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in: Get Lonely songs, Video, The Jordan Lake Sessions: Volumes 3 and 4 songs

Wild Sage

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 Wild Sage
GetLonelyFrontCover

Album

 Get Lonely

Released

 2006

Artist

the Mountain Goats

Length

4:13

Next Track

"New Monster Avenue"

Wild Sage is the first song on the album Get Lonely. It also appears as the 30th song on the 2021 live album The Jordan Lake Sessions: Volumes 3 and 4. An unfinished music video for it was made by Rian Johnson and is viewable on his Vimeo.

Lyrics[]

I leave the house as soon as it gets light outside
Like a prisoner breaking out of jail
And I steal down to business fifteen-five-oh-one
Like I had a bounty hunter on my tail

And somebody stops to pick me up
But he drops me off just down the block
And along the highway where the empty spirits breed
Wild sage growing in the weeds

Walked down the soft shoulder and I count my steps
Headed vaguely eastward, sun in my eyes
And I lose my footing and I skin my hands breaking my fall
And I laugh to myself and look up at the skies

And then I think I hear angels in my ears
Like marbles being thrown against a mirror
And along the highway where unlucky stray dogs bleed
Wild sage growing in the weeds

And some days I don't miss my family
And some days I do
Some days I think I'd feel better if I tried harder
Most days I know it's not true

I lay down right where I fell, cold grass in my face
And I hear the traffic like the rhythm of the tides
And I stare at the scrape on the heel of my hand
'Til it doesn't sting so much and until the blood's dried

And when somebody asks if I'm ok
I don't know what to say
And along the highway 
From cast-off innumerable seeds
Wild sage growing in the weeds

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]

  • "I've been puzzled by the few things that people have had to say about this next song, so I'm just going to violate my own policy and tell you explicitly what it's about. And I am telling the truth. Sometimes people say, 'Oh, he lies when he describes his songs.' That's not true either. It may seem like a lie now, but give it a couple of years. But this is true, that the fellow who narrates this song, uh, is losing his grip on things as they are. He's going insane, as they would put it. And so that's why he feels like he does. He hasn't lost anybody or anything like that. Uh, he suffers from a sort of solitude that most of us, uh, thank God, can only really imagine, uh, so, I wrote this for a lot of people that I used to work with, and whom I think of from time to time. It's called 'Wild Sage'." -- 2006-08-22 - Amoeba Music - San Francisco, CA
  • "We will rule benevolently. We offer real change. The Darnielle/Vanderslice ticket. Other people who are running for public office are fond of saying that they don't mean to do politics as usual, but they're politicians, so, right out the gate you know that they can't really be telling you the honest truth about that. John and I are musicians. We don't know jack about politics, so we feel that we can be the best public servants you can have. John's out on tour right now also. That means he can't fuck shit up with the economy and shit, 'cause he's got other shit going on. That's the substance of our campaign speech this year. It's a very low-key campaign because we don't expect to win, and unlike other people, we don't believe in pouring money into a campaign once you've been eliminated. You should just go home. [inaudible] This is a song about somebody whose more general campaign has failed." -- 2008-03-22 - The Black Cat - Washington, D.C.
  • "This is a song about mental illness, and how it can be hard to cope sometimes when you don't feel like people understand what's going on with you and it's called 'Wild Sage'." -- 2013-06-08 - Port City Music Hall - Portland, ME
  • "When people say 'Play whatever you want to play!' well, I always want to play this one." -- 2013-06-17 - Lincoln Hall - Chicago, IL

Things Referenced in this Song[]

Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]

Videos of this Song[]


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