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in: All Hail West Texas songs, All Hail West Texas (Remastered) songs, Video

The Mess Inside

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The Mess Inside
A4x8p

Album

All Hail West Texas

Released

2002

Artist

the Mountain Goats

Length

3:35

Previous Track

"Riches and Wonders"

Next Track

"Jeff Davis County Blues"

The Mess Inside is the ninth song on the album All Hail West Texas.

Lyrics[]

we took a weekend, drove to Provo.
the snow was white and fluffy.
but a weekend in Utah won't fix what's wrong with us.
the gray sky was vast and real cryptic above me.
I wanted you to love me like you used to do. 

we took two weeks in the Bahamas.
went out dancing every night.
tried to fight the creeping sense of dread with temporal things.
most of the time I guess I felt alright.
but I wanted you to love me like you used to do.

but you cannot run
and you cannot hide,
from the wreck we've made of our house,
and from the mess inside.

we went down to New Orleans
one weekend in the spring.
looked hard for what we'd lost.
it was painful to admit it, but we couldn't find a thing.
I wanted you to love me like you used to do.

we went to New York City in September.
took the train out of Manhattan to the Grand Army stop.
found that bench we'd sat together on a thousand years ago
when I felt such love for you I thought my heart was gonna pop.
I wanted you to love me like you used to do.

but I cannot run.
and I can't hide.
from the wreck we've made of our house.
from the mess inside.

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]

  • "This is a song about how you may find yourself in a position where you remember that the love you once had with a person was so wonderful, it was so good, that it seems worth preserving. But you have had that thought rather too late to really do any preserving. But at the same time, you start chasing that notion, it's like, oh, I have to preserve what's there. What you mean is 'regain what's gone'. But you won't listen to me about that, you are- you would rather say, 'oh no, I gotta preserve our love.' No, your love, you left on the corner of Fifth and Broadway, it's not there anymore, goodbye to all that, right? You have to say goodbye to that, but you're not willing, you would rather spend some money on it first." -- 2008-10-13 - Park West - Chicago, IL

Things Referenced in this Song[]

Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]

Videos of this Song[]


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