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in: We Shall All Be Healed songs, Video, The Jordan Lake Sessions: Volumes 3 and 4 songs

The Young Thousands

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The Young Thousands
0BtUQ

Album

We Shall All Be Healed

Released

2004

Artist

the Mountain Goats

Length

4:34

Previous track

"Letter from Belgium"

Next Track

"Your Belgian Things"

The Young Thousands is the fifth song on the album We Shall All Be Healed. It also appears as the 21st song on the 2021 live album The Jordan Lake Sessions: Volumes 3 and 4.

Lyrics[]

Boats ease into the harbor bearing real suspicious cargo
And the sunlight on the water sets a switch off in your brain
The things that you've got coming will consume you
There's someone waiting out there in an alley with a chain

The ghosts that haunt your building are prepared to take on substance
And the dull pain that you live with isn't getting any duller
There's a closet full of almost-pristine videotape
Documenting sordid little scenes in living color

Here they come
The young thousands
Here they come
The young thousands

You drive east from the ocean with both hands tied on the wheel
And you go past Garden Grove as the pleasure index rises
The things that you've got coming will do things that you're afraid to
There is someone waiting out there with a mouthful of surprises 

The ghosts that haunt your building have been learning how to breathe
They scan the hallways nightly, vainly searching for a sign
There must be diamonds somewhere in a place that stinks this bad
There are brighter things than diamonds coming down the line 

Here they come
The young thousands
Here they come
The young thousands

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]

  • "This is a song about how for so long you were fleeing from them. You know, and you, you saw their numbers dwindle, and you say, 'oh, I'm wearing 'em out, I've run long enough that there were [inaudible] number, there was half that, and a quarter that, and there was only a couple of them left, so I was done. I have evaded the young hundreds.' But no. They were only gathering their reinforcements. It's called 'The Young Thousands.'" -- 2015-04-23 - Mr. Small's - Millvale, PA
  • "If you -- and I hope you don't, but -- if you find yourself in Costa Mesa and you need to buy heroin and you find yourself parked between two duplexes, waiting for the dude, hoping that a policeman doesn't pull up behind you because you'd have to back out to leave the alley between the duplexes. If you find yourself in this situation, then I'm thinking of you. I'd like to dedicate this song to that alley in Costa Mesa." -- 2016-04-19 - City Winery - New York, NY
  • "This is a song about young people on speed. [audience cheers] You say 'woo' now. You may have cause to reflect upon that 'woo' in your future. Not about the song, I think the song is good. The speed itself, I'm not so sure about. I mean, it was good in terms of the quality. Morally, I'm less certain." -- 2017-06-02 - The Fillmore - San Francisco, CA

Things Referenced in this Song[]

Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]

Videos of this Song[]


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