Heretic Pride (Song)

Heretic Pride
	;
Album	Heretic Pride
Released	2008
Artist	the Mountain Goats
Length	3:43
Previous Track	"San Bernardino"
Next Track	"Autoclave"

Heretic Pride is the third song on the album Heretic Pride. It also appears as the twelfth song on the 2020 live album The Jordan Lake Sessions: Volumes 1 and 2.

Press Kit notes[]

Heretic Pride

Title unconsciously cribbed from some Aura Noir lyrics

I am always happy to learn that black metal phrasings have burrowed their way into my subconscious.

You could call this song a persecution fantasy, but really, who can even say the word "fantasy" without flinching?

Not me, and I have a stronger stomach than most.

Spoiler alert: The main character here will not live long after he gets done lauding his imminent demise.

Lyrics[]

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
Transfiguration’s gonna come for me at last
And I will burn hotter than the sun

I’ve 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

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]

"This is a song about how, uh, sometimes you reach a point where you know they're going to kill you and when you come to that point, for a while, you feel resentful about it, 'cause you don't want to die, but then you start to really settle into your role as the person who wants to be killed, and you start to say to yourself, 'When they kill me, I hope my blood gets on them. That's going to be awesome, to see the gore from my innards spattering their guilty, filthy faces as they destroy me from top to bottom. Man, I wish they would do it today and stop putting it off. They think I don't know.'" -- 2008-10-14 - Pabst Theater - Milwaukee, WI
"This is a song about lighting the saints on fire." -- 2018-05-29 - Old Town School of Folk Music - Chicago, IL

Things Referenced in this Song[]

Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]

Videos of this Song[]

Heretic Pride
Track list: "Sax Rohmer #1" • "San Bernardino" • "Heretic Pride" • "Autoclave" • "New Zion" • "So Desperate" • "In the Craters on the Moon" • "Lovecraft in Brooklyn" • "Tianchi Lake" • "How to Embrace a Swamp Creature" • "Marduk T-Shirt Men's Room Incident" • "Sept. 15 1983" • "Michael Myers Resplendent" Bonus tracks: "Toolshed" • "Last Man on Earth"

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"