🎵 Music Explorer
Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan
Artist: The Mountain Goats
Release: 2025-11-07
Tracks & Lyrics
Overture
Instrumental
Fishing Boat
Free as the wind on the ocean Wild as the rain in the storm Immense out on the grand horizon As a thunderhead taking form Turn in with the stars on the water Rise with the tides in the dawn Be your own boss for the summer Seize the moment before it's gone Sixteen on a fishing boat Learning to float Some who keep their secrets like treasure Some who tend to cling to the coast No one who can stand staying landlocked For longer than a month at most Free as the churn of thе riptide Free as a wreck in the drift Nothing's еver promised to anyone Everything you get is a gift Sixteen on a fishing boat Learning to float Learning to swim Learning how to tread water Learning how to raise our cries to the skies Like seals to the slaughter Still as the sky on the ocean Mute as the moon overhead Me and Peter Balkan and you, friend Everybody else is dead Turning where the rain won't reach us Rise with the sun all alone Be your own boss for the summer Just once before you're grown Sixteen on a fishing boat Sixteen on a fishing boat Sixteen on a fishing boat We are learning to float
Cold at Night
Let yourself go in the current Only rise and fall as the angles allow Finally make a break for the surface Breathe in the sweet air of the here and now Wake up in the arms of the earth Fully present at the second birth The first thing you learn is how strong you can be if you have to And the next thing you learn is how cold it can get at night Let the waves break where they have to break Let the people make ready to approach the throne Two are going to stumble along the way One is going to go up alone Fires gathering on a distant peak Let me get some sleep before I speak The first thing you learn is how far you can go with no gas in the tank And the next thing you learn is how cold it can get at night Lightly row, but this much I know: The first thing you learn will be the last thing to go Sharpen sticks and stab at the tide pools Pitch a camp as close as we can to shore Nobody thought to carry a compass It's not the 19th century any more On the third day you said you felt sick I could hear the clock tick The first thing you learn is there's always a clock ticking somewhere And the next thing you learn is how cold it can get at night The first thing you learn is how strong you can be if you have to, so strong (And the next thing you learn is how cold it can get at night) And the next thing you learn is how cold it can get at night (And the next thing you learn is how cold it can get at night) And the next thing you learn is how cold it can get at night
Dawn of Revelation
We who gather by this fire To remember who we were To recall the days of yore To recall the days before Hear the crackling, stoke the flames Conjure long-forgotten names Look long enough and see Where the referent wriggles free I will turn these stones to bread And all who hunger will be fed Plates will shift and the earth will groan And no one here is going to die alone Live in hope, walk in fear Let them come, let them gather here Meaning well, boding ill Let their hundreds crest the hill As you were, so they are Orphans from a dying star Let them cluster, each to each Like smooth rocks on a distant beach Look upon them there and know We will all go when we go Look into these eyes and see How we all will be made free Beyond the grasp of the grave Free as driftwood on the waves Through their fingers like a fish Free from the clutches of the flesh I will bring this word to them Last to first and stern to stem The king's gonna sit upon the throne And no one here is gonna die alone Yeah
Your Bandage
One day the stars will out go out And those who can remember when The night sky was a tapestry Will be acclaimed as prophets then Will you lie still while I reapply your bandage? Will you lie still while I reapply your bandage? There's untold riches in the depths There's gold inside the jet streams There's a message for the people Sounding loudly in my dreams Will you lie still while I reapply your bandage? Will you lie still while I reapply your bandage On your temple? There aren't any people Remember it's me And Adam makes three One day the stars will all go out You're right, you're right, you're right And light will be a memory Shining in the endless night Yes, it will Be still Lie at peace Soon we'll all be released Testify While I Reapply your bandage
Peru
You were already talking when I woke up today For a man on combat rations, you sure do find a lot to say Try to fix my attention, can't clear my head Sun clearing the waterline Hot and deadly and red Like the flowers you said you wrote about About a million years ago, you said they grew On a distant mountain in Peru I don't want the water to break you Let me lead you back to the fire You've always got a little further to drop When you've risen that much higher Fear in my heart like a shadow I can't let it linger too long When your gift begins to consume you One of us will have to be strong Like the flowers that die in the winter But never fail to grow back new In the cracks down in the canyons in Peru In the deep crevices where you wouldn't think the light could reach Distant as a dream of the cradle on this lonesome beach Let the man whose heart would know peace Praise all the things that he should praise Just about a week in the future These are going to seem like the good days Because the snake is going to rise from the pit And brother will turn against brother We won't have a minute to lose At most we'll only have each other Like the flowers you said you saw when you were young When you were still you Like the flowers you may have imagined Doing what their nature tells them to Worlds away in the wind in Peru
Through This Fire
My faith ran out with the flames one night Shrinking in the embers of the firelight You were rambling about your friends How you were never going to see them again There wasn't any fire and brimstone left Just a hollow rattle inside your chest Deep in the dark of our forty-fifth day It wasn't ever going to go away I began to understand the things the heat requires Looking at you through this fire The last days come and the last days go Carried away in the undertow But on our trust we rise and fall Human after all I calculated one week to go, maybe less You were slipping in and out of consciousness What are seven days worth? Seven days on this earth More than kings in their castles might desire Looking at you through this fire Through this fire where we were witnesses You were reborn One of the seven at Jericho Sounding his horn Bear me on the breath of dawn Very soon we'll both be gone It's getting hard to hear you, friend Waiting for the world to end But let isolate the relevant voice in the choir Somewhere out there on the wire I'll run all night but my legs won't tire The ocean is faithful and the devil's a liar Looking at you through this fire
Rocks in My Pockets
Like a good luck charm for a soldier Heading off into battle I carried a stone in my pocket Something I found in Seattle It vaguely resembled a face And it looked like a headstone a little Deep groove from a worm or from years underwater Running right down the middle Some people name their cars, or their guitars Some things are too fragile to name Some things are made for the spotlight Some live at the edge of the frame Just a few days above surface A lifetime below Rocks in my pockets when I go Stuck to the shoreline In the light of the torch Wrapped up in your bandage Like a package on the porch You were never going to make it I felt like you knew But at least you'll have someone For some of us that won't be true Some people go down swinging, get in a few punches Some learn to ride the currents, some never learn Probably not going to leave the slightest trace in the wake When it's my turn Tie down the sails When the crosswinds blow Rocks in my pockets when I go Initials in the bark of a tree Little signs of hope Like a good luck charm for a soldier Mailed home in an envelope Some people go it alone Some need a friend The weak ones get lucky The strong ones stick around to see the end Just a few days above surface A lifetime below Rocks in my pockets when I go Rocks in my pockets when I go Rocks in my pockets when I go
Armies of the Lord
Trying to pantomime surprise After we buried you at sunrise With nothing you'd predicted coming true Just doing what we'd promised we would do Not ready any more Late for the war Who would prepare for peace, take up the sword Waiting for the armies of the Lord Even if we found the world again Haircuts and clean clothes, and what then: Sew ourselves clean back into the fold? Remember til we don't, and then grow old? Not ready to go that way What would our old friend say? Who goes without will find some great reward Waiting for the armies of the Lord And even if they never come Stay here by the fire Listening for the drum In the world but not of it any more Starving to death down by the shore Prehistoric insects trapped in ice Letting the hunger claim its price Sixteen to three now down to two Soon it'll just be you Raise the flag and cut the cord All aboard that's going aboard Waiting for the armies of the Lord
Your Glow
You lost your feeling for the waves before we ran aground And you lost thirteen men to the waves, we watched them all go down Find you babbling in the sand there trying to find the thread Spend an hour or so beside you, cradling your head It's time for you to go But you never lost your glow You lost a lot of sleep before the fever broke And you found a kingdom by the fire rising in the smoke Leave you here, or let the ocean claim you for its own? Keep you here, or tithe you to the tides to die here all alone? Breathing through your visions, soft and slow You never lost your glow Your light, your signal, fifteen did respond Just me left now, and you about to learn what lies beyond When we wake up from the big dreams of empires in the surf If there's nothing left but water, then let water be enough Thirteen gone, one vanished, you well on your way Adrift for half your life, headed home today Be still and know You never lost your glow
The Lady from Shanghai 2
When I was a young man, I Sank into the shadows where the edge begins to blur And when I was a young man, I Sought out the places where the shadows were And then luck found me Out on the open sea Hoisting up the mainsail high Emblem of the mirror in the stitching on the ocean breeze Nibbles in the nets all night Kings up in their castles not arrayed like these Out there where the dreams come from When will my moment come? Everything that sinks will float Everything that sinks will float We went down to the boat When we built the fire, I knew When the smoke settled, it would come down to us two Just a lucky guess, you know Show me the places where the lucky guesses go But when I was a young man, I, I I sought out the sky Everything that sinks will float Everything that sinks will float We went down to the boat
Broken To Begin With
Men of old who sailed the seas Bringing nations to their knees Turning up the remnants of our campsite Would never know it kept three people warm at night Survey the clumsy architecture Idly make a few conjectures Scribble some conclusions in a ledger Never knowing better Like anything you ever come across Before you knew about it, it got lost It was broken to begin with It was broken to begin with It was like that when we got here It was broken to begin with When the archaeologists arrive No proof that we were ever here alive Me and Peter Balkan and you, friend Until the dream ran out of oxygen Is this not what you wanted from the sea? Is this not what the waves require of me? Isn't this what we suspect we'll see On the day we finally get free? And if that day turns out to be today Maybe that's okay It was broken to begin with It was broken to begin with It was like that when we got here It was like this when we got here It was broken to begin with Well, the first thing you learn is how far you can go with no gas in the tank And the next thing you learn is how cold it can get at night