Plague of Locusts
Recorded
Release history
Credits
- Written by Harvey Danger, © But Mom I Love Music (ASCAP)/
Famous Music - Recorded by John Goodmanson at Bearsville, John & Stu’s, and Bear Creek
- Mixed by John Goodmanson at the Village Recorder
- Aaron: bass
- Jeff: guitars, organ
- Sean: lead and backing vocals
- Evan: drums
- Ben Gibbard, Ken Stringfellow, Anne Marie Ruljancich: backing vocals
- David Ritt: trombones
- Neal Bolter: french horn
- Charles Butler: trumpet, piccolo trumpet
- Geoffrey Bergler: trumpet
- Horns arranged by Jeff
Lyrics
It’s in Revelations 1-22:
Scorpions and hydrae breathing fire at you
So mark your foreheads
Seven golden lampstands to light the fury from the sky
I will kill your children
I know your works and labor
They can’t save youThroats are parched with smoke from golden censer
Rivers run with blood
Wormwood to quench you
From being to nothingness
Second woe is past—look out! look out!
Third one’s coming up
Seal up the righteous and screw the wicked over
It’s all overIts a plague of locusts!
Hallelujah, it’s raining frogs!
It’s a boulder hailstorm!
It’s the wrath of—
GoddamnThe names are in the book—not yours
Four horsemen ride the range
Hark! The herald angel’s carnage
Pestilence and bloodshed wash away all your mistakes
before they cast your wretched flesh into the fiery lake
And it’s coming!It’s a plague of locusts
It’s a plague of locusts
It’s a plague of locusts
It’s the wrath of—
Quotes
SCN: The ultimate so close, yet so far song in our catalogue; all lyrics straight from the Bible—where Christians take their cues to celebrate the suffering of non-believers—(except,
hallelujah, it’s raining frogs,a reference to Jennifer Holiday, andfrom being to nothingness,after Sartre), more great Gibbard/Stringfellow Beach Boys harmonies, and a brass herald worthy of the end times; as a track, it’s fantastic, but break it down to its elements and it’s almost embarrassing; the same could be said of a lot of rock music, I reckon; at least it’s anti-religion.10A
SCN: How do the Christians sleep?DSS
Notes
- Written around 1996, this song was considered for Merrymakers, but not recorded until the KJV sessions.
- The Circuit City EP/Dead Sea Scrolls versions are mastered louder than, and trim about five seconds of silence from, the version on the Unreleased Stuff CDR. (The version on the Christmas EP also trims the silence, and is slightly differently mastered.)WFA