“Southwood Plantation Road” sees The Alpha Couple’s defiant, giggling last attempt at love when it’s already far too late.

Track: “Southwood Plantation Road”
Album: Tallahassee (2002)

Geography is extremely important to the Mountain Goats, but whether that’s literal geography or not, well, that’s another matter. “California” means the actual state of California as often as it means “something generally good.” “Florida” generally means an unpleasant end.

The most important piece of mythology in the catalog is The Alpha Couple. The Annotated Mountain Goats has done all the work for you, but at the most basic level they are two people who used to love each other and are now together through hate, inertia, alcohol, and a love of self-destruction. Most people don’t realize a relationship was destructive until they get out of it, but both the Alpha Male and Alpha Female (they are never named, and those distinctions are as lovely as they are ironic) know it’s horrible and they don’t want to stop.

Tallahassee isn’t the full story (there are dozens of other Alpha songs) but it’s the story of their end in a decaying house in Florida. The house was inspired by the name of a real street — Southwood Plantation Road, which is an uninteresting stretch of wooded backroad — and an actual house (on a different road) that John Darnielle saw on a visit to Florida. In “Southwood Plantation Road,” the Alphas move into the house that would be the tomb of their love if it hadn’t died long ago. They make claims they can’t believe. One of the only truths they actually share is “I am not going to lose you // we are gonna stay married.” Are they “in love?” It’s really impossible to define what it is at this point, and their emotions for each other mean different things to different listeners. In this house, in this song, though, they are drunk and they are giggling and they are going to stay.