“Bad Priestess” is told in first person, but don’t mistake the hateful narrator for John Darnielle himself.

Track: “Bad Priestess”
Album: Zopilote Machine (1994)

At first glance, Zopilote Machine might seem to be the quintessential Mountain Goats album. It has (at least) three Alpha Couple songs, two Orange Ball songs, and three “Going to…” songs. With that many representations of “series” songs, it might serve as a crucial primary text in understanding the catalog.

The complication is that it features songs like “Going to Georgia” and “Bad Priestess,” songs that are by no means bad or not fun to listen to, but thematically dissimilar than the current Goats output. It’s difficult to have 500 songs that are largely told in first person because people will ascribe the narrator’s traits to you, but John Darnielle doesn’t identify with many of his early narrators. “Going to Georgia” is a fan favorite, but the narrator threatens someone they love with a gun. That’s not the kind of person you want to be.

The narrator in “Bad Priestess” may not be as violent, but they share a mindset with the person in Georgia with a gun. The titular “Bad Priestess” is a woman that is tempting someone, but they’re putting all of those qualities on her. She never speaks, she only lives in the way she is described. She is called a “fraud” for her “place among the poor” and that the sun across her face has had “the same effect on a thousand other guys.” There is a type of person that feels this way about the fairer sex, and it’s not a good type of person. It can still be a fun song even if the narrator is gross — Darnielle of the present calls him “insane” — but be sure you consider the context.