The song was featured on the 2010 reissue of the 2004 split album One Jug of Wine, Two Vessels by Omaha bands Bright Eyes and Neva Dinova.
Though many regard this track as a hidden gem of Bright Eyes' catalogue, it didn’t prove to be universally lauded.
In Pitchfork’s review of the reissue, Ian Co...
Walking with you through the courtyard
Where everything's marble and smooth
You said the idea of perfection
Was just fundamentally cruel
And talked about joining the circus
And trading your face for a mask
Oh I know you want to
I just don't believe that you can
We made quite a pair in the morning
We both tend to traffic in dreams
Seeing it now from the outside
You kept all your dark ones from me
And said you plan to go rambling
As you sat on that big windowsill
Oh I know you want to
I just don't believe that you will
You long to go hide in the bramble
Or fall off the face of the earth
You wish you could live with the beggars
On the steps of some crumbling church
You say you'd like to go hungry
But the truth is you just had your fill
Oh I know you want to
I just don't believe that you will
On Sundays you stroll through the market
And feel like you traveled through time
Buying back all your possessions
That were stolen from some former life
Return to me tied in a corset
To say "don't you know who I am?"
Oh I know you want to
I just don't believe that you can
Yes I know you want to
I just don't believe that you can
And trying to make an invention
Something the world's never seen
To sweep away all of the trouble
And leave the place shiny and clean
Patent your brave new creation
And hold it right there in your hand
Oh I know you want to
I just don't believe that you can
I waited for you at the landing
The water was crystal and calm
All these ideas of forever
Are just fundamentally wrong
You say that your love makes you honest
Then you're caught with your hand in the till
Oh I know you want to
I just don't believe that you will
Yes I know you want to
I just don't believe that you will
I Know You was written by Conor Oberst.
I Know You was produced by Mike Mogis.
Bright Eyes released I Know You on Tue Jan 20 2004.