The Mountain Goats Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Idylls of the Kings
C4ub4

Album

Tallahassee

Released

2002

Artist

the Mountain Goats

Length

3:32

Previous track

"The House That Dripped Blood"

Next Track

"No Children"

Idylls of the King is the sixth song on the album Tallahassee. It was performed by Miracles of Modern Science in Tallahassee Turns Ten.

Lyrics[]

This place with its old plantations
These roads leading out to the sea
This day full of promise and potential
More clay pigeons for you and me
All of them all of them
All of them all of them
All of them all of them all of them all of them
All lined up 

Huge crows loitering by the curb
Our shared paths unraveling behind us like ribbons
And I dreamed of vultures
In the trees around our house
And cicadas and locusts
And the shrieking of innumerable gibbons
All of them all of them
All of them all of them
All of them all of them all of them all of them
All lined up

How long will we ride this wave out?
How long 'til someone caves under the pressure?
My dreams are haunted by armies armies of ghosts
Faces too blurry to make out
Numbers far too high to measure
Your face like a vision straight out of Holly Hobbie
Late light drizzling through your hair
Your eyes twin volcanoes
Bad ideas dancing around in there
All all of them all of them
All of them all of them
All of them all of them all of them all of them
All lined up


Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]

  • [replying to a tweet that said 'Alright, but how many of those 4,400 guitar chords have yet to be deployed in tMG songs?'] "a lot, but you need them when you're playing other people's songs for pleasure, or writing e.g. 'Idylls of the King'" -- John's Twitter

Things Referenced in this Song[]

  • Idylls of the King is a cycle of poems written by Alfred Lord Tennyson about the legend of King Arthur.

Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]



Advertisement