Love Cuts the Strings

Love Cuts the Strings
	;
Album	Philyra
Released	1994
Artist	the Mountain Goats
Length	2:22
Previous Track	"The Monkey Song"
Next Track	"Pure Honey"

Love Cuts the Strings is the third song on the single Philyra. It was re-released on the compilation Protein Source of the Future...Now!. It also appears as the 27th song on the 2020 live album The Jordan Lake Sessions: Volumes 1 and 2.

Lyrics[]

First thing that happened was the river overflowed
The water running through the streets was sweet and cold
I knelt by the water like a doe by a stream
Punch-drunk, snowblind, as though the whole thing were a bad dream

And then love called out the heavy artillery
And Kypris took the horses by the bit for the morning ride
I count my blessings but you can only be expected to count so high
When love cuts the strings

I smeared myself with pennyroyal to keep the hounds at bay
And you poked your head out of an alley half a block away
And I recognized you though I'm not sure how
And the air turned red around you
As a dull chill came down over me

And then love summoned up the infantry
And the green-eyed goddess got ready for all-out war
I count my blessings
But I don't even know what the word blessing means 
When love cuts the strings

Yeah!

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]

"...I thought also on a holiday like this we think about where we come from and where we ended up and about our families and our chosen families and about the wide-ranging nature of love. And here's a song I wrote very early on in the days of the Mountain Goats. It's called 'Love Cuts the Strings'." -- 2020-05-10 - Can't Be There Today: Billy Bragg and The City Winery All-Stars - Durham, NC

Things Referenced in this Song[]

Kypris (or Cypris) is an epithet of the Greek goddess Aphrodite

Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]

Videos of this Song[]

Philyra
Side One: "Third Snow Song" • "The Monkey Song" Side Two: "Love Cuts the Strings" • "Pure Honey"

Protein Source of the Future...Now!

Track list: "Going to Tennessee" • "Pure Heat" • "Handball" • "The Window Song" • "Night of the Mules" • "Going to Malibu" • "Billy the Kid's Dream of the Magic Shoes" • "Fresh Berries for You" • "Alphabetizing" • "Third Snow Song" • "The Monkey Song" • "Love Cuts the Strings" • "Pure Honey" • "Duke Ellington" • "Seed Song" • "Quetzalcoatl Comes Through • "Omega Blaster" • "Coco-Yam Song" • "Alagemo" • "Two Thousand Seasons" • "Chinese Rifle Song" • "Yam, the King of Crops • "Alpha Omega"

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"