Soul Coughing - The Idiot Kings Lyrics

Their albums just kept getting better. Why did they break up?!?!

This embodies the mid-late nineties vibe of floating through the absurdities of life for me. Early 20s and I stumbled into jobs I didn't apply for and that somehow paid rent while working part time and fucking around...

this song gives me irresistable bliss

Happy to hear this little gem any day of the week. Mike Doughty's revised version is pretty sweet too☆

Replayed this song 100 times! <3

Genius stuff Soul Coughing came up with. After Soul Coughing broke up... M.Doughty had a solo career.

Example: Down On The River By The Sugar Plant

Everything is going up.
Everything is going as planned, yeah.
Everything moves along.
Everything is fine, fine, fine.
Oh I could be
Condemned to Hell for every sin but littering.
I could
Slip on the East River and crash into Queens all skittering.
I've seen the
Cops and the robbers, and I know they dance the same.
I've seen a
Half a zillion girls and haven't spoken to a single one of them.
Batting in the light,
My reptile-lidded eyes.
And all this strung end to end,
Is wider than the mind.
And this cool I've been playing I have been
Playing too long now my
Capacities are dwindling 'til they're
Gone Gone Gone.
Baby can I change my mind?
I just want to change my mind.

Calyman those are lyrics to “The Idiot kings”

Makes you move from toes to nostrils,
best years.

I love this version so much more that the version Mike Doughty's doing now. This has such a dark funky night feel to it that it's perfect.

This is what I listen to when I have sex... she doesn't like that I only last 4:09 minutes

Great tune.....like Sting said, " a band can only ever be as good as the drummer". When the bassist is equally as good, this is what you get.

I can't stop listening to this!

3:02 or 3:03 there's a little skip in the recording, which is funny because my bass teacher made me a copy of this CD to learn how to play bass and it was scratched right on an important beat, just like this recording! i learned to like it lol

I like it ....

End cut off? BOOOOOOOO

God if only 3 out of the 4 Soul Coughing members weren't dickheads.

@TruVapeReviews Who is the ONE? Because you trippin if you say what I think you're going to.

+TruVapeReviews Don't care. Still like the music. The good thing is, I don't have to drink a beer and talk to them (;

Jeez let it go, they were all young and hardly anybody that age can contend with fame, greed, stress, and psychological upheaval slathered in drugs- yet all dependent upon one another in deep ways- for years. I'm sure it was agony for all of them. It's hardly the first time a band dealt with the stresses of fame and the road

This is one of their best songs - along with super bon bon, $300, soundtrack to mary, true dreams wichita and Janine

Mr. Bitterness

screenwriter's blues, sugarfree jazz, how many cans

Collapse!

And how many cans, and blue eyed devil, and down to this, and moon sammy, and paint and oh

This song so belongs to SC, that I would dare any other group to try and cover it...Betcha there won't be any takers.  If there is such a thing as "boho-noir", this song is the essence of it.

I like the new version a lot, but I'm still a little partial to this one.  As acrimonious as Doughty's relationship was with the group, SC's rhythm section was great.  The drums and bass really add something great to this song..   Mike said that this is the closest rhythm that he could get his drummer to sound like what he wanted him to sound like.  I wonder what SC would have sounded like if the drummer was spot on to Doughty's vision every time.   

I think the bass and drums were an essential part of the sound whether Doughty likes it or not (obviously not!). Doughty's vocals are almost languorous, but the aggression of the drums and bass give an incessant drive. (I'm a bass player btw)

Great music, or art, rarely comes from a place of contentment. And the bands that pull each other apart in the pursuit of making great music are always doomed to end. When they do everyone will have an opinion as to why. But in the end, we're still lucky to have the music they left behind.

@spoddie yeah the bass and drums are so good on their songs and this is the band that has some of my all time bass lines and the drums on Misinformed like the way they just beat into your head it's amazing

Is there even a bass guitar in this band? I thought it was an upright bass..

This song is the epitome of "incredible".

they're both great but i actually like mike's new version of it better. more soulful than funky

Interesting interview with Mike on NPR this morning - he discusses his differences with SC. They play a sample of his version of Idiot Kings - I like SC's version better. In this case, complicated is better.

What'd you guys think of Mike's re-imagined of this track?

I dug Mike's though on this one I prefer the original.... It proves that even the writer of the song could not match the musical firepower of Yuval, Mark and Sebastian.

It's amazing how 3 guys in their 30s with PhDs in music and one guy in his 20s who just wrote poetry could make the best music on earth, man.

Solo version is better. The bass/sampling sound on this cover too much of the melody. Sounds kind of atonal.

How is it this song doesnt get played on every radio station every day in every city?

"my reptile-lidded eyes"

Could listen to it all night..

Thank you! I love this song!!

Hell .. this is west tennessee driving music ! wishing i was pimpwalking in new york lol

top 5 fave of all time..

I hear ya.

This song is the natural cure to antidepressants.

just love the typical soul coughning unexpectable changes in the middle of the song. you never get bored by any of them

@SuburbanBehemoth: Hahahahahaha..... You nailed it!

Straight up New York Pimpwalking Music!

this song makes me fucking proud to be a Soul Coughing fan.

Reading behind lines of a prolific writer .

Every time I hear this song I flash back to the best parties I've ever been at. It perfectly captures the feeling of a charged atmosphere of easy confidence. Everyone's having a good time, the coolest people are laughing at your jokes, and there's already a bit of wistfulness in there because you know you'll be looking back on this night for years.

Same here :-)

absolutely.

This is one of the few song Mike likes.

bout time someone posted this that isnt in two parts!!! thank you!

@imafractal23 This one can be a very effective anti-depressant...for some reason. I always used this to make me feel better after not talking to pretty girls...a bad habit.

the only song that will bring me out of the worst funk. thanks for the post.