all eternals deck

097. Sourdoire Valley Song

Alex Russell All Eternals Deck , , , , , , ,

John Darnielle asks us to consider the lives of ancient mankind in their own context in “Sourdoire Valley Song.”

Track: “Sourdoire Valley Song”
Album: All Eternals Deck (2011)

In the vein of “Tollund Man”, “Sourdoire Valley Song” makes us consider our elders. The titular valley is in France, where a 60,000-year-old neanderthal skeleton was discovered in 1908. Many people picture the discovery, but John Darnielle considers the life that man must have lived.

The opening verse talks about what we all know. “The Old Man” as he’s generally known sharpens new tools from old rocks and hunts game for the first time in history. He’s pleased with his tools and his process. He’s got the world on a string.

But the chorus complicates his simple life. The grass grows after he’s gone and covers his things and his existence. He’ll be hidden for thousands of years, though his ability to consider that is likely limited. He’s certainly unaware of the Olduvai Gorge in Africa, a more significant and much older site with remains of ancient humanity.

Both sets of ancient man led life as best they could. Darnielle doesn’t focus on the sad realities of life in “Sourdoire Valley Song.” Of course they will be forgotten for thousands (or millions, in Olduvai Gorge) of years, but for now they have remedies for sickness and they lead happy lives. They even have roots you chew for “atmosphere” which conjures some great images.

Towards the end of the song, Darnielle mentions that his ancient characters want to “live a long life.” They seem to believe this is possible with luck, which brings up something I’ve never considered. “Longevity” is relative. “The Old Man” died at 40, but who is to say that was a short life 60,000 years ago? Context is everything.

065. Liza Forever Minnelli

Alex Russell All Eternals Deck , , , , , , ,

“Liza Forever Minnelli” sees the iconic Liza confronting her own survival in the wake of her mother’s legacy.

Track: “Liza Forever Minnelli”
Album: All Eternals Deck (2011)

A lot of the early Mountain Goats songs are about people who are flawed but expect the people in their life to be without flaws. It’s a common problem with human interaction wherein we expect the world to be better to us than we are to it. Most of the time it’s only evident later on, but Goats narrators often realize in the middle of the situation that they are doing damage to a relationship or a friendship. That said, they rarely correct their behavior and that is why they are worth discussing. There’s no story to “there was a problem with me and I fixed it and now I’m better.” We want to hear about the messes.

As he’s gotten older, John Darnielle has focused more on people who never had a chance to fix their issues. Amy Winehouse is the Amy in “Amy AKA Spent Gladiator 1,” and the song is about how people survive in the face of great obstacles. Amy Winehouse of course didn’t do that, but Darnielle wants us to think about how much of that could actually be prevented. His heroin-addicted Frankie Lymon in “Harlem Roulette” isn’t just a drug addict, he’s a victim of his own chemicals rather than his choices.

Rehab saved Liza Minnelli, but “Liza Forever Minnelli” is more interested in the cause than the solution. We judge people based on what we know, but Darnielle wants us to think about everyone’s circumstances when we make those judgements.”The compasses I came into this world with // never really worked so good,” John/Liza sings, and despite the “memory of sweet things” we are forced to consider what really goes into being Liza Minnelli and the power of survival in spite of it.

064. Age of Kings

Alex Russell All Eternals Deck , , , , , , ,

As the star-crossed lovers of the album, the couple in “Age of Kings” meets the only end such lovers can meet.

Track: “Age of Kings”
Album: All Eternals Deck (2011)

“Age of Kings” is another of the tarot cards on All Eternals Deck. Every song on the album is supposedly a different card in a supposedly lost tarot deck, and this one must be the Star-Crossed Lovers card. The song opens with the couple hiding in a stone tower, but the line “why should we hide from anyone?” tells you all you need to know about where they stand. They love their love, and that’s honestly fairly rare in the world of the Goats.

The couple agonizes over hiding and protecting themselves in this sad tale. They decry their time as the “age of kings” and “the lost age.” They talk about the sword in “the waiting stone.” They live in fantastical times, but they have a very relatable problem and that problem is about to be solved in a very negative way. You generally don’t want wolves in your hallway, but you definitely don’t want them to be “gaining ground.”

While it’s a fairly straightforward song lyrically, the melancholy delivery and the strings really add some detail. Musically it fits on the album, but it doesn’t have the strong message that a lot of the rest of the tarot cards. What do these lovers want us to know about their plight, beyond its sadness? What, beyond love, has been lost here? For John Darnielle and All Eternals Deck the passing feeling of sadness for lovers from another time is enough, but it may leave some listeners curious for more detail. That said, “felt like God’s anointed // when you didn’t push me away” are some all-time lines, and things like that keep a song memorable long after the first listen.

052. Damn These Vampires

Alex Russell All Eternals Deck , , , , , , ,

 

The character in “Damn These Vampires” blames everyone else for their situation, but also adds to their own problems.

Track: “Damn These Vampires”
Album: All Eternals Deck (2011)

Amazingly, vampires don’t show up very often in Mountain Goats songs. Well, literal vampires don’t, and that’s surprising because they seem like the perfect choice for most of the band’s favorite themes. Characters in Goats songs often struggle with engaging the world and they routinely either drain or are drained by the world in some way. The “God damn these vampires // for what they’ve done to me” of “Damn These Vampires” would make sense to hundreds of narrators in the catalog.

The vampires in this song aren’t literal either, of course, but like the vampires of “Alpha Rat’s Nest” who “suck the dying hours dry,” these leave bite marks. “Damn These Vampires” is part of All Eternals Deck, so it has to fit in the very loose framework of a tarot card. The vampire card is one you’re going to see at some point as a character in a Goats song, but it’s up to you to interpret if it means you’re being bitten or if you’re doing the biting. That’s true in the start, but the full circle of “vampirism” is that once you’re bitten, you start biting others.

The narrator of “Damn These Vampires” blames others for their addictions, but they’re certainly complicit in them. They continually insist that something’s been done to them, but once you have the disease it matters more about how you live with it. “Someday we’ll try to walk upright,” they tell themselves and the other vampires, and they offer the most hopeful thought of all with “someday we won’t remember this.” In the meantime, they’ll all just keep adding to their ranks as they “sleep like dead men // wake up like dead men.”

038. Estate Sale Sign

Alex Russell All Eternals Deck , , , , , , ,

After unexplained events, two people have to sell off the stuff of their life in “Estate Sale Sign.”

Track: “Estate Sale Sign”
Album: All Eternals Deck (2011)

The conceit of All Eternals Deck is that it’s a collection of lost, original tarot cards that has been presented now as an album with each song representing a card. You don’t need to think too hard about that, but it does say a lot about the kind of guy John Darnielle is. It’s a loose idea for an album that infuses a little weirdness and mysticism into even straightforward songs.

“Estate Sale Sign” is about a couple that has to get rid of most of their possessions in an estate sale, but it’s also about the general sense of melancholy associated with losing the trappings of your life. These two people don’t necessarily know how they feel about this sale or how they feel about the things in it. The narrator calls various items “crude little wooden idols,” “trinkets,” “treasures,” and “unloved icons.” The broad sense is something we can all understand, because we’ve all had to get rid of things and we’ve all felt the emotional loss connected to physical loss.

The specific, however, is what makes this a Mountain Goats song. “Stock shots, stupid stock shots from the Pomona mall // set up like unloved icons gathering dust up on the wall” tells you exactly what you need to know about the kind of things they’re selling. When the narrator throws in that the stock footage they’re trying to sell is from “films no one remembers” but that they remember “when their names were dear to you and me” we learn about the couple’s relationship.

Popular culture has given us many versions of couples dividing up their stuff after a breakup, but in the world of the Mountain Goats, when something goes badly in your love life you need to sell everything you own in dramatic, infuriating fashion.