mountain goats

364. Alpha Double Negative: Going to Catalina

Alex Russell Bitter Melon Farm, Nothing for Juice, Songs for Petronius , , , , , , , , , , ,

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.

363. Song for John Davis

Alex Russell Ghana, Songs About Fire , , , , , , , ,

“Song for John Davis” is a quick story but it will leave you wondering what these people are leaving or headed towards.

Track: “Song for John Davis”
Album: Songs About Fire (1995) and Ghana (1999)

There are a lot of things to love about “Song for John Davis.” I love the vocal delivery of “England” and “when we landed” and the final lines with the absurd stretches. I love the unexplained, unexpected quotation of 1 Corinthians 13:11. I love the title which is both very clear but also doesn’t really tell you anything. This is a song for John Davis, you see, but how, and who is that?

John Davis is a musician and an activist who was part of the Shrimper scene when John Darnielle was there. He reviewed Transcendental Youth on his website with an insightful review that talks about what Jon Wurster brings to the Mountain Goats. Why is this short song about leaving a snowy New Hampshire to head to England by boat dedicated to him? That I don’t think anyone can say.

As far as I can tell, John Darnielle hasn’t ever played “Song for John Davis” live and there really isn’t anything that’s been said about it. It exists just as this two-minute story with a repeated line for a chorus. It’s always been a little difficult to unpack for me, but it’s for John Davis, so maybe that’s why. I do love the tone, with a longing and a sadness that you can’t quite explain but can definitely hear.

362. Papagallo

Alex Russell Ghana, Songs About Fire , , , , , , , ,

“Papagallo” showcases some specifics from John Darnielle’s writing style and ultimately drills in on a beautiful moment.

Track: “Papagallo”
Album: Songs About Fire (1995) and Ghana (1999)

I have grown fascinated over the course of this project by the songs that no one ever mentions. “Papagallo” has never been played live, as far as I can tell, though it’s pretty difficult to prove a negative. It’s not available anywhere, at least, and even the seven-inch it was originally released on, Songs About Fire, may run you close to a hundred dollars if you want to buy your own. The entire single is a little longer than eight minutes long even with four songs on it. It’s just a really small thing and all four songs on it are small parts. The one that sticks with you is “Pure Gold,” for the fun sing-along phrases about a door burning.

You can miss “Papagallo” in that way, but you shouldn’t. In this era John Darnielle was amazingly productive, so it doesn’t mean anything that a song just got released and not revisited. This is still a time where John Darnielle thought he might hang it up eventually. There’s a confidence to this one, though. “It’s hard to grab ahold of some things sometimes // like you need me to remind you” is excellent phrasing, especially with the delivery on the second line to sell it as a joke or a weary reminder of a million shared experiences. One can even forgive the second verse’s triple rhyme of “water,” extreme even for John Darnielle, as that’s clearly a similar joke. The repetition also really sells the image. These are just two people in a singular moment, but if you listen to this one a few times, you can see it, can’t you?

361. Raja Vocative

Alex Russell Ghana, Orange Raja, Blood Royal , , , , , , , ,

The true meaning of “Raja Vocative” is available for an audience of one, but the feeling is for everyone.

Track: “Raja Vocative”
Album: Orange Raja, Blood Royal (1995) and Ghana (1999)

John Darnielle said of “Raja Vocative” that it is “a heavily-coded response to some personal pain” and that “there is maybe one person alive who would be able to do the decoding necessary to get at the truth of the matter, and she isn’t talking.” It’s possible that you could figure this out further, but why would you want to?

Part of the exercise of looking at every single Mountain Goats song is answering questions and finding answers. There are mysterious songs I’ve always wondered about, but also pretty clear songs that I’ve always wanted to put some more thought into. There is something to consider for all of them, even the ones that are seemingly cut and dried. However, even within that exercise some mystery is important. John Darnielle wants you to get close enough to “Raja Vocative” to know there is an answer, but not one he wants you to access. We must respect this.

That said, the violin is beautiful and there’s a reason this one persists in live shows. The studio version adds the violin, but the live versions add through subtraction. This is one you might hear during the solo John Darnielle part of a show now, which lets him really hammer home the delivery. We must also spend a moment on one of the truly great turns of phrase in the catalog: “in the unstoppable camera of my mind’s eye.”

360. Going to Georgia

Alex Russell Zopilote Machine , , , , , , ,

One of the most requested songs but also a song with some baggage, “Going to Georgia” asks you to really think about the narrator’s bias.

Track: “Going to Georgia”
Album: Zopilote Machine (1994)

There is no denying “Going to Georgia.” It’s the first song from the “old days” that clicks with a lot of people and it really carries the emotion of what those days were like. You have songs like “Family Happiness” and “Baboon” that show people in difficult situations with fury behind their eyes, but it is never as clear and never as direct as the sad narrator of “Going to Georgia.” The thing is, it requires you to not really be paying that much attention to love it that way. I heard it hundreds, maybe thousands, of times before John Darnielle started talking about how he was phasing it out.

The delivery is exceptional and the “most remarkable thing about you standing in the doorway is that it’s you // and that you’re standing in the doorway” lines are perfect for the moment, but the moment is a cruel one. When you’re young, it’s easy to romanticize big gestures. I’m a huge fan of “Korean Bird Paintings” because it’s always seemed to have the same idea but with less violence. Both songs are about a lover making a big show of what they think is love but really is a misguided idea. In “Korean Bird Paintings” they just waste their money on worthless things, but here they show up with a gun. It’s a huge moment, sure, and John Darnielle sells it and that’s why you love it, but it’s not a character to praise. John Darnielle is right, of course, and it’s worth reckoning with why you like this song. If you still listen to it, which I think you can, you just need to be sure you’re processing it correctly.

359. Song for Tura Satana

Alex Russell Zopilote Machine , , , , , , ,

“Song for Tura Satana” introduces us to the kind of life Tura Satana led and what happened when you crossed her.

Track: “Song for Tura Satana”
Album: Zopilote Machine (1994)

John Darnielle says “Song for Tura Satana” is a true story. He also says not to look too closely into that or to share that too widely, but I have to mention that part because we have to talk about it. Tura Satana was an actress and a dancer and about a million other things. She had a really crazy life and a knack for great storytelling. I’ll call specific attention to this retrospective which attempts to fact check a story about her relationship with Elvis. The magazine says that her story can’t be 100% true because Elvis wasn’t where she says he was, but this kinda misses the point of Tura Satana.

She is most remembered for cult action films, including one that John Waters said was the best movie of all time and would be the best movie to ever be made. She taught herself martial arts and did her own stunts. We don’t have nearly enough space to cover it all, but she was shot later in life by an ex-lover. I can’t find any mention of the story in this second verse, where Satana shoots someone for sleeping with her own lover. But just like it doesn’t matter if Elvis was really there that night or if you can just believe he could have been, it doesn’t matter who had the gun or why. “Coming home early // is always a mistake” is ominous even for John Darnielle and even for 1994 for the Mountain Goats, so true story or just slightly true, we’re in dark waters and we know what’s coming.

358. Going to Bristol

Alex Russell Zopilote Machine , , , , , , ,

Sweet language can only distract from the darkness underneath for so long in “Going to Bristol.”

Track: “Going to Bristol”
Album: Zopilote Machine (1994)

Owen Pallett, also often known as Final Fantasy, played violin on a live tour with the Mountain Goats in 2009. For whatever reason, even for shows where no one uploaded a live recording, someone nearly always took video of his performance with John Darnielle for duo performances of “Going to Bristol.” Video isn’t the most uncommon thing for a live show, but I really do have to call out how consistently this is available. You can watch a half dozen of them on the wiki. But of all those shows, I call attention to the solo set in 2018 in Toronto. John Darnielle says the three solo songs of the night have a theme. The theme turns out to be that Owen Pallett has covered all of them in the past, but it could just as easily be that “Pure Heat,” “Going to Bristol,” and “Alpha Omega” all allude to or include people leaving. That show is also where John Darnielle confirms that the first song he ever played live at the first Mountain Goats show was “Alpha Omega,” which must have been quite a sight.

“Going to Bristol” can be read a few ways, but one character definitely smashes a coffee cup and breaks a key in a lock during a tense exit. The narrator’s “I liked everything I saw” and the guitar suggest a love song, but it’s anything but by the end. “Why don’t you just sit still // it’s gonna be okay” is not something you say in a relationship where everyone is getting their needs met. The delivery is beautiful, but the narrator is not to be trusted.

357. Grendel’s Mother

Alex Russell Zopilote Machine , , , , , , ,

Grendel is honored in death and a feud declared in “Grendel’s Mother.”

Track: “Grendel’s Mother”
Album: Zopilote Machine (1994)

Excluding “Going to Georgia,” which we will talk about another time, “Grendel’s Mother” may be the most memorable song from Zopilote Machine. It’s interesting that John Darnielle chose such a direct title, first off, though there’s not enough here that you’d know for certain it was about Grendel’s mother if you didn’t have that. That’s never stopped him before, but in this instance it tells us that this is the story of one of the monsters in the epic poem Beowulf. The hero killed Grendel and then had to deal with his mother, who was, unsurprisingly, angry.

“Grendel’s Mother” is sung as a love song and John Darnielle sometimes calls it one at live shows. It isn’t, it’s the story of a woman directly addressing someone who has killed her son and will soon kill her. She doesn’t know that, but what’s much more interesting is what she chooses to say. She tells us about the flaming boat she laid her son on and she tells us that she’s coming after the hero, whether he runs or not. Interestingly, she references Singapore, which is a delightful anachronism. She says “you and I both know what you’ve done,” but the delivery is not furious. “Grendel’s Mother” does not sound like a song where someone declares a fight to the death, but that’s what it is. It’s this dissonance that makes it so fascinating and it may take you a few listens at first to even realize what is happening.

356. Going to Lebanon

Alex Russell Zopilote Machine , , , , , , ,

The Bright Mountain Choir echoes a simple refrain in the sweet, curious “Going to Lebanon.”

Track: “Going to Lebanon”
Album: Zopilote Machine (1994)

It took almost three decades, but we finally got a sequel to “Going to Lebanon.” If the title of “Going to Lebanon 2” didn’t say so, though, I don’t think anyone could reasonably be expected to pick up a connection. There are few enough of these sequel songs that it’s worth calling them out when they exist, but both find a duo by a shoreline as they contemplate things inside themselves. It’s not wholly unfamiliar territory, so just how critical the connection is may be up for debate. John Darnielle did dedicate the second to the person who “looks like” himself who wrote the first, which is my second favorite version of that joke. He once dedicated a song to a person who happened to have the same Social Security number as himself.

The Bright Mountain Choir (3/4, no Rachel on this one, as confirmed here) adds just a little to this one, but they make it a memorable performance. There’s a lot to imagine in this one, with a ton of description of physical space and movement. We don’t get enough backstory or emotion to understand how these two are related, but we can certainly assume, though “I saw your sash come untied” certainly carries different meaning depending on your assumptions. “Blue water, white sky” is a simple repetition, but the performance is so nice that it doesn’t matter much. For whatever reason I’ve always found this one a tough one to connect to logically, but an easy one to enjoy when I come across it. The nature of the live radio performance really works for this one and it’s worth visiting several times.

355. Quetzalcoatl Eats Plums

Alex Russell Zopilote Machine , , , , , , ,

The sight of a simple fruit tree haunts a narrator in “Quetzalcoatl Eats Plums,” but the tree’s got nothing to do with it.

Track: “Quetzalcoatl Eats Plums”
Album: Zopilote Machine (1994)

More than twenty years passed between this performance at CBGB in New York and this performance at Swedish American Hall in San Francisco. At the first, John Darnielle mentioned after playing “Quetzalcoatl Eats Plums” that he had a bunch of copies of his zine to sell for two dollars each. At the second, an enormous crowd explodes and you can hear a few people get really animated after hearing “an old one.” I am probably too fascinated by the “arc” of the Mountain Goats and there really isn’t one, but I love these comparisons. Both versions are good, as is the studio version. You really can’t go wrong with this one.

There are a few other Quetzalcoatl songs. This one finds a narrator about to seek out someone but they just can’t do it. “I meant to leave the house this morning” is a simple statement, but it’s so much more. The forces that separated these two people originally separate them still, but they exist within this person’s head. Maybe there was a reason and maybe there wasn’t, but whatever led to this split is still on this person’s heart. They can’t even make a phone call without be consumed by the sight of the plum tree in their yard. It’s not the tree, it’s everything it represents. Maybe the tree isn’t even related, but just seeing it reminds this person nothing is as simple as it appears to people looking in from outside.