song meanings

494. For the Snakes

Alex Russell Songs for Pierre Chuvin , , , , , , ,

The end of all things is a big idea, but the snakes have to wait until they can come back in “For the Snakes.”

Track: “For the Snakes”
Album: Songs for Pierre Chuvin (2020)

There are a few universal messages across Songs for Pierre Chuvin, but the most central one is about how we look back on history. These events happened almost two thousand years ago. These people are gone. There are remnants, but they are just that: remnants. “For the Snakes” finds literal snakes, a symbol for what outlasts all of us, I think, slithering across the ruins of a fallen empire. The use of the word “ruins” tells you all you need to know. It’s over for these people.

You can watch a recording of “For the Snakes” on Facebook from March of 2020, before the album was released. It’s only been a couple of years but already I feel like people will have a different experience with this album if they didn’t see that video when it first came out. In a lot of ways we’re still in it, obviously, but March of 2020 felt like the start of the end of the world. “For the Snakes” is a memento mori in that way, a reminder that there is an “after” that comes after a time you think is never going to end. You have to think that way, because you’re here right now. In a lot of ways it’s impossible to imagine the end, because if you really could imagine it, wouldn’t you try to stop it? The Romans could not imagine it and could not stop it. It will happen to all of us, but for now, the snakes have to wait.

493. Last Gasp at Calama

Alex Russell Songs for Pierre Chuvin , , , , , , ,

“Last Gasp at Calama” deals with the hypocrisy of invaders explaining how great things with in their peaceful ways.

Track: “Last Gasp at Calama”
Album: Songs for Pierre Chuvin (2020)

“Last Gasp at Calama” references Matthew 7:2, which is the classic verse that tells people not to judge others, lest you be judged yourself. Specifically, the verse says “with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” John Darnielle quotes it directly and says “so you say, and it’s true.” The narrator here is reacting to a conquering force with a doctrine that focuses on love and understanding but, well, the force is conquering you.

There are hundreds of songs by other bands that have this same message but feel just as preachy as the message they are rebelling against. “Last Gasp at Calama” is direct, for sure, but it’s crafted from the perspective of someone who is often lost to history. The narrator is “out in the street // free and young” when they meet the new “humorless men” that are conquering their city in what we now call Algeria. We think of events thousands of years ago as happening between nations, but this is a bunch of specific guys impacting one specific person. That’s a unique way to tell the story.

The narrator knows what’s coming, as does almost everyone in Songs for Pierre Chuvin. They know their time is limited, but they also think that their conquerors will get theirs, eventually. The album repeats this message in different ways, but it’s nice here to spend a moment with someone who hopes that before the eventual downfall, maybe someone can chuck some rocks at these specific dudes.

492. Until Olympius Returns

Alex Russell Songs for Pierre Chuvin , , , , , , ,

The fabled hero may or may not come back in “Until Olympius Returns,” but the Romans aren’t here forever either way.

Track: “Until Olympius Returns”
Album: Songs for Pierre Chuvin (2020)

Olympius was a key figure in the execution of Stilicho, a powerful figure in the Roman Empire around the year 400. Stilicho has a lengthy, detailed Wikipedia page. Olympius does not. He also does not appear on Stilicho’s page, despite seemingly being the reason this powerful, world-defining figure died. It is fascinating to see how history is told. What matters for “Until Olympius Returns” is that Olympius is a symbol for rebellion.

The song functions as a sort of instruction manual for biding your time under hostile leadership. “Nod in agreement when the tyrant holds forth” is an obvious one, but it’s also about how you make time for yourself by spitting their food down your sleeve and wait for the world to change back. The Romans conquered the world, but then they lost it. You can’t know that when you’re in the middle of things, but Songs for Pierre Chuvin again and again reminds you that on a long enough timeline, it all goes away.

Olympius, supposedly, was “clubbed to death” by Constantius III, who only reigned for seven months and is one of hundreds of leaders over hundreds of years of various empires that came and went. What I love about “Until Olympius Returns” is the mix of dire need and vast perspective. This matters, right now, but largely, these guys are on the way out. Eat the food and look at the temple, sure, but you don’t really have to worry about this. Time will take care of it, whether the hero comes back or not.

491. Aulon Raid

Alex Russell Songs for Pierre Chuvin , , , , , , ,

“Aulon Raid” is about triumph that won’t last forever, but it will definitely last for today.

Track: “Aulon Raid”
Album: Songs for Pierre Chuvin (2020)

“Aulon Raid” is the first song from Songs for Pierre Chuvin, a unique album in that John Darnielle wrote it solo and released it at the start of what seemed like dark times. He made it quickly and released it immediately and you feel that immediacy as you listen to it. I write this to you in 2022, two years later with not all that much changed. It still feels immediate.

The whole album reminds you that nothing gold can stay, which makes “Aulon Raid” a perfect opener. Darnielle says he wrote the title for the song and the rest flowed out of him, in just a few days. We hear the narrator express a common emotion for a Mountain Goats narrator as they insist they and their compatriots will “deal with you” over and over. These people are going to win the fight. You should feel great comfort in this fact if you’re with them and you should feel great fear as the opposition.

The thing is, you win the battle, but you lose the war. The title of the album comes from the author of A Chronicle of the Last Pagans, a book Darnielle was reading at the time. It’s right there in the title that the pagans don’t make it, but you know that, too. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t yell proudly, and in fact you should celebrate this day where you sent home the enemy commander on their back. It won’t work forever, but it’s working right now. Right now might just be enough.

490. Abandoned Flesh

Alex Russell Goths , , , , , , ,

The bands mentioned in “Abandoned Flesh” aren’t as important as the emotion and the larger story they form.

Track: “Abandoned Flesh”
Album: Goths (2017)

I’ve said something like this in most of my posts about songs from Goths, but “Abandoned Flesh” is a great song whether you know the scene or not. The entire premise of the song is about the “forgotten” bands of the goth scene, specifically “Gene Loves Jezebel,” a band I have never heard of outside of this song. The song goes into great detail about the band, to the point where it references a specific thing on their Wikipedia page, which now contains a reference to this song and the fact that this song references that page. It’s turtles all the way down.

There are almost a dozen specific references in “Abandoned Flesh” and I am here to tell you that, much like almost every instance across the catalog of the Mountain Goats, you do not need to know these. You do need to know that they create a world, which is more important than the world itself. The band Red Lorry Yellow Lorry is referenced in the middle of the song as being on the record label “Cherry Red, I think.” They are, now, and were on others, but that doesn’t matter. It doesn’t even matter in the song, given the “I think.” I love these specific pushes back against the need to find every answer. This, like most of Goths, isn’t really about these bands. It’s about the world that was and probably won’t be, again, but will remember, sorta. “You and me and all of us // are gonna have to find a job” is a funny line, but it’s also the bridge between the 1980s and what came next. You can remember, and should, but then you have to leave.

489. Rage of Travers

Alex Russell Goths , , , , , , ,

“Rage of Travers” is longer than most Mountain Goats songs, but there’s a thematic reason for the length.

Track: “Rage of Travers”
Album: Goths (2017)

“Rage of Travers” is the longest song on Goths and, as far as I can tell, it’s one of two songs (along with “For the Portuguese Goth Metal Bands”) on the album that has never been played live. The beat is great and hits you right away, but you end up sitting with this one for a long time, obviously, as it’s almost six minutes long. Six minutes would be enough for almost all of some of the early EPs. It’s impossible to say you don’t feel the length here, but that feels intentional to me. The narrator here, Pat Travers, feels like they can’t connect with the world they once knew. We feel that loss. We sit with it.

John Darnielle mentioned “Rage of Travers” in an answer to a question about the album and said that he wanted the music on the album to be “good & interesting & harmonically complex” specifically to make the moments where you register what the lyrics are talking about more powerful. It’s the perfect explanation of why “Rage of Travers” is what it is: You are supposed to feel it more than think about it. The core of it, that this guy was huge and feels the scene shifting where he will no longer be huge, is all over Goths. It’s also tied up in so many human fears, even beyond the loss of fame that a musician would worry about. It needs to feel a little longer than the old explosion songs and stomping, screaming ones so you can take it all in.

488. Paid in Cocaine

Alex Russell Goths , , , , , , ,

“Paid in Cocaine” may not be the kind of song you’d expect, but it’s a perfect fit for the characters on Goths.

Track: “Paid in Cocaine”
Album: Goths (2017)

It’s impossible to overstate what Matt Douglas has brought to the Mountain Goats. You hear it on the album cuts, obviously, but you feel it in the live shows. I’ve heard of some fans who don’t dig the “full band” sound with drums and horns, but I think those people are clinging to something that isn’t going away. If you need to hear the John Darnielle and limited friends version of the band, there are literally hundreds of songs you can go back to, forever. I understand the urge to resist change, but a song like “Paid in Cocaine” isn’t going to work without horns.

I’ve gone back to Goths a few times recently and “Paid in Cocaine” is one of the few that never catches me. Some of it is the chorus, the repetition of “Long Beach, can you hear me?” is well performed, but not all that memorable. The verses, though, tell a story that you don’t need me to elaborate on, but you can really see. The title tells you what’s happening, but lines like “as happy as I’m ever gonna be,” said about times that might not seem all that happy through a certain lens, really fill out the vibe. It’s the horns that bring it together. This is miles away from the first few albums, but you have to view this as a different story. It’s still so specific and still so clear that it’s unmistakably Mountain Goats, even if it’s all keyboards and saxophone.

487. Wear Black

Alex Russell Goths , , , , , , ,

“Wear Black” is about the trappings of youth, but it’s also about what you keep forever.

Track: “Wear Black”
Album: Goths (2017)

There are other songs on Goths about the difference between the look and the feel, but “Wear Black” is a direct confrontation with that idea. This song finds a young John Darnielle insistent that he will wear black, literally, but also figuratively, as the way he engages with the world. You see this in lines like “check me out, I can’t blend in,” which might seem like a concern, but at the moment it’s more likely to be a badge of honor.

Before a live show in 2017 in California, Darnielle introduced “Wear Black” by saying that he was sentimental about singing it in front of people who knew him back in the day. So many songs that are clearly about John Darnielle’s youth are specific to his experience, but this one is one you can probably feel even if you weren’t goth. It even gets more complex than that, as we must consider the urge to call things a “phase.” Maybe you age out of the eyeliner and the attitude, but you are who you are. What “works” on you as a young person works because of the person you stay when you grow up.

The key moment is in the final verse. The narrator, John Darnielle or someone much like him, says “wear black to the intervention,” which tells us that people around them are trying to help. But you need the next line, said with some humor if not outright spite, “wear black back to the car.” Maybe you’ll get past some of this, but some of it is something you can’t take off.

486. Unicorn Tolerance

Alex Russell Goths , , , , , , ,

“Unicorn Tolerance” deals with the difficulty of being true to yourself while playing a part.

Track: “Unicorn Tolerance”
Album: Goths (2017)

Given the length restrictions here, I try not to get too far off topic, but allow me a brief aside for “Unicorn Tolerance.” Decades ago I went to a meeting where a few dozen folks got together as part of a subculture I liked. I was put off by the crowd and I left, more or less, out of embarrassment. At the time, it was my own, for them, but now, I recognize it as a generalized feeling of being between the image of oneself internally and the projected reality of earnestness. It’s very hard to take off your armor, even if you want to just enjoy yourself.

“Unicorn Tolerance” is John Darnielle singing about “the thing I’ve been trying to beat to death // the soft creature that I used to be,” but, importantly, also, “the better animal I used to be.” This isn’t a value judgement, but it is a statement about that earnestness. If who you are is someone with great esteem and respect for unicorns, for beautiful, mystical things in general, even if that doesn’t exactly gel with the leather jacket and the cloves, you should not fight your better nature. The drive to be, for real, what you are trying to appear to be, on the surface, is powerful. This isn’t a problem, except if it costs you something that you really shouldn’t be willing to lose. “Unicorn Tolerance” reminds you of this, which you’ll hopefully come back to when you’re done looking cool.

485. We Do It Different on the West Coast

Alex Russell Goths , , , , , , ,

The youths of California put their own spin on things in “We Do It Different on the West Coast.”

Track: “We Do It Different on the West Coast”
Album: Goths (2017)

I have always liked that “We Do It Different on the West Coast” serves as a sort of mission statement for why Goths exists. It’s a song about how everyone, everywhere, can discover something. “Trellis modulation for the children // there’s a whole new world just up around the corner” describes a time that feels almost unthinkable now, where people in the proto-online days where just learning how to connect with people about very small things that made those worlds suddenly, and forever, bigger.

The title refers to Darnielle’s youth in California, where he learned to love the goth subculture before he had the term “goth” to call it. He describes a time where you would hear unverifiable things from far away and you could pick and choose what to believe. The world of “We Do It Different on the West Coast” allows not just for regional pride, but for any truths that break your beliefs to not necessarily need to be strictly true. Whatever the best story is, why not have that be the story?

The two-minute breakdown here is great, but has always struck me as a little out of place. The chorus is the title repeated four times and the verses tell a rapid, but tight story. At a live show, even a song like “Maize Stalk Drinking Blood” can explode into a full-band thing, but this is a rare instance of that being the “official” version. It’s a sign of shifting style, and not unwelcome, but it does always surprise me when I go back to this one.