A trip south in California may or may not help someone in “Going to San Diego.”

Track: “Going to San Diego”
Album: Unreleased

The “Going to…” songs are often about this idea that if you could just change your physical location, you might be able to change the deeper realities of your situation. It’s not one of them, but this idea is perfectly encapsulated in “The Mess Inside,” where two people take trips to try to fix a failing relationship and find that the problem comes with them even when they travel. That’s the thing about you. You’re still you, no matter where you go.

“Going to San Diego” is a very early Mountain Goats song and San Diego was a very attainable location for that version of John Darnielle. I don’t know to what degree that should play into analysis of the song, but I think it matters. The song tells us directly this person is taking a bus ride to see someone else, but we can see it more clearly with that title. What’s going on here, though? Someone at their lowest point being visited by someone who can save them? A relationship strained through distance that maybe cannot be rekindled? All we know for sure is these people travel in a circle big enough to know each other’s friends. The hope that physical presence will reverse some previous problems is the same as the hope that a trip to San Diego will save you, but at least it’s something.