Who Will Survive and What Will be Left of Them?
Album cover
Vinyl Insert
VINYL BACK
SILVER VINYL
Track Listing
1)The Devil in Mexico
2)Killbot 2000
3)Until Morale Improves, The Beatings Will Continue
4)Three Men Hanging
5)INTERMISSION
6)A Masters in Reverse Psychology
7)The Desert is On Fire
8)That Crown Don't Make You A Prince
9)Pillars of Salt
10)End of the Line
"Who Will Survive and What Will Be Left of Them?" is the second full length album by Murder By Death. It is an album about the Devil wiping a small town off the map. It was recorded and mixed in nine days at The Clubhouse up in the Catskill Mountains by Daniel Goodwin.
Look below to find not only the track lyrics for "Who Will Survive," but also Adam's behind-the-scenes stories on the inspiration for each song.
Track Lyrics
Well I'll take two shots said the devil to the man and layed a little book on the bar well lord knows the devil he only talks shit and only drinks whiskey from the jar and his hands were raw and his eyes were cold and his breath was pure alcohol and the sound of his voice it never got old and he talked and talked and talked through the night kept sippin his shine till the mornin light tumbled in through the shades and as he started to go i put three bullets in his back.
well the devils bleedin crude oil from a hole in his chest and its panging on the bedpan drippin through the bedsheets and all the businessmen are putting pails beneath his wounds and pawin the oil at the market well his heart ain't made of nothin but piss and vinegar and his boots have trampled more than you would know and his breath has split open the thermometer on the sill its so fucking cold in here since you brought in the snow black heart leaking oil in the pan, dealin' insults with his free hand in this hospital bed bleedin' Black heart you shot the plan to
hell and the apathy ate you up inside Like slivers of lead inside your food he's the poison inside you and you eat until you're full and you eat until youre full he lit the fires inside your belly full of medicine and whiskey the aspirin, valium, codiene pills and silver rum someone say a hail mary for this house bless the corners and burn the devil out.
a smell like cigarettes creeps softly through the vents the room is filling up with smoke and little bodies tell all the boys and girls from school to keep breaking all the rules to let their parents know they're individuals datura flakes off from your lips you've lost the swagger in your hips your eyes are turning blue to gray your skin feels soft and sagging down your arms drag across the ground with each step you take and they fall from the jungle gyms and they fall and piss away each night among the sound of bodies crawling round the room i can smell their flesh on everything left in this room chalk and scattered crayons on empty desks for weeks finding clumps of unwashed hair caught between the vents blowing carry their little bodies to the cemetary so gently please don't let their necks crook towards the ground.
I walked the road from Tucson to San Antonio with the smell of blood on my breath ninety days of sweat and dirt feels like one night when you've got nothing left till there's nothing left to do but die buckshot is my bread and I'll drink whiskey instead of water cause I can't stand to be sober in this place your hands on my face every step of the way tryin' to peel away the pain I'll drink whiskey instead of water.
Get on with it put off the fuss you chickenshit get on with it can't you see its time to quit I seen three men hangin' from a sycamore their bodies were stiff as a two by four and their heads were tilted down towards the ground and it ain't been long since they been up there that their bodies turned cold hangin' in that air and they might have froze before that noose got to them old scratch has dealt us a dirty hand he had the look of a saint but the greed of a man and his face was worn and wrinkled like a leather book and if i put this revolver to my head will god turn against me instead of taking pity on a broken man? get on with it.
*Instruamental*
Put the bullet in the barrell take the safety off keep shootin' at the devil in the moonlight put it all on black till your luck comes back we're all
waitin' for the end what kind of finish will he send these hands made of splinters keep knockin' back the whiskey sours I've got a few more days to go and I've got another crust of bread somewhere holed up waiting in this is this whats left of the house fill the lamp up with kerosene and toss the rest in the hall just coat the walls and strike the cigarette when you hear them coming we'll pray for them and stay with them till the poor little bastards die hand in hand we'll never forget them when they're gone so keep the girls inside of the little church with their bruised knees on the pews.
I'll leave a trail of fire across this desert just to see the desperation in your eyes you think you've suffered well you ain't seen shit yet the pain won't set in for a long long time I've fought off angels with my hands behind my back I've set the heavens all on fire so sleep in the fallout shelter tonight one and all and wrap the children up real tight and stop the bleedin before it starts stop the bleedin before it starts.
All the drunks in the alleys are takin' up arms to undo their whole lives in a day if their hearts they don't change before long in the heart of the beast they will lay he tears the wood from the walls to get to us he steals the good from this town so wash the black from your fingertips and fight raise up from the cellars fill the streets with his dead this time.
Our fingers are missing they litter the ground grass will never grow near this town again the frames on the walls are crooked and empty these shoulders bend low towards the dirt I made a deal to get us out of this place but I am falling apart with each step I take and as the pieces fall I count them all.
All the kids have run inside grabbed a spot under the stairs they've barricaded all the windows and rigged the doorknobs shut with chairs what are they waiting for they don't know they just keep their fingers crossed and maybe pray to mary or jesus christ I can hear them knocking down the door the wait it is over this bottle is done so we clench our fists and fight our demons there's a girl with a flower pot full of dirt and bullet shells she puts it by her window gives it sunlight restores its health after a month or two the shells start to grow into branches of barbed wire they spread across the walls the windows and the floors and their grip never tires lay low lay low keep your head down lay low lay low listen for the sound of the dusty train that's comin' to sweep us all away I can hear the rails a rattlin' against the hectic fray so set the bone with a cardboard split and strike the nail against the flint and set the fields on fire let the devil come let him come I'll be waitin' for him this time I am stronger now and I can fight it I'll be waitin' at the end of the line at the end of the line.
Additional info about this album
Oct 17, 2003
Each week for the next 2 months I am going to explain the content and the relevence of a song off the new album, one per week.
I guess the first thing I should say is that this album is not trying to be artsy, or profound or anything more than the story it is. It's meant to entertain, bring the feeling of sitting around telling ghost stories or something. Also, I'm a religious studies major, so I tied in a lot of weird religious stuff. This is just a story, there's no religious affiliation on our parts. So there's my disclaimer.
I'm going to start at the top so today I'll do THE DEVIL IN MEXICO. OK, this song is the set-up for the whole album. The intro tells the general story; The Devil is drinking away the night at a local bar and he is talking up a shitstorm, lying his face off and being the cocky bastard he is.
Basically, before the sun comes up, some local has had enough so he pumps him full of lead. The song kicks in and begins with The Devil dying in a hospital bed. He is physically bleeding crude oil from his wounds, and some greedy people in the town have begun to put pails beneath him to collect the oil to sell. So, like a chick getting naked in a horror movie, they're pretty much fucked. Ol Satan vows to wipe out the town where he got shot.
He lays there in bed, still talking shit, making threats, empty promises, feeling sorry for himself. He is very bitter. There are tiny hints that the guy who shot him was actually in league with the Devil, but he betrays him and "shoots the plan to Hell". The part about the slivers of lead in the food is a reference to a bizzare situation of a poisoning that we read about.
The Judas character who betrays Satan starts to realize that even though he has turned to the light, he isn't going to make it out alive, and starts to drink and overdose himself to death.
The end of the song, the part that goes "Someone say a Hail Mary for this house" is about the shit hitting the fan. The line "Bless the corners and burn devil out" is actually from a Mexican chant used to keep witches and demons out of the homes of those who utter it.
It goes, "Cuatro esquinas tiene mi casa Cuatro angeles que la adoran, Lucas, Marcos, Juan, y Mateo. Ni brujas, ni hechiceras, Ni hombre malchechor. En el Nombre del Padre, Y del Hijo, y del Espiritu Santo."
Or, in English, "Four corners has my house. Four angels adore it, Luke, Mark, John, and Matthew. Neither witches, nor charmers, Nor maleficent man can harm me. In the Name of the Father, And of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
Next week, KILLBOT 2000!
Oct 30, 2003
KILLBOT 2000 is about the plagues that the devil brings down on the city. We had to tie in zombies SOMEHOW, because zombies are so so sweet. The song begins like many classic zombie movies; a strange smoke/fog begins to disperse itself throughout a building (in this case, an elementary school) and people begin to breathe it in.
The sickness begins to come on, and their bodies begin to deteriorate. The line "Datura flakes off from your lips" is one a lot of people cant figure out what I'm saying- Datura is part of the typical zombie poison that causes delusions, mental confusion, disorientation, amnesia and an impenetrable stupor, all typical characteristics of zombies. The chorus is pretty self explanatory- "And they fall from the jungle gyms and piss away each night among the sound of bodies crawling round the room". We're talking zombie children here.
The second verse is simply background- rotting flesh, dead kids, hair falling out, all the things that make zombies great. The big climax is simply about the parents carrying the corpses of their children to the cemetary and burying them. Nobody can seem to understand what I'm saying at the very end of this song, but the line is "Carry their little bodies to the cemetary ever so gently, please don't let their necks crook towards the ground."
As you can see, this song is pretty self explanatory.
Nov 11, 2003
UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES, THE BEATINGS WILL CONTINUE is about the hero of the story, who is returning to the town where he shot the devil in order to finish him off. He is walking across the desert "with blood on his breath" ready to finish what he started. The chorus features the amazing William Elliot Whitmore on backup vocals. He sang to us in the studio through a telephone by the side of the road in Texas, and our producer Dan Goodwin was able to raise the volume enough so you can hear it.
The chorus paralels the hero to the Christian act of transubstantiation, where, upon eating and drinking the wafer and wine at mass, they actually become the body and blood of Christ. In his case, "Buckshot is his bread, and he'll drink whiskey instead..." PS: since this song has come out, thanks everyone for the whiskey.
Nov 18, 2003
THREE MEN HANGING is about the first signs of hopelessness that the townspeople begin to feel as they realize their imminent doom. They begin to wander around the town, finding their friends and family strung up from trees, dangling in the wind. The town has begun to fall apart, and the devil's forces have become too strong. The chorus illustrates this scene: "I seen three men hangin from a sycamore, their bodies were stiff as a 2x4 and their heads were tilted down towards the ground. Well it ain't been long since they been up there that their bodies turned cold hangin in that air and they mighta froze before that noose got to them..." This scene is also taken from a wood etching Vincent found while looting the local library for images for the record. It is used on the back of the cd case. The narrator of this song urges the townspeople to give up, and to get on with it and kill themselves before the devil gets to them. The INTERMISSION is next. We left Vince to his own devices in the studio with the idea of the intermission music played in old movies between scenes.
Dec 02, 2003
A MASTERS IN REVERSE PYSCHOLOGY is about gearing up for war. The townspeople stop their lamenting and prepare for the onslaught. They start to arm themselves, "shooting at the devil in the moonlight". They begin to wait, and much of the theme of the rest of the album focuses around waiting to die. They lay in their basements in wait, drinking themselves to death in fear of the devil. The imagery is about them hiding out, hungry and tired in the wreckage of their homes waiting for the devil- and when he comes, for the first time, they are ready for him. They torch the walls, burn the place down, hoping he'll go up in flames...it doesn't work like they hope so they begin to pray for the dead and dying. The end of the song is about locking up the children in the church, keeping everyone awake praying until their knees bruise from the pews.
Dec 02, 2003
THE DESERT IS ON FIRE is about the devil taunting the townspeople that he is going to burn down the desert and their homes. This song is simply about him talking shit to scare them. The townsfolk hole up in the bomb shelters, hoping that they are safe down there until they can strike again.
Dec 09, 2003
THAT CROWN DONT MAKE YOU A PRINCE is another song about war, though it is more from a spiritual angle. The lines have been drawn and sides chosen for the battle between good and evil, yet some linger in the middle or don't care. Those that don't worry until the end is near are corrupted by inaction and so their fate is sealed. "The drunks in the alleys are taking up arms to undo their whole lives in a day" is the last ditch attempt of these people to try and pick a side. This song is almost a chant for these people to fight, yet, it is too late to save their souls from damnation. If good hasn't been in their hearts all along, they are gonna burn burn burn.
Dec 14, 2003
PILLARS OF SALT is inspired by the story of Lot from the Bible. Two angels arrived at Sodom, and Lot invited them to spend the night at his home. The Angels didn't like what they saw in Sodom and found that there were not even 10 righteous people living there. The Angels told Lot to flee with his wife and daughters, and while they were leaving God rained down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah. They instructed the family not to look back. Lot's wife looked back and she became a pillar of salt. We were inspired by the idea of a body falling apart. In our version, all the people who made a deal with the devil have started to slowly decompose and fall apart. They regret their decisions and wait to die. The wicked are being punished and most of the town has given up hope. Vincent helped me write the lyrics to this song, and he wrote the form of the song as well.
Dec 25, 2003
END OF THE LINE is building up to the big climax. At the end of Pillars of Salt, there is a feeling of hopelessness. End of the Line begins with the kids hiding in the basements and barricading their homes from the devil's legions. The devil is literally knocking down their door. The parents have been drinking themselves to death in terror of this moment and when I say "time to fight our demons" I actually mean fight in a battle against demons. The next verse is the image of a girl trapped inside her house. She has "a flower pot full of dirt and bullet shells", which begins to warp and grow into horrible branches of barbed wire which cut at her, choke her, and block all the exits. The devil's forces are cutting down people and dementing the town and its inhabitants. Then the chant starts, the parents telling their children to "lay low lay low keep your head down" and to listen for the "dusty train" a western version of the ferry piloted by Charon that crosses the river Styx. More images of war are brought up "set the bone with a cardboard splint, strike the nail against the flint, and set the fields on fire... let the devil come, let him come..." Finally the townspeople are growing confident and are mentally ready for battle. They no longer hide in their houses waiting to die. They bust out the artillery and prepare for the big fight. They egg on the Devil to come and get it, shouting "I'll be waiting for him this time I am stronger now and I can fight it I'll be waiting at the end of the line..."
How does it end? That's up to you I guess... Thanks for reading and listening...END