song meanings

268. Absolute Lithops Effect

Alex Russell All Hail West Texas , , , , , , , ,

The healing message of “Absolute Lithops Effect” takes on new meaning as we spend time indoors.

Track: “Absolute Lithops Effect”
Album: All Hail West Texas (2002)

I am writing this entry at the end of 2020. I started this process many years ago. I try to leave the personal out of this as much as I can, because I don’t think everyone has my experience and I think the more universal you can make this the better chance it has of connecting. It’s impossible to do that with “Absolute Lithops Effect” in 2020.

Lithops are plants commonly called “living stones” because they look like rocks. They use this as camouflage to survive in harsh climate. John Darnielle uses this as the central image for a song about waiting around and hoping to bloom in emotionally harsh climate. When he wrote this song more than eighteen years ago he could not have imagined how it would sound in 2020. This narrator is recovering from “one long sweltering summer” and their plan is to go to a friend’s house and forget their time inside. Who among us doesn’t feel like that is the key to everything after a year of quarantine and the collapse of so much else?

“I am taking tiny steps forward,” our narrator says, “and I feel sure that my wounds will heal.” In the context of All Hail West Texas, this is a revolutionary statement. The Mountain Goats do not always offer such direct statements of redemption and hope. This person has spent “one blind season alone in here” and now they “are going to find the exit.” It’s striking, both in 2002 and in 2020, to hear someone insist that they are going to get through this. Whatever traps you, be it internal or external, it’s a message that will do you some good to hear.

267. Pink and Blue

Alex Russell All Hail West Texas , , , , , , ,

“Pink and Blue” asks us to consider not just what came before the events of the song, but what came before that.

Track: “Pink and Blue”
Album: All Hail West Texas (2002)

John Darnielle says that he doesn’t play “Pink and Blue” live because the album version is the definitive one. I don’t have the data on this, but that doesn’t seem like a statement he makes very often. “Pink and Blue” is a great song, from a great album, and I don’t know that I ever noticed the lack of live versions until he pointed it out. I can see what he means, though, and I don’t know how you’d improve on this.

Two nine-day-old twins are abandoned and we see a moment of their lives. “Nice new clothes on you and an old carboard produce box for a cradle” is a beautiful image, but a sad statement at the same time. This is as positive a spin on it as you can put, but the circumstances around what led to this moment lingers in the background. John Darnielle adds fun color about crows talking politics and the scenery outside to distract from the central image. Even still, we’re back to the twins in the box and we’re asked to think, however briefly, about what world can abandon the most vulnerable.

A lot of Mountain Goats songs are about this idea. “Pink and Blue” is a pretty little song that doesn’t go very deep, but that’s exactly the point. “Counterfeit Florida Plates” doesn’t directly ask us to consider the mental health aspect of homelessness, but it does if you spend some time under the surface. In the same way, “Pink and Blue” is a sweet-enough way into a much more complicated, desperate reality. We don’t spend any time on what led to this and that’s not the point. It’s about the circumstances that led to that choice that matter.

266. Balance

Alex Russell All Hail West Texas , , , , , , ,

“Balance” finds two characters in the late stages of something we usually don’t want to consider.

Track: “Balance”
Album: All Hail West Texas (2002)

You really should listen to I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats, a podcast that didn’t exist when I started doing this but is essential listening now that it exists. John Darnielle talks to Joseph Fink in each episode about a Mountain Goats song and the conversation spirals out into connected (and not connected) topics. I can’t imagine the audience of people who will read about Goats songs but doesn’t listen to this podcast is a big one, but if you’re in that group, you have some homework to do.

In the episode about “Balance,” the pair say it’s song about a moment that doesn’t look at the causes that got you to that moment or what comes next for you after that moment. There are a ton of songs that fit this description, but it’s a great way to approach this one. The content is all miserable topics like “the interest on delinquent loans” but the connective tissue ends both verses on a specific note: “not too far gone to care.”

We almost never find out what happens to people in these songs. It’s simplistic to say that, because that’s true of almost all narrative. You always have to fill in the blanks yourself, whether it’s a great novel or a story song about lovers drinking sweet tea and falling out of love. The cover of All Hail West Texas says the album has seven characters, however, and you can do the work to try to figure out where else we learn about these two. I don’t think you need to do that to appreciate “Balance,” which is what John Darnielle is getting at in that podcast episode. You know what happens next because you know what generally happens next when you look at someone like this.

265. The Ultimate Jedi Who Wastes All the Other Jedi and Eats Their Bones

Alex Russell Unreleased , , , , , , , , ,

“The Ultimate Jedi Who Wastes All the Other Jedi and Eats Their Bones” is about what you think it’s about.

Track: “The Ultimate Jedi Who Wastes All the Other Jedi and Eats Their Bones”
Album: Unreleased (Released on Soundcloud by Rian Johnson in 2017)

The Mountain Goats song “The Ultimate Jedi Who Wastes All the Other Jedi and Eats Their Bones” is about a Jedi who eats everyone else’s bones. There’s a powerful urge in me to make this entire entry just that sentence, but there is more to say.

The title really does tell you what you’re dealing with, but it’s worth explaining the story. When The Last Jedi was announced, John Darnielle joked that his song “The Ultimate Jedi Who Wastes All the Other Jedi and Eats Their Bones” wasn’t accepted as part of the movie. The title was pretty clearly a joke, but director Rian Johnson told him he had to write it and because John Darnielle is who he is, he did.

I don’t think the content of “The Ultimate Jedi Who Wastes All the Other Jedi and Eats Their Bones” needs much discussion. It’s in the same vein as “Foreign Object” and “Beach House” as a “funny” song, but one that’s mostly funny because you don’t expect it to be delivered the way it is. “Specifically just their bones,” the narrator insists, and says over and over that this Jedi is going to eat their bones. It’s hard to miss, but the repetitions of something you already know is part of the joke of so many Mountain Goats songs.

He’s played it twice, that I can find, since releasing it himself and it seems safe to say those two might be the only two performances. In one he joked that he hoped someone would delete the recording, but conceded that he knows people don’t operate like that. The other performance tells the whole story of how Rian Johnson and John Darnielle got to know each other, and if you’re interested in such things you should check it out.

264. Jenny

Alex Russell All Hail West Texas , , , , , , ,

The fantasy of running away from life’s problems is a seemingly real possibility in “Jenny.”

Track: “Jenny”
Album: All Hail West Texas (2002)

Jenny is a character in four Mountain Goats songs. She calls the narrator in “Straight Six” and “Night Light” and she sends postcards in “Source Decay.” She’s only an active participant in the song that bears her name. In “Jenny” she shows up on a motorcycle and steals the narrator away into a night free of consequence. They roar off and chant a happy tune. This is the ideal vision that you want when things are not going well.

John Darnielle says that Jenny doesn’t show up when things are going well for people. All four songs show us characters that are struggling and characters that want to live in better times. We don’t know enough to know if these fears are warranted. “Jenny” unites these ideas and helps us understand what Jenny, the character, is supposed to represent. She’s a lack of responsibility and a chance at a simpler, better life. Is that actually better? It depends on your perspective and your dreams for yourself, but these characters seem to believe it would work for them, thank you.

By the end of the song “Jenny,” even God has taken eyes off of these characters. In the context of the song, this represents a lack of pressure to a cosmic degree. Everything is open to this narrator and Jenny, and that means that everything that came before isn’t a concern anymore. In most situations, you wouldn’t trade your entire past for a clean slate. You mostly are a product of your past and you hope to learn from mistakes and benefit from experience to improve your future. Even still, you can appreciate the desire to hop on the back of the bike and ride off with Jenny.

263. The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton

Alex Russell All Hail West Texas , , , , , , ,

Jeff and Cyrus stand in for all the downtrodden in “The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton.”

Track: “The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton”
Album: All Hail West Texas (2002)

“The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton” is arresting, the first time you hear it. It’s a story song where you will learn about Jeff and Cyrus, who go through turmoil as teenagers because the adults in their lives don’t understand what they’re trying to do. These two want to create something that reflects how they feel about the world. “When you punish a person for dreaming their dream // don’t expect them to thank or forgive you,” says John Darnielle, and he sums up the universal response of people who the world tries to correct. Round pegs won’t go in square holes, and forcing them isn’t going to help.

It’s become one of the band’s most popular songs. The Mountain Goats wiki lists more than 200 live performances and that list is no doubt incomplete. With rare exceptions, most shows end with “No Children,” “This Year,” or “The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton.” They’re the scream-along songs that unite a crowd, which is great energy to put out into the world and to bring an audience together. If you’ve never seen the band live, you can only hope they end on one of those.

The song is self explanatory, but it’s worth spending a moment on the “hail Satan” part. The ending devolves into John Darnielle (and the crowd) yelling versions of “hail Satan.” Satan feels like a simple concept, but it isn’t, and this song asks you to latch onto this as an idea of righteous rebellion rather than a symbol for pain and destruction. John Darnielle has talked about this a lot over the years and I encourage you to go to the source, but it’s worth noting this isn’t direct praise of darkness. It’s a light that comes from standing in your own truth.

262. Amy AKA Spent Gladiator 1

Alex Russell Transcendental Youth , , , , , , ,

The message of the Mountain Goats couldn’t be more clear than it is in “Amy AKA Spent Gladiator 1.”

Track: “Amy AKA Spent Gladiator 1”
Album: Transcendental Youth (2012)

John Darnielle has written a lot of songs about what happens to people who can’t escape addiction. “All Along the Seething Coast” and “Steal Smoked Fish” come to mind, both of them feature characters who are addicts and who probably aren’t going to make it through things to see the other side. The message is never hopeless, but it’s sometimes realistic about the odds and the feelings that come from being in those situations.

“Amy AKA Spent Gladiator 1” starts off Transcendental Youth with an aggressively hopeful counter message. It’s about Amy Winehouse, who didn’t make it, but no one really makes it. It’s reductive to think about someone’s life in those terms, but John Darnielle wants us to consider the challenge rather than to pity people. There are so many songs that approach life through this lens, often ones that people hold up as anthems. Go to a live show and listen to how people sing along with songs like “Broom People” and “You Were Cool” and you’ll see what I mean.

John Darnielle once introduced “Amy AKA Spent Gladiator 1” by saying it speaks for itself. He’s right, which is why I don’t have much to add beyond marveling at the message. “Just stay alive,” John Darnielle says, over and over, and by the end of the song he’s screaming it. The message to people struggling could not be more clear. It’s impossible to miss the message, but it’s worth commenting briefly on the delivery method. “Spent Gladiator 2” is the sister song and it’s a much quieter one, but the explosion of the first one really forces you to pay attention. If you’re in a position where this song can help you, John Darnielle wants to do all he can to make you listen to it.

260. All Devils Here Now

Alex Russell Unreleased , , , , , , , , ,

The neighbors look in on the Alpha Couple in “All Devils Here Now.”

Track: “All Devils Here Now”
Album: Unreleased (Released on Twitter by John Darnielle in 2012)

John Darnielle released “All Devils Here Now” himself on Twitter and said it “shares psychic & geographic space with all the other stuff I was writing about in 2002 & 2003.” Even if he didn’t offer that directly, you’d pick out the Alpha Couple from the story.

Most of the songs about the ill-fated couple in Tallahassee, Florida focus on how they fall in and out of love with each other as they realize this isn’t going to work. It’s rare to get an outsider’s perspective, but “All Devils Here Now” shows us what it’s like to live next to these people and consider their existence without all the details. From what we know, these neighbors see enough, but lines like “you see us at the grocery store // you wonder what we’re shopping for” are evocative. Who among us hasn’t felt that?

The few live versions that exist don’t do justice to the song, for my money. The bugs in the background are real, as John Darnielle confirmed when he released the song, and live it becomes more jaunty than the demo. The demo has the feel of being on the back porch with these two and hearing them tell you these things. There’s an element of self awareness to the delivery mechanism. The Alpha Couple always knows they are doomed and what sets them apart is usually their willingness to engage with that fact, if only internally. They don’t embrace the darkness until the end, which puts this probably closer to the end of the trajectory, but “shrieks and squeals” and “worse for wear” could describe any weekend with these two.

258. Sinaloan Milk Snake Song

Alex Russell Zopilote Machine , , , , , ,

The Bright Mountain Choir delivers a strange, beautiful performance on “Sinaloan Milk Snake Song.”

Track: “Sinaloan Milk Snake Song”
Album: Zopilote Machine (1994)

“Sinaloan Milk Snake Song” has been played live and recorded a handful of times. There are even a few videos you can find, which isn’t common and is sometimes discouraged directly by John Darnielle. There’s a compulsion as a fan to want to see everything, but also it’s understandable that John Darnielle wants to keep some mystique. In most cases, I’d suggest live versions of songs as John Darnielle is an incredible performer and you owe it to yourself to witness how consistently he goes for broke. “Sinaloan Milk Snake Song” is a rare case where I have to side with the album.

The Bright Mountain Choir is four people, including former bassist Rachel Ware, who performed backing vocals on a lot of early Mountain Goats albums. They may never be better represented than “Sinaloan Milk Snake Song.” The chorus mixes John Darnielle’s drone with their harmony to create a much different vibe than most other songs from the period. Different members of the Choir jump in and out with fluttering sounds, sometimes hitting the words and sometimes not, and it feels panicked in a deliberate way. It’s reductive to say “you have to hear it” but you really do, in this case, have to hear it.

“I’ve got a message for you // but you’re gonna have to come and get it” is a threat, most likely, and “ever since I came here // all I could think about is water” is an extremely John Darnielle thing to say. The lyrics are something, but it’s really the Choir that sells this one. John Darnielle’s voice cracks in key places and it may not be everyone’s style to view “voice cracks” and “drone” as positives, but this narrator sells us on their situation and it all mixes quite nicely with the harmonies.

257. Orange Ball of Hate

Alex Russell Zopilote Machine , , , , , , , ,

We only get one side of the story in “Orange Ball of Hate,” but what we do see tells us enough.

Track: “Orange Ball of Hate”
Album: Zopilote Machine (1994)

There are four “Orange Ball” songs that aren’t connected beyond the title format. All four “fit” within the catalog, but “Orange Ball of Hate” is the closest one to other Mountain Goats songs from the early 90s. Our narrator is in love, in their way, but is also furious with their partner. “I sure do love you” has never felt so sarcastic.

It’s not the most interesting detail in the song, but “Orange Ball of Hate” is one of few Mountain Goats songs to gender either character explicitly. John Darnielle has said that people assume his narrators are male because he is male, but even aside from that detail, most songs don’t list enough detail within the text to assume gender of speaker or audience. Here the narrator reveals their audience through a joke, as they say “one of us, I’m not saying who, has got rocks in her head.” I mention it only because it happens so rarely, I don’t think there’s anything to it other than needing a gender for the joke to work.

The feeling here is less rare. So many narrators occupy this space of a mix of positive and negative feelings towards a partner. John Darnielle has said it’s about the moment that “you know it’s not going to get any better” and most discussions of the song mirror that sentiment. “I sure do love you,” the narrator snarls, again and again, and it cuts worse than being directly hateful. By the end of the third verse, our narrator feels the need to defiantly say that they do know the children’s song the other character is singing, they “just don’t feel like singing it.” This kind of sullen pettiness signals nothing good.