Songs for Petronius

365. The Bad Doctor

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“The Bad Doctor” is not about that doctor, but it’s about a doctor, and it’ll force you to sit up and take notice.

Track: “The Bad Doctor”
Album: Songs for Petronius (1992) and Bitter Melon Farm (1999)

If you played “The Bad Doctor” for ten random people you would probably have ten confused people, but if you insisted they listen to it a few times and explain what they thought it was about, they would probably say “Jack Kevorkian.” When you say a phrase like “death-dealing physician” you run into a kind of “facial tissues” vs. “Kleenex” problem. There is only one of this thing, so people call it that thing.

John Darnielle has said a few times that it’s not about that, but it reminds me of the discussion about “Down to the Ark” which talks about political posters that are Obama’s colors during the Obama years but is not about Obama. If John Darnielle says you’re wrong you are wrong, but it’s really easy to see how people came to the conclusion they did. He specifically said “The Bad Doctor” is “about a malevolent force that runs around dispensing death in the guise of medicine — actual widespread death, not the merciful death of Jack Kevorkian.” That’s more than you’ll usually get, which he seems to have only said because he had to be insistent that it is not about what you think.

It’s a very long song, for the time, and it’s a pretty vivid story. The chorus of increasingly insistent “oh yeah” repetition further makes this a strange one, though I always remember how an old friend of mine really, really loved this one. It’s these kinds of songs that worm into your brain and why older Mountain Goats songs are so special. It’s about a magic doctor that murders people, but if that’s not enough, it’s catchy, too.

364. Alpha Double Negative: Going to Catalina

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From the perspective of the woman in the Alpha Couple, we see someone shut down in “Alpha Double Negative: Going to Catalina.”

Track: “Alpha Double Negative: Going to Catalina”
Album: Songs for Petronius (1992) and Nothing for Juice (1996) and Bitter Melon Farm (1999)

“No, I Can’t” is on three albums. Since it’s on one album with an alternate version as well as the original, it is, I believe, the “most” released Mountain Goats song. Second place goes to one of two songs that are going “Going to” somewhere and in the Alpha series, “Alpha Double Negative: Going to Catalina.” I’m sure all of that math is wrong, but what fun, huh?

There are two standard versions. The original is on Songs for Petronius and the re-release with Bitter Melon Farm seven years later. It’s a little slower and much more deliberate than the version on Nothing for Juice, and I think it’s not quite as good. The Nothing for Juice version has backing vocals and the character sounds less unsure. By the rising “and I see a stranger in your eyes” there’s a mix of fear and fury that really sets this version apart. The guitar, and, obviously, bass, are more in the style of the time, but I think even without those differences it’s just the better take.

In 1998, John Darnielle told a crowd in Tallahassee, years before the album named for the city, that it is unique because it is from the position of the woman in the Alpha Couple. Most of the time we don’t know, and you are reminded as always to not take one comment at one concert as gospel, even coming from John Darnielle himself. I’m most interested in the way he chose to say it, asking the crowd if they spotted it during the performance. I like imagining this as a mystery that he hoped you were able to solve.

146. Pure Love

Alex Russell Bitter Melon Farm, Songs for Petronius , , , , , , , ,

 

A repetitive Casio keyboard and a desperate narrator entreat a lover to not go through with a mysterious plan on “Pure Love.”

Track: “Pure Love”
Album: Songs for Petronius (1992) and Bitter Melon Farm (1999)

“Pure Love” is 25 years old at the time of this writing. John Darnielle played it in October in Colorado, which you can check out here, and mentioned that it was the second time it had ever been played live. It would be impossible to describe it without using the word “obscure.”

It’s played on the old Casio keyboard that makes many appearances in the early Mountain Goats work. When John Darnielle played it in Colorado he played it on piano, which is fitting considering the upcoming album is the first to be entirely without guitar. He’s been slowly heading that way more and more and it will be really fascinating to see the result of an all-piano album.

The keyboard songs aren’t a good place to start if you’re a new fan. “Pure Love” especially is a little grating, if we’re being honest, though the playful, repetitive tune matches the lyrics well. “It won’t be necessary,” John Darnielle repeats, as he pleads with another character. The other lover, we can assume, is up to no good. The narrator presumes as much in the first verse and is more direct in the second as they ask their lover to remove a ski mask. Crimes and potential crimes abound on Mountain Goats albums, and even if this is a metaphorical one, it’s one our narrator fears.

Across the five songs on Songs for Petronius you will notice lots of repetition. None of them use the device like “Pure Love,” where the narrator’s resolve cracks as they keep saying “it won’t be necessary.” You must always question the reliability of your narrator, and you know, I think it just might end up being necessary in this case.

102. The Lady from Shanghai

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Named for an equally creepy Orson Welles movie, “The Lady from Shanghai” is unsettling in the best way possible.

Track: “The Lady from Shanghai”
Album: Songs for Petronius (1992) and Bitter Melon Farm (1999)

“‘The Lady from Shanghai,’ though — when I hear that comparatively young man get all breathy there, I see what he means, and I feel like he was onto something.” – John Darnielle, liner notes for Bitter Melon Farm

In 1947, Orson Welles wrote and directed a movie called The Lady from Shanghai. It occupies two places in cultural history. It’s either a masterpiece of noir or a tangled mess of indulgent Orson Welles stuff. Your perspective is your own, but it’s a classic and it’s one of the strangest experiences available on screen.

It’s strange to the point that some people seem to argue that it doesn’t make sense or flow as a narrative, but the basic points are pretty easy to follow. Orson Welles plays an Irish sailor who rescues Rita Hayworth during an attack in a park. Welles then discovers she’s married, but her husband hires him to man his yacht during a long, bizarre cruise that involves his lawyer and other strange figures who might not be what they seem. Everyone gets tangled in a plot and everyone has a secret motive, but can Welles untangle them all and save his life?

The song is breathy, as Darnielle notes, and it’s sung directly to someone. The film features frequent turns to camera where characters cackle or speak ominously. These are ostensibly to other characters, but they are directed straight at the audience. Both the song and the film create an eerie mood that will unsettle anyone who consumes either. The film really needs to be seen, but without viewing it you can still appreciate the state of mind of Darnielle’s characters. They’re wrapped up in something and all they can do now is walk towards their destiny.

043. Pure Intentions

Alex Russell Bitter Melon Farm, Songs for Petronius , , , , , , , ,

“Pure Intentions” may sound a little dated, but it offers two fascinating minutes of the early Mountain Goats style. 

Track: “Pure Intentions”
Album: Songs for Petronius (1992) and Bitter Melon Farm (1999)

“The sound of the singing on it makes me cringe, but I am aware of a few people who think this is as close to perfection as I’ve come.” – John Darnielle, talking about Songs for Petronius on the liner notes of the compilation Bitter Melon Farm.

Peter Hughes, the bassist for the Mountain Goats, was recently asked in an interview about fans who prefer the early boombox stuff to the modern version of the band. He spoke of those fans the same way John Darnielle usually does. They both essentially said that they understand why people love the torn-down, robotic weirdness of the early singles and cassettes. The band has been around since 1991, and it’s certainly true that there’s been an “evolution” from the early tracks to what the band is now. Whether you think the recent albums are better or worse is a matter of debate, but I tend to agree with Peter Hughes when he says “If John had continued to make a boombox-recorded version of each record alongside the full studio album, which one would you spend more time with? For me, I wouldn’t listen to the boombox one.”

“Pure Intentions” is pure early Goats. It’s a little hard to listen to from a sound quality perspective, but it wasn’t really intended to be judged against Tallahassee. For the most part, all five songs on Songs for Petronius work more as history lessons than they do as things to sit down and listen to in 2015. It’s interesting to hear Darnielle’s early songwriting. “You’re so pretty // I could burst // and I wonder // who’s gonna talk first” wouldn’t be totally out of place on a later album, and it certainly does plant that seed of “what are these two people up to?”