Cover art for Guest Room by The National

Guest Room

May. 22, 20071 viewer15.5K views

How to Format Lyrics:

  • Type out all lyrics, even repeating song parts like the chorus
  • Lyrics should be broken down into individual lines
  • Use section headers above different song parts like [Verse], [Chorus], etc.
  • Use italics (<i>lyric</i>) and bold (<b>lyric</b>) to distinguish between different vocalists in the same song part
  • If you don’t understand a lyric, use [?]

To learn more, check out our transcription guide or visit our transcribers forum

About

Genius Annotation

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

What did The National say about "Guest Room"?
Genius Answer

Oh, that was sort of stolen from Grace Paley. She’s got a collection of shorts stories called Enormous Changes At The Last Minute and there’s a scene where some guy chases a woman down a sidewalk and at one point they’re having this argument and she throws like three dollars in change at him. It’s one of those really heartbreaking and absurd moments where it’s so pathetic, but its also kind of hilarious you know, they’re screaming at each other and she throws change in his face, or something. So, yeah, that was kind of taken from that, and then I think it was used in the song to represent those awkward intimate moments where you have those really stupid, ugly things that you do in a relationship when you get fed up with each other or whatever. You do things that are just ridiculous, but then you eventually let each other off the hook.
Matt Berninger

Credits
Recorded At
Tarquin Studios
Release Date
May 22, 2007
Songs That Interpolate Guest Room
Tags
Comments