Autoclave Lyrics
Hand me your hand, let me look in your eyes
As my last chance to feel human begins to vaporize
Maybe it's the heat in here, maybe it's the pressure
You ought to head for the exits, the sooner the better
[Chorus 1]
I am this great, unstable mass of blood and foam
And no one in her right mind would make my home her home
My heart's an autoclave
My heart's an autoclave
[Verse 2]
When I try to open up to you I get completely lost
Houses swallowed by the earth, windows thick with frost
And I reach deep down within, but the pathways twist and turn
And there's no light anywhere, and nothing left to burn
[Chorus 2]
And I am this great, unstable mass of blood and foam
And no emotion that's worth having could call my heart its home
My heart's an autoclave
My heart's an autoclave
[Verse 3]
I dreamt that I was perched atop a throne of human skulls
On a cliff above the ocean, howling wind and shrieking seagulls
And the dream went on forever, one single static frame
Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name
I am this great, unstable mass of blood and foam
And no one in her right mind would make her home my home
My heart's an autoclave
My heart's an autoclave
About
Track #4 from The Mountain Goats‘ eleventh studio album Heretic Pride.
‘Autoclave’ is a word of French origin that literally means ‘self-locking’. It typically refers to a steam pressure chamber used for sterilization, invented by Charles Cumberland in the late 19th century.
Autoclaves can be of both traditional and modern design, distinguished in the pictures above and below.
Transcription: “Autoclave / I was in Alaska when I read about the discovery of a life-form that cannot only survive an Autoclave (The Instrument Used for Sterilizing Surgical Instruments; It’s supposed to kill any and all bacteria on the tools), but which seems to really enjoy the whole autoclave scene: at temperatures fatal to all other life forms, / This bacteria would begin to breed. / Naturally, this got me to thinking about people whose hearts involuntarily pulverize any good feelings that come within a city block of them.”
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
John Darnielle, before playing this song at the Doug Fir Lounge in Portland, OR on February 25, 2008:
[You may] Look out on your friends, who are your friends, and you may say about them to yourself, whether or not they’re listening; ‘I’d kill them as soon as look at them again. I can’t live another winter with you people. But I can’t tell you that, because you might have money, or drugs, or something else I could use, so. But I wish you all could understand that that is the compact between us, that you are here for me as long as I need you, at which point I hope you will incinerate yourselves, as that would just be good manners.’ "
- 4.Autoclave
- 5.New Zion
- 6.So Desperate
- 9.Tianchi Lake
- 12.Sept 15th 1983
