Our narrator in “Harbor Me” is in a delicate place and needs help to navigate it.

Track: “Harbor Me”
Album: Getting Into Knives (2020)

You cannot speak in absolutes for the Mountain Goats (though I know I tend to; sorry) but as much as one can find easily, it seems like “Harbor Me” has never been played live. There aren’t many other songs you can say that about that aren’t already obscure for other reasons. The only commentary the usual sources make about “Harbor Me” is John Darnielle saying he doesn’t expect it to be something people yell for and that the vocal performance “never really rises above a conversational tone.” I tend to flipflop on if things like that matter for a band like this, but I find it interesting that a song like that makes the cut.

I like “Harbor Me” but it bounced off me the first few times I listened to it. It feels in conversation with a lot of early Mountain Goats narrators who were scared, worried, paranoid, or some combination thereof and sought comfort. What seems different to me is this person shows signs of trying. This person is beset by anxiety or some form of it by another name but still out there at the Exxon riffling through racks looking for something to help. So many people we met in songs decades before were lashing out or resisting help. It’s not the kind of thing that jumps off the page, but it is a difference in how we treat people we’re asking for help. It’s a gentler song as a result, but it’s a person more likely (we hope) to make it out.