somebody just immediately go 'I was over here on the good side, but I'm going over to the bad side'. There is no episode four, where you see, you know, oh it was a gradual descent into evil. It was right in front of you! It was right there. Suddenly you see a guy go 'man, fuck it'." -- 2015-04-19 - First Avenue - Minneapolis, MN
"Once in a while, the good guy will be standing in the centre of the ring, spotlight on him...taking punch after punch after punch weak on his knees...wobbling. You think he can’t take another punch but he can, you think he’s going to fall but he’s not, there’s too much power in the hero, in the good guy. He’s gonna die in there and then suddenly he reaches down, inside his being, and says; 'I’m going to cheat: I’m going to do what's wrong, I’m going to change - for the worse!'" -- 2021-08-26 - Royal Oak Music Theatre - Royal Oak, MI
"You ever get tired of being good? You ever look at the people who don't care that they're not doing good, and feel a sort of weird envy: you don't wanna be like them -- because they're assholes -- but you do wanna be like them, so they can see that you, too, could be an asshole." -- 2021-12-17 - Cat's Cradle - Carrboro, NC

Things Referenced in this Song[]

Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]

Videos of this Song[]

Beat the Champ
Track list: "Southwestern Territory" • "The Legend of Chavo Guerrero" • "Foreign Object" • "Animal Mask" • "Choked Out" • "Heel Turn 2" • "Fire Editorial" • "Stabbed to Death Outside San Juan" • "Werewolf Gimmick" • "Luna" • "Unmasked!" • "The Ballad of Bull Ramos" • "Hair Match"

The Jordan Lake Sessions: Volumes 1 and 2

Track list: "The Plague" • "Aulon Raid" • "Cry for Judas" • "Amy AKA Spent Gladiator 1" • "Until I Am Whole" • "Younger" • "Heel Turn 2" • "Southwestern Territory" • "The Diaz Brothers" • "Genesis 30:3" • "1 Samuel 15:23" • "Heretic Pride" • "Estate Sale Sign • "Getting Into Knives" • "Lion's Teeth" • "This Year" • "No Children" • "Lovecraft in Brooklyn" • "Tollund Man" • "Cotton" • "Pigs That Ran Straightaway into the Water, Triumph Of" • "In League with Dragons" • "Southwood Plantation Road" • "Lakeside View Apartments Suite" • "Tallahassee" • "My Little Panda" • "Love Cuts the Strings" • "International Small Arms Traffic Blues" • "Stabbed to Death Outside San Juan" • "Damn These Vampires" • "Foreign Object" • "Golden Boy" • "See America Right" • "Up the Wolves" • "This Year" • "Spent Gladiator 2"