The very early recording of “Going to Norwalk” can be grating to some listeners, but lyrically it provides something for everyone.

Track: “Going to Norwalk”
Album: Hot Garden Stomp (1993)

“It sounded so harsh it was hard to listen to… but I did anyway.” – John Darnielle, 5/27/15, on “Going to Norwalk”

We’ve talked before about John Darnielle’s breakdown of which Hot Garden Stomp songs might be played live again, and that list and the above quote make up the full list of primary sources for “Going to Norwalk.” In the post, John says he is “fond of” the song but that the appeal is in the way the song was recorded originally rather than a reproduction of it. As far as I can tell he mostly stuck to his word and only played it at that one show in Salt Lake City. The quote echoes his feelings, but it also doubles as a nice summary of the early works of the Mountain Goats.

It’s Norwalk, California, and it’s almost a love song. The narrator watches two raccoons run into a gutter and is struck by a thought of someone as the pair stares back. They wander around Norwalk and watch silhouettes behind sheets in old buildings. They’re again reminded of someone’s they’ve lost touch with and “can’t stand it.”

You have the chance to imbue this kind of song with whatever meaning you need it to contain. If you’re reeling and want to reconnect with someone, you can view it as a song about seeing things that seem like reminders and opportunities but aren’t. If you’re hiding and don’t want to reconnect with someone, you can view it as a song about how the natural world plays tricks on us and seems to care when it doesn’t. For my money, the most interesting line is “your California sky” which implies that these characters are still close geographically, so you’re left just considering what non-literal distance separates them.