Old Haunts

Credit goes to my awesome best friend, Krystin.

Well, Cherry bomb, you are a mystery
exploding sparkling quiet nights
My teenage heart pumped all my misery baby to fingertips that might ignite
and all along you knew my story, didn’t you? And all night long I carried yours
Your blood was mixed with wine and robbery, baby
and left us always wanting more

So don’t sing me your songs about the good times
Those days are gone and you should just let them go
And, God help the man who says “If you’d have known me when..”
Old haunts are for forgotten ghosts
Old haunts are for forgotten ghosts

Cherry bomb, your love is surgery
Removing what you don’t regard
And every breath felt like a funeral, baby,
When you were packing up your car.

And with the window down, I hear you’re tired now.
You borrowed everything and wore all your old welcomes out
Well, shame on you, my love.
You sold your youth away,
Memories for sinking ships that never would be saved.

So don’t sing me your songs about the good times
Those days are gone and you should just let them go
And, God help the man who says “If you’d have known me when..”
Old haunts are for forgotten ghosts
Old haunts are for forgotten ghosts

Shame, shame, shame, shame on you.
You kept your mind and heart and youth just like a tomb.
Shame, shame, shame shame on you
You kept your mind and heart and youth just like a tomb

And don’t sing me your songs about the good times
Those days are gone and you should just let them go
So, God help the man who says “If you’d have known me when..”
Old haunts of old heartless ghosts yeah

So don’t sing me your songs about the good times
Those days are gone and you should just let them go
And, God help the man who says “If you’d have known me when..”
God help the man who says “If you’d have known me when...”
God help the man who says “If you’d have known me when...”
God help this man, my baby if you’d have known me when
Old haunts are all we’ve ever known.

Looks/sounds completely right to me. Sweet.

awesome tune. i think someone mentioned that there were some Navesink Banks references in this one, but i can't hear any. am i missing something?

"If you'd a known me when..." is a line from Navesink Banks, haha.

haha can't believe i missed that. thanks.

Just like a tomb

Defiantly a reference from Navesink Banks.

Twas me! But yeah, I wasn't the only one to notice.
Thanks for posting up the lyrics! This is quickly become my favorite of AS.

i love the piano at the end.. brian can really jam (at about 2:30)

Well, looks like it's not necessarily Navesink Banks reference after all! He talks about the line "cut you to ribbons" in American Slang, so I figure the same applies to Haunts:
http://www.spinner.com/2010/04/23/gaslight-anthem-american-slang-new-album/

Quote :

"People instantly said, 'You quoted yourself from the last record on
the chorus. Is that your thing, quoting yourself?'" Fallon says with a
hint of exasperation. "That's totally by accident. If I say the word
'pizza' twice in a week, sometimes it happens, you know?

haha.

hahah. I guess he's just using phrases that pour out of his head, not really thinking 'oh hey I'm gonna throw in a reference here'.

micwatson wrote:

i love the piano at the end

what version have you got?

you gotta listen to it real loud with good speakers..then you can hear it in the background. after listening to it a few times i don't actually think it's a piano but a xylophone or something like it.

or am i just hearing things?

the first part of this song reminds me of teen spirit by nirvina

^Yeah, I noticed that as well.

It's not really in the end but the breakdown before the end. And yeah, I hear the piano (or whatever it is) as well

thecosmickid wrote:

It's not really in the end but the breakdown before the end. And yeah, I hear the piano (or whatever it is) as well

Yeah it's an organ slide

Does the bridge of this song make anyone else's head explode with its pure awesomeness? Just thought I would add that...

i'm sure it has probably nothing to do with it, but the song that made famous The Runaways is called Cherry Bomb, and the song starts with Well, Cherry bomb, you are a mystery. Reference or coincidence?or nothing at all? xD

JoshRaymond wrote:

the first part of this song reminds me of teen spirit by nirvina

Reminds me more of Holiday by Green Day.

Bea wrote:

i'm sure it has probably nothing to do with it, but the song that made famous The Runaways is called Cherry Bomb, and the song starts with Well, Cherry bomb, you are a mystery. Reference or coincidence?or nothing at all? xD

Nothing at all. Cherry bomb is a pretty well-known slang term for a feisty woman.

This is one of my favorites by TGA. It makes so much sense if someone's left you.

"And every breath felt like a funeral, baby
While you were packing up your car"

I posted it already in the master explanation list but since there is an own thread existing for Old Haunts I might as well repost it here again.

About OLD HAUNTS (in Vienna 7.11.2010)

Where we're coming from it's a small town. That's (referring to a Bruce story he told earlier) the good side of it. But the bad side of things a lot of people get hopeless. And they end up spending their life - they start at 21 going to the bars, start drinking. You know what: When you're 21 - YEAH. But the problem is, when you're 35, you don't have a job and you're still doing it
Some people ask me about this song and they say it's kind of nasty. It's not nasty. It's about hope, about inspiring someone to follow the dreams they had when they were kids. This song is called Old Haunts and it's about not standing still.

video on youtube incl. intro