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in: Transcendental Youth songs, Video

Night Light

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Night Light
TranscendentalYouth

Album

Transcendental Youth

Released

2012

Artist

the Mountain Goats

Length

3:59

Previous track

"Until I Am Whole"

Next track

"The Diaz Brothers"

Night Light is the seventh song on the album Transcendental Youth. A demo of the song was posted on Merge Records's SoundCloud in 2012.

Lyrics[]

Pull my mask so tight
Til it pinches my skin
Nerves strung so high
I am a mandolin
Jenny calls from Montana
She's only passing through
Probably never see her again in this life I guess
Not sure what I'm gonna do

Plug a night light in
Leave the porch light on
Because the small dark corners have designs on me
Live like an outlaw
Clutching gold coins in his claw

Room full of ambitious young policemen
Everybody trying to make his mark
I was a red dot blinking on a screen up overhead
And then the room went dark
Dream of maybe waking up someday
And wanting you less than I do
This is a dream though
It's never gonna come true

Plug a night light in
Leave the porch light on
Because the small dark corners are establishing a colony
Live like an outlaw
Clutching gold coins in his claw

Can't ever set aside the sweetness
Of the days before the crews put up the border
Fields full of wet rain
Cling tight to their memory forever
Think about Montana when I close my eyes
Possibly Jenny's headed east
Count a couple of stray hopes out loud
May their numbers one day be increased

Plug a night light in
Leave the porch light on
Because the small dark corners breathe like heavy animals
Live like an outlaw
Clutching gold coins in his claw

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]

  • "[Jenny]'s one of those disruptive characters, really through no fault of her own. I hadn't planned on her reappearing but once I had an idea for the song's sound, I just tried barking out some random lyrics, which is how I usually start until I get to a chorus and just go from there. So I'm barking this stuff and there she was again and I was just, ‘Well, I'll be goddamned.'" -- Mountain Goats' John Darnielle Discusses the 'Satan Record' (Rolling Stone)
  • "This song is about the sort of paranoid state you get into if you sit around contemplating the wrong thing for too long, which is sort of how I came to look at my own past, like, you have to be a careful steward of your brain and your thoughts, because no one else can help you out with them." -- 2012-06-27 - Swedish American Hall - San Francisco, CA
  • "It's about the last nagging bit of a memory you can't seem to erase, that just sort of sits there, like a, like a, like, if you had a chalkboard and you -- and there was one piece of chalk they didn't warn you wouldn't erase. And you only used it briefly once, because it felt different when you wrote on the chalkboard, so you stopped, but by then you had already written. And that mark will not go away. And that's what the song is about." -- 2018-04-21 - Upstate Concert Hall - Clifton Park, NY
  • Also see comment under Jenny

Things Referenced in this Song[]

  • The character Jenny, who previously appeared in the songs "Jenny" and "Straight Six" and is the title character of "Jenny from Thebes" is mentioned.
  • "Room full of ambitious young policemen / Everybody trying to make his mark" recalls the line "Like a desperate policeman searching for clues" from In the Hidden Places.

Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]

Videos of this Song[]


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