"and also, North American mountain goats have these claws that enable
them to climb straight up a wall. But, hundreds of them every year fall to
their deaths, not because they can't make the jumps over these cliffs, but
because they're overconfident. T hey know they can make the jump, they
jump and they just fall screaming. I don't know. Make of that what you
will.“ -John Darnielle
“and you start singing that stupid children’s song/ you think I don’t know it but I just don’t feel like singing it/ sure do love you/ sure do love you”
The Mountain Goats, in all of their incarnations, are brilliant. It’s hard to keep track of them. I know for a while they were “the Mountain Goats featuring the Bright Mountain Choir” and were John, Amy, Rosanne, Sarah, and Rachel. For a while it was just John and Rachel. I’ve heard rumors that it’s just John now, but this seems contradictory to what he’s said about his “band,” so I’m not sure if that’s true.
“What kind of memory serves/ what kind of world is it/ comes headlong at you and then swerves at the last possible second? It’s this one, yeah it’s this one.”
Mountain Goats releases can be found everywhere. John says he has his own “punk rock reasons for spreading the net so wide,” but in any case, there are well over one hundred Mountain Goats songs and you have to really want them to get a lot of them. Most Mountain Goats songs are released cassette-only, and the vast majority of their songs have to be searched out and found on various compilations from dozens of small cassette labels. There are even more songs he’s written that we’ll never hear, because, as Peter from Diskothi-Q was quoted as saying, “[John]’s got this weird thing, where if he doesn’t record a song within like a week of making it up, then he won’t bother to record it ever. He’ll just say ‘well, the spirit’s lost,’ which is totally ridiculous.”
“If I had a car and you were riding in it I’d show you what my car could do/ I’d head east down highway fifteen and see the starlight shower over you”
Mountain Goats songs are usually guitar and vocals, but often have Rachel’s bass and backing vocals, and sometimes are played on a keyboard instead. You could call their music folk, because of the acoustic guitar and the simplicity, but I don’t know anyone who’s described it as folk other than my mother. It’s hard to explain. It’s just music, but music that seems to appeal to a wide variety of people. The guy who does the magnificent Mountain Goats webpage also loves Phish, and my punk rock/new wave friend became enamored with the ‘Goats on first listen to “Beach House.” The Mountain Goats have charisma. They are the kid you can’t help but fall in love with, not despite their messy hair and earnest awkwardness, but because of it.
“You tell me your hair has gotten much much longer/ I bet it looks nice/ you tell me your eyes are the same color as they always were/ that kind of information just floors me”
I’m not an authority on the live Mountain Goats experience, ‘cause I’ve never been to one of their shows, but my sweetheart Chris sent me a tape of a show he went to and it’s one of the best tapes I have. The Mountain Goats live are not just a band playing music, they’re an actual show. Well, not with juggling and dancing bears and stuff, but, as John says of himself, he has “terrifying reserves of energy.” Live, John makes jokes and tells stories and I would gouge out my left eye to see them. Well, not really, but the sentiment is there. My favorite line of his from the live tape is: “I’m just a poor little fellow with an acoustic guitar and if you talk over me there’s nothing I can do about it . . . except use my finely honed karate skills!” What wit! What cunning!
“I’d count my blessings but you can only be expected to count so high”
Speaking of John’s wit and cleverness, that brings me to one of the most important points: the lyrics. With some bands, their lyrics aren’t deadly important, but can be a nice addition. With the ‘Goats, lyrics are essential and one of the main things that causes you to fall in love with them. As John says, “It ought to be more like earlier English and Irish songs—what are now drinking songs but were folk songs. They managed to touch an emotional chord, yet remain sort of light.” John’s lyrics teeter on the edge between dementia and brilliance. They range from the brilliant simplicity of “I love the cows/ I love the cows/ I love the cows” to the demented complexity of “in situations like these it’s sometimes useful to think of life as one long continuous evening that never turns to night/ hey hey!” John’s voice kills me. It quavers with tension and frustration during painfully simplistic stanzas such as:
“they wanted me to be a lawyerand it throws the words out casually during such moving lines as, “cold clean water nearby, glimmered in your eyes and your pistol glistened.” John makes sure his lyrics aren’t taken lightly; you care when he means it.
they wanted me to work in a machine shop
they wanted me to be a designer
but I came out on top
I’m a fireman
I’m a fireman”
“one day in september you come here/ you pull my head down and you whisper in my ear/ and you tell me the sidewalk is as far as the world really goes/ but that's a secret everybody knows. ”
Mountain Goats songs are like stories. Even if, on the surface, they seem quirky and random, underneath you can see the whole deal. In “Hot Garden Stomp,” John sings a song that is, on first listen, about gardening, but is actually a fairly blatant metaphor for taking care of your love:
“you said the soil looked nitrogen-poor
well don’t you worry about the soil looking nitrogen-poor
I think that’s my problem is the soil is nitrogen-poor
but for myself it looks kind of nitrogen-rich
and there are certain gardening secrets you don’t have yet
and there are certain gardening skills you’ll never learn
how to leave alone what’s doing fine
how to mulch what’s dying on the vine
there are certain gardening secrets you don’t know”
In an interview in Puncture, John said, “I think songwriting is literary. That's not me singing, generally speaking; most songs are personified narratives, and if you can convince people you are the personified narrator, you've done your job . . . you can get them to feel for you. “ I often feel for John. He sees the world in his own Mountain Goat way, and nothing passes by him unnoticed. In “Song For An Old Friend,” he sings:
“There was cold clear water in a tall clean glassThere are a huge range of topics that get covered in Mountain Goats songs. John sings about love, cows, Easter rabbits, the Roman Empire, and, of course, places. The songs are titled accordingly. John says, “I wish more people would try to piece the songs together because the whole thing would make more sense and it can be kind of fun, people think I title my songs randomly, but I don’t.”
the sunlight hit the sides and it came through the water tilting
I saw the condensation on your hand
I could feel the glaciers melting
and a warm soft wind covered up everything
on the day your love came screaming through me”
Most of the song titles fit into a few categories: “The ___ Song,” “Going to ___,” “Song For ___,” “Standard Bitter Love Song #___,” the Alpha songs, etc. There are probably more, but I don’t think I have enough of their songs to see all of the patterns. That just proves my point. I have over 100 of their songs, but don’t think I’m qualified to write this article. They’re so insanely prolific, it’s hard to make a dent, no matter how many tapes you buy.
“I’ve told you everything even the parts I’d meant to leave out.”
It’s probably about time to wrap this up. The main point here is that the Mountain Goats are brilliantly deranged, and if you acquire even one of their tapes your life will be the better for it, I promise. It’s not often that someone comes along who can create such perfect songs, especially not in such quantity, so those people who know about the Mountain Goats should realize that they are very lucky indeed.
Quotes from John procured from interviews in For Paper Airplane Pilots, Puncture, and Cool Beans. Quote from Peter Hughes from an interview in Panophobia. First quote from John from a letter found on the Mountain Goats website, which I highly recommend. All italicized quotes in the text are lyrics to Mountain Goats songs.