In “Going to Bolivia” John Darnielle offers the listener one potential outcome of life without successful connections with others.

Track: “Going to Bolivia”
Album: Sweden (1995)

What meaning can you find in insanity? John Darnielle is “on the record” about a lot of his material, but he’s extremely clear about “Going to Bolivia.” In that interview from 2008, he picked “Going to Bolivia” as one of five character songs that he wanted to explain. His explanation is interesting, but it leaves more questions than it answers. He says that the protagonist of the song is “a little crazy” and that we “get the sense that he’s been isolated for a little while.” That’s what we know for sure: this is an unhinged person who is on their own, waiting for someone to return to them in Bolivia.

Beyond that, what is there in “Going to Bolivia?” Sweden is filled with isolated characters that probably shouldn’t be left on their own, and this is yet another poor soul like that. “Tollund Man” focuses on a man cast aside by his tribe, “The Recognition Scene” describes two people lost to each other, and “Prana Ferox” looks at two people who should be lost to each other. The world of Sweden is a lonely world — as contrasted with an angry or a remorseful world, like some other The Mountain Goats albums — and one wonders what John wants us to get out of this particular character. The song seems to be without implied judgment, so it’s left to the listener to invent a back story for just why this character is hearing distant carnivals and fearing the sight of the natural world. Whatever you decide made him this way, he’s a warning to other people that life can turn inwards on you very quickly, and that you need to be worried when you see animals that aren’t there.