Wear Black

Wear Black
	;
Album	Goths
Released	May 19, 2017
Length	4:11
Previous Track	"Stench of the Unburied"
Next Track	"Paid in Cocaine"

Wear Black is the seventh song on the album Goths.

Lyrics[]

Rain every day
Fog all night
Wind in the evergreen cypresses
See me, Lord of Wind and Rain
See me, guardian of the Underpasses

Wear black when it's light outside
Wear black when there's no light
Wear black following the left hand path
Wear black when I get right

Waves at night
Hard waves at dawn
All this coast is vanishing
Check me out, I can't blend in
Check me out, I'm young and ravishing

Wear black on your forgotten radar
Wear black in the present tense
Wear black when you come around
Wear black in your absence
Wear black high as a kite (wear black)
Wear black dead sober (wear black)
Wear black when the trouble starts (wear black)
Wear black when it's over (wear black)

Sun through the trees
Head for the sun
Can't find the path back to the main road
See me, Lord of The Thomas Guide
See me, Keeper of the Source Code

Wear black to the intervention
Wear black back to the car
Wear black wherever I go
Wear black wherever you are

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]

"This is a true story. It takes place in Portland in February of 1986." -- 2017-05-25 - Saturn - Birmingham, AL
"Kind of makes you sentimental that you're prepared to sing this song in a room with a couple people who knew the younger you that's singing through and about you. This is called 'Wear Black.'" -- 2017-05-31 - The Mayan - Los Angeles, CA
"There's a schematic for the whole Goths album between when and where I was in my youth, I mean some of them are stories but they all correlate to moments. I spent 9 months in Portland when I was 18, 19 years old and these were formative months because I was an absolute failure at living my life and I had friends who kept me alive and who saw through my hard veneer and who chose to be kind to me even though I was not worthy of their kindness, I was not. This is why when people tell me 'Hey John, you're a good guy', I say 'No, I've seen John in a lot of guises and I reject any claims to being a good guy, I see' and in Portland I had a community of people who accepted me exactly as I was and though I didn't know how to take their acceptance, and this song, most of them are with god now, and it's called 'Wear Black'" -- 2018-04-21 - Upstate Concert Hall - Clifton Park, NY

Things Referenced in this Song[]

Thomas Guide is a series of paperback atlases, commonly used in Southern California.

Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]

Videos of this Song[]

Goths

Track list: "Rain in Soho" • "Andrew Eldritch Is Moving Back to Leeds" • "The Grey King and the Silver Flame Attunement" • "We Do It Different on the West Coast" • "Unicorn Tolerance" • "Stench of the Unburied" • "Wear Black" • "Paid in Cocaine" • "Rage of Travers" • "Shelved" • "For the Portuguese Goth Metal Bands" • "Abandoned Flesh"
Bonus tracks: "For the West Coast Dark Ambient Bedroom Warriors" • "Scaling the Well" • "Vanishing Act" • "Grave Dust"

Wear Black

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

Wear Black

Album	Goths
Released	May 19, 2017
Length	4:11
Previous Track	"Stench of the Unburied"
Next Track	"Paid in Cocaine"