575. Song for Greg Valentine

Alex Russell Unreleased , , , , , , ,

The simple power of violence is all you need in “Song for Greg Valentine.”

Track: “Song for Greg Valentine”
Album: Unreleased

The discussion of if wrestling is real or not misses the point. This is central to all the Mountain Goats songs about wrestling, but it also really assumes you’re way past that point. I watched a lot of wrestling when I was younger and I don’t watch any now, but I feel like I still understand and appreciate what people are getting out of it. That said, it is an insular world. Justin McElroy, the podcaster, once said something that still sticks with me: “I often find when I don’t know who a celebrity is, it turns out they’re a wrestler.” It’s funny for several reasons but it’s also a reminder that this world is huge even without you knowing anything about it.

The real Greg Valentine that gives the title to “Song for Greg Valentine” was indeed a legendary wrestler. One of his gimmicks was to “break legs,” which explains the song’s driving message. “Break legs,” John Darnielle echoes over and over, giving the crowd that heard it the one time (maybe, likely, probably) it was ever played one more anthem of resistance. This one’s great and the only performance of it includes a full explanation of the man himself and the gimmick the song is about, but I invite you to also read the extremely (inordinately, maybe?) long wiki on Greg Valentine. He was a fascinating man, but you learn almost as much about the legacy of wrestling and fandom in that someone shortens Junkyard Dog to “JYD” here and in this space, well, that’s just fine.

574. Poltergeist

Alex Russell Unreleased , , , , , , ,

There’s a notable difference between most Mountain Goats characters and the ones in “Poltergeist,” and it’s a third character.

Track: “Poltergeist”
Album: Unreleased

Very few Mountain Goats narrators are permitted to have children. One of the most famous Goats songs carries the title “No Children” without using those words seemingly as a joke about this very fact and the reasoning behind it. As dark as it ever gets for the two people who are usually the Alpha Couple in a Goats song, it’s more or less contained to just those two. Everyone else gets plenty of warning to leave and typically does.

In “Poltergeist” there is a child. “I can’t stand it when he smiles up at you just because you’re his mother” is as cruel a sentiment as exists. There’s violence all through this one and even though we hope it’s just emotional violence, whew, what a hope, when that’s the best shot you have.

I’d put the snarl John Darnielle delivers “Poltergeist” with up against “Baboon” and the other truly bitter ones. It’s so grim and so rough, but it’s also slanted because you remember these people have responsibilities outside of themselves. We only ever get the narrator’s perspective but here we have an inarguable truth beyond even the typical occlusion of the other side that these two are in the absolute bleakest spot imaginable.

573. Pinklon

Alex Russell Unreleased , , , , , , ,

“Pinklon” tells a not-real story about a real larger-than-life figure and finds a celebration in redemption.

Track: “Pinklon”
Album: Unreleased

I used to deliver pizza and, as you might expect, it meant many hours of the day I was stuck in a car going back and forth over the same few miles of road. I filled those hours with books on tape, mostly, but I also started listening to one full Mountain Goats live show every day. I burned them on CD-R and scrawled things like “TMG 11-7-99” on them. That was 100% of the context I gave myself and I guess I figured at some point I’d finish all of them. If you start today it’ll take you years to do that. There’s no such thing as “all of them,” either, but I made it through hundreds.

That process means I have a lot of half-remembered stage banter in my head. Some of it I’ve been able to find elsewhere but some of it was not notable enough to make it to a wiki or other aggregated site. This includes an explanation somewhere of “Pinklon,” a story about real-life boxer Pinklon Thomas returning from jail. The song imagines this as an overblown, triumphant moment. The real Pinklon maybe went to jail as a youth and maybe didn’t. The song is fantastic, certainly one of the best non-released tracks, and the story’s truth isn’t really all that important in the wake of the feeling you get as John Darnielle bellows out the legend.

572. Ethiopians

Alex Russell Unreleased , , , , , , ,

The jaunty “Ethiopians” was cut from an album but tells a story we hear all over it just the same.

Track: “Ethiopians”
Album: Unreleased

During an introduction to “Ethiopians” John Darnielle says it was one of three songs recorded for Tallahassee that didn’t make the album. One of the others is the brutal “Alpha Chum Gatherer,” and like that one this one finds the Alpha Couple married and terrorizing each other.

I have mentioned this a whole bunch in this series but a song like “Ethiopians” really challenges the demand John Darnielle has made that no one ever insist anything cut from an album belongs there. I suppose I’ll grant that “Ethiopians” is at worst duplicative, as there’s nothing here you don’t already know about this duo. Even still, it’s an incredible track and the better of the two. You know you’re in a bad place when you want to “rub their noses in the ugly fact that we are still alive.” The Alpha Couple certainly goes to darker places than this by the end, but this is another story about how it feels to be in the bad times but not have enough power or self-respect to actually fully, really recognize that or demand to leave.

571. Bride

Alex Russell Unreleased , , , , , , ,

Frankenstein and the bride of Frankenstein come to an end in “Bride.”

Track: “Bride”
Album: Unreleased

The bride in the title of “Bride” is the bride of Frankenstein. The song tells the story of the creature deciding on their fate. You can hear what happens. The narrative isn’t really the key here.

Maybe it’s because we have so many other versions of Frankenstein to go off, but this is an easy one to picture and it’s easy to put yourself into the headspace. John Darnielle imbues his narrator with a sadness that goes beyond even the obvious nature of repeating “we belong dead.” I love the delivery here and you can feel how much he likes this one. “Bride” has always felt a little more complete than some of the other songs he’s released online and I think it’s in that delivery rather than the craft. It’s a good song either way, but it’ll stick in your mind because of those labored sighs and what they say about the life this creature had and what comes next.

570. 02-75

Alex Russell Unreleased , , , , , , ,

“02-75” is the address of one lover in a love song that’s only unique for the Mountain Goats if you think it’s all about one guy.

Track: “02-75”
Album: Unreleased

Marc Maron has mentioned many times on his podcast WTF with Marc Maron that one of the lightbulb moments for him as a fan of music was that people are not writing about themselves all the time. It’s one of those things that sounds stupid to say but is still a switch you need flicked in your brain at some point. When I started writing this series I gendered Mountain Goats narrators without thinking about it. He is John Darnielle, ergo these must be either him or similar men. It’s a pretty simplistic view of narrative, but it’s an easy hole to fall in.

That’s what would ordinarily make “02-75” sound like a strange song for John Darnielle to write. It’s an honest, straight-ahead love song. It’s beautiful and has that Darniellian turn of phrase with “real rain, real power” but it is very specifically a love song. It’s not a love song about obsession or masking a secret resentment. It’s a love song he wrote for the woman he would go on to marry and start a family with and that’s just that. It only sounds weird in comparison if you imagine all these people to be the same one. This one is John Darnielle. Those others aren’t.

569. You Were Cool

Alex Russell Unreleased , , , , , , ,

You probably needed to hear “You Were Cool” at some point in your life and it’s here for the memory of who you were.

Track: “You Were Cool”
Album: Unreleased

If you’ve been to a live show in the last ten years or so the odds are good you’ve heard “You Were Cool.” It may be the most “famous” live-only song the band has these days, surpassing the early mystique of “You’re in Maya” or other now-very-weird jams. It’s one of the most written about Mountain Goats songs and absolutely a fan favorite.

All that said, even still, it speaks for itself. It’s hard, I think, to argue with the message and it’s harder still to miss it. This is a sister song to “Amy AKA Spent Gladiator 1” and a dozen other Goats songs about surviving the difficulty of being different at a young age and emerging, if not stronger for the experience, at least alive. It’s a particularly strong message that will hit you differently depending on your age and your circumstances. It’s powerful to read the comments on this one no matter the version you find. Go to a show and hear it, too, but especially take it to heart. Look for an ally and just stay alive.

568. The Car Song

Alex Russell Unreleased , , , , , , ,

“The Car Song” is simply named but includes a much wider world than the dread that exists inside the vehicle.

Track: “The Car Song”
Album: Unreleased

Over a career, what is “The Car Song?” I find myself thinking about things like that when considering these sub-two-minute songs from the super-early days. Does John Darnielle ever think about this one? Could he play this today during the solo set in the middle of a live show? I invariably go to his comments about another such song, “Going to Bridlington,” which we’ve discussed at length but boil down to some wistful memories for this era but largely a move to more complete stuff. It’s not a dismissal of the past but it is an insistence that it be compartmentalized and not thought of as empirically better for having gone by.

There are a few mentions on the old wiki of performances in the 90s and I am sure there are others, but this is mostly a curiosity. It’s a love song, in the way a Mountain Goats song can be, and it’s a little bit sweeter than most of the others. I’m partial to the backing vocals from the Bright Mountain Choir. If anything, despite the fire, this one maybe only tilts at dread rather than insisting upon it, which might be why it never made an actual release. That’s rare, for this era. It may also be a reflection of that which surrounds it that a reference to a “wall of flames” feels like a suggestion rather than a demand.

567. Standard Bitter Love Song #5

Alex Russell Unreleased , , , , , , ,

“Standard Bitter Love Song #5” isn’t really that bitter, but there’s a longing you feel just the same.

Track: “Standard Bitter Love Song #5”
Album: Unreleased

Someone in the room at Munchies in Pomona, California on July 22nd in 1992 recorded this show and that is the sole reason you can hear “Standard Bitter Love Song #5” today. It was a Wednesday. Selena Gomez was born and Pablo Escobar went on the run for the final time that same day. Munchies, which was a small restaurant with a stage in the back room, is gone now and the former site is vacant as of this writing.

If you were there then you’d have heard the Bright Mountain Choir perform with John Darnielle and you’d have heard two of the bitter love songs. There are six, as far as people can reliably say, and no one has ever found #2 or #3. Does that mean they don’t exist or that there aren’t recordings of them? I think it’s equally likely that John Darnielle thought it was funny to create mystery with the naming convention as it is that they just were played at early shows people didn’t tape.

“Standard Bitter Love Song #5” is notably less bitter than most of the others. It’s all in the performance and the harmonies, but I have to think this one stands out because of that one-time element. I know I talk about things like this a lot here, but for a band so focused on physical space and what it means it is an unintended gift that we have these moments where we imagine what it must have been like on that one day in that one place.

566. Song for Sasha Banks

Alex Russell Unreleased , , , , , , ,

“Song for Sasha Banks” exists solely because of Twitter, which might be the best thing you can say for Twitter.

Track: “Song for Sasha Banks”
Album: Released on Bandcamp in 2018

At the time of this writing I guess it’s not called Twitter anymore, but, whatever, it probably will be by the end of the month, and that’s a terrible preface for the fact that Sasha Banks, the wrestler, tweeted “Song for Sasha Banks” into existence in 2015 when she asked John Darnielle directly where the song was for her on Beat the Champ. He told her he’d do it before the end of the tour. He did it a few years later and told her, indirectly on the Bandcamp release, “your walk is just beginning and the day will come when all your setbacks look like steps on a ladder.”

You really have your pick with “Song for Sasha Banks.” If you want, there’s just the story of the creation, wherein someone typed three words into their phone and caused John Darnielle to read up on the story of Sasha Banks and write this song. Also, if you want, there’s the art itself, which is a really solid song that would absolutely be at home on Beat the Champ, if a little modern compared to many of the rest of the tales. Also, on a third hand, if you want, there’s the hope tucked into that final verse that paints a much more positive picture than much of the rest of the album where “everyone I love is gonna have their own safe place.” What a thing to exist at all and what a story it both tells and suggests, beyond the text itself.