Spent Gladiator 2

Spent Gladiator 2
	;
Album	Transcendental Youth
Released	2012
Artist	the Mountain Goats
Length	2:52
Previous track	"In Memory of Satan"
Next track	"Transcendental Youth"

Spent Gladiator 2 is the 11th song on the album Transcendental Youth. It also appears as the 36th and final song on the 2020 live album The Jordan Lake Sessions: Volumes 1 and 2.

Lyrics[]

Like a spent gladiator
Crawling in the Colosseum dust
Who can count on his remaining limbs
All the people he can trust
Like the one who stands behind him
Cheering him on
Ecstatic when he stands defiant
Wild with abandon when he's gone

Just stay alive
Keep your eyes on the pay line

Like a village on the steppe
About to get collectivized
When the men emerge with rifles from the haystack
Everybody looks surprised
Like the mice in the forgotten grain
Way up on the top shelf
Like someone who's found a small town to escape to
Keeps one eye on his abandoned former self

Stay in the game
Just try to play through the pain
Like a fighter who's been told it's finally time for him to quit
Show up in shining colors
And then stand there and get hit

Like the clock that ticks in Dresden
When the whole town's been destroyed
Like the nagging flash of insight
You're always desperate to avoid
Like the bloody-knuckled gunman
Still stationed at the breach
Like that board game with the sliders
And the children on the beach

Stay alive
Maybe spit some blood at the camera
Just stay alive
Stay forever alive

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]

"...A song about the last tooth in your mouth." - 2012-12-17 - The Showbox - Seattle, WA
"At the front of this record is the last song I just played, which is about persevering in a really positive and triumphal way. There's the other side of that, where you say, well, I will dig my nails into the side of the cave wall this morning so that tomorrow when I wake up in the same cave, I'll at least see that my fingernails had enough strength left to leave an impression." -- 2015-06-01 - The Fillmore - San Francisco, CA
"I sing this song for my idol, Liza Minnelli, and I'm not ashamed to say so. I have a dream of her singing it one day, but it will probably remain a dream." -- 2018-04-14 - Phoenix Concert Theatre - Toronto, Ontario

Things Referenced in this Song[]

The line "Like that board game with the sliders/And the children on the beach" refers to Stay Alive, a children's board game by Milton Bradley. John confirmed this on his Tumblr account.

Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]

Videos of this Song[]

Transcendental Youth
Track list: "Amy AKA Spent Gladiator 1" • "Lakeside View Apartments Suite" • "Cry for Judas" • "Harlem Roulette" • "White Cedar" • "Until I Am Whole" • "Night Light" • "The Diaz Brothers" • "Counterfeit Florida Plates" • "In Memory of Satan" • "Spent Gladiator 2" • "Transcendental Youth" Bonus tracks: "Steal Smoked Fish" • "Tomorrow"

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"

Spent Gladiator 2

Contents

Lyrics[]

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]

Things Referenced in this Song[]

Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]

Videos of this Song[]

Fan Feed

Spent Gladiator 2

Album	Transcendental Youth
Released	2012
Artist	the Mountain Goats
Length	2:52
Previous track	"In Memory of Satan"
Next track	"Transcendental Youth"