Soft Targets | |
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Album |
Bedside Recordings Vol. 1.2 |
Released |
2003 |
Artist |
the Mountain Goats |
Length |
3:47 |
Next Track |
"Advancing Army Clip" (John Vanderslice) |
Soft Targets is the first song on the single Bedside Recordings Vol. 1.2. It also appears as the 26th song on the 2021 live album The Jordan Lake Sessions: Volumes 3 and 4.
Lyrics[]
You cry when you get drunk And I can't find the right things to say Sooner or later you'll start breaking plates And I'll do what I can to stay out of your way There is nobody innocent here I've got more blood on my hands than you do It's you and it's me and the baby makes three Yeah but we've got our love to carry us through We've got our love to carry us through I cry when I'm hungry Something is wrong with my brain And the ghost of our future's awake in the attic He moans and he wails as he rattles his chain We embrace on the floor in the kitchen Emissaries from neighboring lands When I hunt down the vampire that did this to us I will rip out his heart with my hands I will rip out his heart with my hands
Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]
- "It's a love song, after a manner of speaking. It's called -- well, here's the thing. Uh, in the US military, uh, has this way of, uh coming up with nice ways of describing bad things. Uh, so you have hard targets, that's buildings and military installations and streets, right, and then you have soft targets, and that's people, right. This song is called 'Soft Targets'." -- 2003-06-27 - Mains D'oeuvres, Mofo Festival - Paris, France
- "This is a song off a 7 inch that came out in like 2001, it's one of those kind of depressing songs. It's one where like you say "Oh I'm gonna pick sides, I'm gonna decide who is the hero in this song. The big message of I would say half of my songs is that when you attempt to pick the hero on two sides of a human equation, you err-- You're starting from a flawed proposition and there's not going to be a hero to pick. That's the whole point. But people do it anyway, but I think I frustrated their ambitions in that regard because there are no heroes in this song, there's just two people who are fucking up. This is called 'Soft Targets'." -- 2018-09-11 - Crescent Ballroom - Phoenix, AZ
- "If you're bombing a city - it happens, yknow - you have your hard targets, and it's like schools and hospitals and they say like 'so oh no it's strictly army bases', but you know soft targets, soft targets are things that have soft parts, and it's people. This song is not about war, but it is called 'Soft Targets'." -- 2022-11-17 - Albert Hall - Manchester, England
- "This is based on military terminology. Hard Targets are things like buildings, tanks, and Steven Seagal. Because he had a movie where the tagline was, 'Steven Seagal is a...HARD TARGET." But that was a lie. Steven Seagal is a Soft Target. You know a Soft Target because if you break its skin, it bleeds. This song is called Soft Target." -- 2023-02-18 - Manchester Music Hall - Lexington, KY
Things Referenced in this Song[]
Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]
- 2003-02-05 - Hanbury Ballroom - Brighton, England
- 2003-04-08 - Beta Bar - Tallahassee, FL
- 2003-06-27 - Mains D'oeuvres, Mofo Festival - Paris, France
- 2006-06-14 - The Troubadour - West Hollywood, CA
- 2006-08-21 - KEXP Session - Seattle, WA
- 2007-11-03 - The Slowdown - Omaha, NE
- 2007-11-14 - The Canopy Club - Urbana, IL
- 2008-03-18 - Webster Hall - New York, NY
- 2010-06-02 - The Rickshaw Theatre - Vancouver, British Columbia
- 2015-11-12 - Brudenell Social Club - Leeds, England
- 2016-04-11 - City Winery - Chicago, IL
- 2017-05-25 - Saturn - Birmingham, AL
- 2017-10-06 - Brudenell Social Club - Leeds, England
- 2018-05-28 - Old Town School of Folk Music - Chicago, IL
- 2018-05-29 - Old Town School of Folk Music - Chicago, IL
- 2018-09-04 - The Lyric Oxford - Oxford, MS
- 2018-09-05 - Cain's Ballroom - Tulsa, OK
- 2018-09-06 - Canton Hall - Dallas, TX
- 2018-09-08 - ACL Live - Moody Theater - Austin, TX
- 2018-09-10 - 191 Toole - Tucson, AZ
- 2018-09-11 - Crescent Ballroom - Phoenix, AZ
- 2018-09-12 - Meow Wolf - Santa Fe, NM
- 2018-09-13 - Boulder Theater - Boulder, CO
- 2018-09-14 - Washington's - Fort Collins, CO
- 2018-12-01 - The Haw River Ballroom - Graham, NC
- 2019-11-23 - Cafe Torgal - Ourense, Spain
- 2020-02-21 - Swedish American Hall - San Francisco, CA
- 2021-04-19 - The Jordan Lake Sessions - Pittsboro, NC
- 2021-08-13 - Paper Tiger - San Antonio, TX
- 2021-10-26 - Brooklyn Made - New York, NY
- 2022-04-30 - The Observatory - Santa Ana, CA
- 2022-05-18 - Thalia Hall - Chicago, IL
- 2022-07-09 - Music Farm - Charleston, SC
- 2022-07-10 - Intuition Ale Works - Jacksonville, FL
- 2022-07-15 - Off Broadway - St. Louis, MO
- 2022-07-17 - WAVE - Wichita, KS
- 2022-09-13 - JJ's Live - Fayetteville, AR
- 2022-09-21 - Bijou Theatre - Knoxville, TN
- 2022-11-17 - Albert Hall - Manchester, England
- 2023-02-08 - The Ramkat - Winston-Salem, NC
- 2023-02-09 - Elevation 27 - Virginia Beach, VA
- 2023-02-10 - The Birchmere - Alexandria, VA
- 2023-02-11 - The Loud - Huntington, WV
- 2023-02-12 - Skully's - Columbus, OH
- 2023-02-15 - Mickey's Black Box - Lititz, PA
- 2023-02-16 - Water Street Music Hall - Rochester, NY
- 2023-02-17 - Musica - Akron, OH
- 2023-02-18 - Manchester Music Hall - Lexington, KY
- 2023-02-19 - The Radio Room - Greenville, SC
- 2024-01-23 - The Blue Note - Columbia, MO
- 2024-01-26 - Lowbrow Palace - El Paso, TX
- 2024-10-15 - Bluebird Nightclub - Bloomington, IN
Videos of this Song[]
- 2003-06-27 - Mains D'oeuvres, Mofo Festival - Paris, France
- 2018-09-06 - Canton Hall - Dallas, TX
- 2018-09-11 - Crescent Ballroom - Phoenix, AZ
- 2022-04-30 - The Observatory - Santa Ana, CA
- 2022-11-17 - Albert Hall - Manchester, England
- 2024-10-15 - Bluebird Nightclub - Bloomington, IN
The Jordan Lake Sessions: Volumes 3 and 4 |
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Track list: "In the Craters on the Moon" • "Letter from Belgium" • "Woke Up New" • "Pez Dorado" • "Picture of My Dress" • "Whole Wide World" • "Dark in Here" • "Korean Bird Paintings" • "Snow Owl" • "Against Pollution" • "The Last Place I Saw You Alive" • "In Memory of Satan" • "Bell Swamp Connection" • "Rat Queen" • "Shelved" • "Sax Rohmer #1" • "This Year" • "Have to Explode" • "Game Shows Touch Our Lives" • "Until Olympius Returns" • "The Young Thousands" • "Corsican Mastiff Stride" • "Blood Capsules" • "Hair Match" • "Solidarity Forever" • "Soft Targets" • "Black Pear Tree" • "Wolf Count" • "Never Quite Free" • "Wild Sage" • "Jazz No Children" • "Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod" • "Exegetic Chains" • "Going Invisible 2" |