song meanings

143. Please Come Home to Hamngatan

Alex Russell Ghana , , , , , , , ,

 

One lover relies on the power of specific geography and memory as they invite a lost love back to a broken relationship.

Track: “Please Come Home to Hamngatan”
Album: Ghana (1999)

Hamngatan is a road in Stockholm, Sweden. The name means “Port Street.” I’ve never been to Sweden, but based on the map it seems to be a department store neighborhood near the water in the center of town. Pictures make it look nice and inviting. There’s a TGI Fridays.

It’s a testament to the importance of specificity that the narrator in “Please Come Home to Hamngatan” wants their beloved to come back to this specific street in Sweden. It’s not a neighborhood that could be tied up in cultural consciousness, likely even if you live in Stockholm. It seems like another situation where John Darnielle wants us to realize this is one specific person talking to one other specific person, but doesn’t need us to know what Hamngatan means to them so much as that they are very real to each other and were real in that exact location.

“Please Come Home to Hamngatan” was released in 1996 on a compilation with 23 other songs. On Ghana three years later, John Darnielle describes his characters as “sick” and says “I wish I could do something to help them.” Maybe they’re the Alpha Couple and maybe they’re just two people forcing a broken relationship onwards, but either way they are familiar. They care about each other and about their specific place they lived one day, but given the subject matter of jewel thieves, snake oil salesmen, and adulterers, we can be sure their testimony is unreliable.

What’s most compelling is the street in Stockholm. Imagine a place that you know but couldn’t describe in a way that would explain it to someone else. That’s Hamngatan and that’s this relationship. The narrator wants a lover back despite knowing that going home again either literally or figuratively may not be fulfilling.

 

 

140. Twelve Hands High

Alex Russell Martial Arts Weekend , , , , , , , , , ,

 

A horse crashes through a wall in “Twelve Hands High” to force a conversation between the Alpha Couple.

Track: “Twelve Hands High”
Album: Martial Arts Weekend (2002)

If you squint, most of the songs on Martial Arts Weekend could be love songs, but there really isn’t a theme that binds the whole thing together. It’s an Extra Glenns/Lens record, so it’s technically a side project that John Darnielle recorded with Franklin Bruno, but many of the songs have been played at Mountain Goats shows and I think that rounds it up to being part of the expanded Mountain Goats universe.

Saying there’s no uniting theme for Martial Arts Weekend isn’t an insult. It’s a fantastic album and is loud and bouncy compared to the other Glenns/Lens album Undercard. Both have standout tracks and belong in any fan’s top albums list, but they sit in stark stylistic contrast. Most of the cast on Undercard seems lost and lonely. The characters on Martial Arts Weekend aren’t happy, but they’re exuberant. They want to share their stories.

“Twelve Hands High” is also called “Fit Alpha Vi,” which is Latin for “alpha is violent,” roughly. John Darnielle says the idea behind it was originally a poem and predates his songwriting career. The version that made it to Martial Arts Weekend sees the Alpha Couple arguing about a horse. They’re angrier than they usually are and more direct, which is interesting. One tells the other that they feel “pressure bearing down” and the other has been sleeping on the lawn. John Darnielle raises his voice over “and there’s a different world waiting for me // when I lift my head up from your thick dark hair” and you can picture the scene. It took a horse crashing through a wall to make the Alpha Couple face their problems, but we know that this is only a moment of clarity before they’ll be back to drunken denial.

139. In the Hidden Places

Alex Russell Get Lonely , , , , , , ,

John Darnielle introduces a character with bigger problems than a breakup on “In the Hidden Places.”

Track: “In the Hidden Places”
Album: Get Lonely (2006)

Many Mountain Goats fans refer to Get Lonely as a breakup album because it’s reliable during those emotional moments. Songs like “Half Dead” and “Woke Up New” hammer home the idea of one person being gone and the destruction that you go through when you face different realities of that fact. The rest of the album complicates that narrative, songs like “In the Hidden Places” especially. The narrator here might be in love, but they seem to be in no state to realize it.

The broader theme of Get Lonely is “abandonment.” The characters all are, well, lonely, but they feel like they’ve been left that way after something else. We find them in different states of grief, but they are all most certainly near or at their lowest. It’s not unusual for a narrator in a Mountain Goats song to experience something difficult and sad, but most of them have company. Most of the characters John Darnielle talks about are alone only in their mind as they try to share their world with other people and have difficulty.

“In the Hidden Places” is haunting. John Darnielle sings as high as he can over strings that create tension. The combination makes you feel cold when you listen to it. You can imagine yourself being near this narrator as they wander a town they don’t recognize. By the time they see someone on a bus you may be worried about how the interaction will go. The narrator is crippled by fear at this would-be lover or would-be friend, and the distinction doesn’t matter. This person isn’t ready for any kind of interaction, romantic or otherwise, and that kind of solitude is the hardest kind to escape.

138. Waving at You

Alex Russell Nothing for Juice , , , , , , , ,

“Waving at You” is sung in a whisper, but it’s far more furious than most of the much louder songs.

Track: “Waving at You”
Album: Nothing for Juice (1996)

The Mountain Goats have significant range, but most fans will tell you their favorite songs are the screaming, foot-stomping ones. They’re the ones that bring the house down at the first, second, and (sometimes) third encores and they’re the ones people belt out on New Year’s Eve to rage against the previous and future years. You can’t think of the Mountain Goats without thinking of that death metal band in Denton or the Alpha Couple’s furious love or the speak freaks on the west coast, but there are some songs that fall outside of the norm.

John Darnielle whispers “Waving at You,” relatively speaking. He sounds far away, tinged with longing and regret. The great majority of Mountain Goats narrators are sad, but most of them aren’t at the stage of life that the “Waving at You” person sings about. John Darnielle likes characters that are in the middle of their fury or misery. Those people are easy to understand because they narrate their feelings to try to understand them. He has an entire song (“The Recognition Scene”) about the moment you realize what your situation really is. The person in “Waving at You” is several years beyond those moments.

There are other reflective Mountain Goats songs, but John Darnielle says this is one of the best of the early ones. He’s said in interviews that this one feels more real to him and that you can read his quiet delivery as the story consuming him. There’s a lot to love about yelling and screaming, but the bubbling tension in “Waving at You” that explodes only through frantic strumming comes across like catharsis denied. Our character can’t shake this habit and “Waving at You” reminds us that not every moment ends, even years later.

137. Resonant Bell World

Alex Russell Beautiful Rat Sunset , , , , , , ,

 

A narrator confronts someone about their animal tendencies in “Resonant Bell World.”

Track: “Resonant Bell World”
Album: Beautiful Rat Sunset (1994)

The liner notes for Beautiful Rat Sunset contain a story about Agamemnon, multiple odes to coffee, and a surprisingly straightforward description of the cover. The songs weave through the days of the Aztecs, ancient Italy, modern Peru, and Maryland. It’s tough to pin down a connection, despite a vague sense of discomfort around location that characters seem to keep experiencing. The whole thing closes with “Resonant Bell World,” which doesn’t mention location at all.

The narrator in “Resonant Bell World” describes the animals someone else embodies. They call them a starling, which is a gentle creature, but then a kite (presumably the bird of prey and not the toy) and a hyena. “You’re a stray dog at night” could mean many things, but it’s assuredly negative.

The animal comparisons make up most of the song, but John Darnielle closes with multiple repetitions of “in the starlight.” It’s hypnotic and might not mean anything. It does allow for time to imagine this scene. The narrator is frustrated, or angry, or sad, or disappointed, and in a song like this there’s enough room for them to be all four. Some Mountain Goats songs are so short that you have to fill in the gaps in story yourself. “Resonant Bell World” suggests a narrator with narrowed eyes and a slight buzz. They’re tired of someone else and they want to finally say what’s on their mind. Your vision may be slightly different, but the “you made your special lunge for my throat // and between you and me // it was really exciting” verse will shift accordingly. Maybe that’s funny to you and maybe it’s dire. John Darnielle stops playing as he sings it, which is rare, and you will be forced to feel whatever emotion you connect with the narrator in that moment.

136. First Few Desperate Hours

Alex Russell Tallahassee , , , , , ,

The nervous Alpha Couple pretends it will be okay for the last time in “First Few Desperate Hours.”

Track: “First Few Desperate Hours”
Album: Tallahassee (2002)

Tallahassee is the story of the final days of The Alpha Couple, the recently married, miserable, excited, drunken disaster couple that weaves through the Mountain Goats catalog like connective tissue. They are in dozens of songs, but Tallahassee tells of their marriage and attempt to solidify it by moving from Nevada to a run-down house in Florida. It won’t save them. We know that and they know that, but it’s more about the attempt than the possibility of success.

When John Darnielle introduces songs from Tallahassee he talks about how this was never going to work. The couple even knows that, which makes the nervous energy in “First Few Desperate Hours” less hopeful and more cringe-inducing. The Alphas move their things into their new home and they exude fake hope. Their spirits “sag like withering flowers” and “there’s a stomach-churning shift in the way the land lies.” The couple is only two songs into their album and they’ve already totally given up. There will be other attempts in “Game Shows Touch Our Lives” and “Old College Try” but this is the final time that they can pretend it isn’t all tinged with dread.

The emotions here are clear, but the geography is murky. The “bad luck comes in from Tampa” lines throw a wrench in the story that the couple drove from Vegas to their new home, but you shouldn’t think about it too hard. The Tallahassee in this album is an anti-Shangri-La where everything is terrible and should not be confused for the real capital city of Florida. Tampa is far south of Tallahassee, though it’s entirely possible to imagine that the couple wandered deep into Florida and had to double back to their final resting place. That adds an even sadder element to their cross country drive.

135. Last Man on Earth

Alex Russell Heretic Pride , , , , , , , ,

The deceptively sweet “Last Man on Earth” plants some fears about your partner for the end of the world.

Track: “Last Man on Earth”
Album: Heretic Pride (2008)

“Last Man on Earth” plays with the idea of the old “I wouldn’t marry you if you were the last man on Earth” threat. The phrase is too common to have just one origin, but we all get that it represents someone expressing the most severe idea they can imagine. Even if confronted with perpetual solitude, they’d rather have nothing than have you. It’s evocative, but it’s also got a finality to it. How could you argue with that?

In this bonus track from the Amazon version of Heretic Pride, John Darnielle imagines how that would really play out. It’s the apocalypse, with “charred debris” and “thirsting demons,” and there may only be two people left. The imagery suggests a ruined world full of dead former friends and lovers, but “Last Man on Earth” has an overwhelmingly bouncy, happy tune. It’s a mixture of ideas John Darnielle might have crafted as a funny song several decades ago, but in 2008 he combines the two pieces to show us a kind of hopefulness. The narrator is determined to prove himself and to earn this love and to make the best of the worst situation.

The final verse deserves some additional discussion. Through the lines “I may have failed you once before // but this right here this means war” we find out that these two have a history. Below the sweet surface lies the suggestion that this isn’t a great outcome for the recipient of this song. The narrator bleeds and drools and has a “crazed look in his eyes.” They clearly imagine themselves as an action hero saving a helpless figure, but that kind of attitude might just be why this person lost interest in them in the first place.

 

134. Born Ready

Alex Russell Isopanisad Radio Hour , , , , , , , ,

The curious “Born Ready” describes someone on a mission that is having second thoughts.

Track: “Born Ready”
Album: Isopanisad Radio Hour (2000)

US 101 is a highway in California. It’s a beautiful part of the world and it’s one of the best drives in the country. Apparently northern California prefers to call it “101” and southern California calls it “the 101.” A minor difference, but regionalisms can be everything and it tells us we’re dealing with an outsider on a drive to San Jose.

The charm of “Born Ready” is the contrast. It’s a quiet song that’s beautiful at times with soft drums and almost whispered vocals. Even during the flourish at the end you still might miss what’s happening if you just passively listen to it the first few times. Closer listens reveal the story of someone who has been out east in the snow and now they’re here for a dark purpose.

It may be literal and it may not. It’s not unheard of for Mountain Goats characters to wish evil on each other and mean it emotionally rather than physically, but “I’m going to take you out for good // I’m going to take you down” is rather insistent. The emotional whine in John Darnielle’s voice over the third verse gives us our final clue about this relationship. There’s pain in his voice during “When I think about you, I feel so bad // it’s been a long, long, long, long time.” As so often happens in Mountain Goats songs, there isn’t enough information here for the whole story. All we know is that this person is headed into enemy territory and they feel a great purpose, but maybe they feel something entirely different at the same time. “Born Ready” can serve many moods that way, and that makes it a track worth coming back to again and again.

133. Running Away with What Freud Said

Alex Russell Taboo VI: The Homecoming , , , , , , ,

 

“Running Away with What Freud Said” is the first song on the first album and sets up much of what came next.

Track: “Running Away with What Freud Said”
Album: Taboo VI: The Homecoming (1992)

There are four live versions of “Running Away with What Freud Said” online in the Internet Archive. All four are in San Francisco and all four are excellent. If you’ve never spent much time with live Mountain Goats shows, start with shows in California. John Darnielle’s always at his best in California.

I tell you that because you may not want to dive straight into Taboo VI: The Homecoming. “Running Away with What Freud Said” is the first song on the first album and it definitely sounds like it. The recording is rough, with some washed out noises and odd samples mixed in during awkward times. It’s the kind of album you can only love once you love all of the other ones. John Darnielle has consistently said that the first album isn’t great, but it’s a fascinating piece of the band’s history.

You should check out those live versions to get a real appreciation of this song. The album version is pretty catchy, but Darnielle’s voice isn’t yet the force that it became as he developed. Live, he screams something more into the character’s seeming madness and really elevates it.

“Going to Alaska” is the standout, but “Running Away with What Freud Said” works. The narrator wanders around Portland and recovers from a blackout. John Darnielle says the song is about a time he lost several days in his Portland apartment and the time that immediately followed. It’s fitting that his whole career opens with a person, in Portland, who isn’t quite themselves. You’ve got all the pieces there to construct hundreds of songs that followed.

132. New Britain

Alex Russell Full Force Galesburg , , , , , ,

“New Britain” opens Full Force Galesburg with a furious panic and a look at someone desperate.

Track: “New Britain”
Album: Full Force Galesburg (1997)

“New Britain” has only been played live a few times. It’s a very typical Mountain Goats song: two lovers have a discussion about their shared reality and tenuous connection to sanity. Honestly, that might sum up the whole damn album Full Force Galesburg. At a live show in New York in 2008, John Darnielle explained the absence through a story about a music video.

Some people got in touch with him and asked if they could make a music video for “New Britain.” He was flattered, so he told them to go ahead with it and it make whatever they wanted to make. He says that he liked the final product, but he thought the lead actor’s haircut was terrible. Now many years removed, he says he still thinks about that and hopes they didn’t take it too hard, but it seems to have damaged the song for him. At that show in 2008 he mentioned that he didn’t think he’d ever played it live again, and it’s only come up one more time after that. It’s a fun song, and what a weird way to have it become more than it is.

On the album version, John Darnielle’s voice cracks and he imbues the character with some desperation. Most of Full Force Galesburg feels erratic on purpose, so it’s fitting that the opening track contains lines like “you’re about to leave again // I’ve learned to read your movements // and I’m learning how to read your mind.” These people are going through something together, as many Mountain Goats characters are, but they’re doing worse than most of them. “New Britain” sets us up to realize that maybe we don’t need to try to sympathize with them.