Songs for Peter Hughes

246. Song for Dana Plato

Alex Russell Bitter Melon Farm, Songs for Peter Hughes , , , , , , , ,

“Song for Dana Plato” leaves us with a feeling rather than telling the story of the woman herself.

Track: “Song for Dana Plato”
Album: Songs for Peter Hughes (1995) and Bitter Melon Farm (1999)

John Darnielle likely wrote “Song for Dana Plato” in 1994 or 1995, based on the release date of Songs for Peter Hughes. Dana Plato was making the final movies of her life in those years, long after her time on Diff’rent Strokes. Her personal life was difficult and she’d been recently arrested several times for robbery and forging a prescription for painkillers.

John Darnielle is fascinated by tragic figures, and more specifically what leads to these peopling becoming tragic figures. Dana Plato once said that her mother “made her normal” but did not prepare her for real life, which made her a great child star but led to a difficulty in adjusting to the world as her role in it changed. There’s obviously a lot that’s possible to unpack there, but it establishes her a prime subject for a Mountain Goats song.

After Dana Plato died, John Darnielle played “Song for Dana Plato” several times on a tour. The tone is interesting to reconcile with the subject matter. Dana Plato’s story is a sad example of what happens when someone attempts to process addiction. John Darnielle doesn’t want to focus on robbing a video store, it’s more important to think about how this person feels and what the experience is like.

“What kind of world is it that comes headlong at you and then swerves at the last possible second,” John Darnielle says, which is as good a description as any of immense fame and then a need to risk it all for $164. “It’s this one,” he says, “it’s this one.”

173. Short Song About the 10 Freeway

Alex Russell Bitter Melon Farm, Songs for Peter Hughes , , , , , , , ,

 

“Short Song About the 10 Freeway” is just that, but it’s also a look into the distant past.

Track: “Short Song About the 10 Freeway”
Album: Songs for Peter Hughes (1995) and Bitter Melon Farm (1999)

In September of 2016, John Darnielle played a show in Columbus, Ohio and played “Short Song About the 10 Freeway.” He said it was the first song he ever played outside of California. He followed it up with two of the other songs from Songs for Peter Hughes. It seems like it was a cool show.

There’s more to know, here. In 1994, John Darnielle played at a venue in Columbus named Stache’s. You can hear a tape of the 24-minute performance, where John Darnielle sounds very young and closes with the 51-word “Short Song About the 10 Freeway.” Stache’s is closed now and is remembered by some heartfelt blog posts and a brief comment at that 2016 show where John Darnielle says he knows the tape is out there but he hasn’t listened to it.

I tell you all this to make you consider what memory means. The title tells you this is a short song, indeed there are barely 50 words in it. As you listen to 500+ songs on your journey through the world of the Mountain Goats, you will spend very little of it with this one. You’ll never go to Stache’s again and you’ll never hear the Mountain Goats in 1994 again. You will, however, briefly picture a sunset and a person in a car in California and you will experience the odd peace that this image grants you. Rachel Ware’s backing vocals and the deliberate strumming will help you. You will picture this and you will move on, but consider for a moment what John Darnielle saw in this image in 1994 in a bar named after the owner’s mustache. The devil really is in the details.