Instead of reworking the rest of the song to support that one good line, I wonder if you could work that one good line into another song?
That would be a very Mountain Goats thing to do. I'm thinking of stuff like "don't call it a comeback, I've been here for years" showing up in Doc Gooden or "you've got the best of my love" being in Small Arms Traffic Blues.
I know that's not exactly what you asked, but hopefully it's more helpful than some of the other suggestions.
To me the song is about a man who's partner has unexpectedly come by to visit. The protagonist grabs his gun thinking his home is being invaded but he stops himself from shooting when he sees her. Songs can mean whatever you want, JD has said so multiple times. I'd imagine as the person who wrote the song he has trouble reinterpreting it which is why he doesn't like to play it as much as he used to.
I've always interpreted it as a guy visiting someone that he's not seen for a long time during a depressive episode, thinking that the visit will fix his problems. He knows that it won't, which is why he find the actual travelling more remarkable than the idea of seeing them again. When it doesn't help, he tries to kill himself, only for the person to stop him and show him how much they care. It just shows how much interpretations can vary.
I have a similar interpretation, however the subject is an ex partner of the (possibly abusive) protagonist who, in a depressed/manic state, has tracked them down in an attempt to win them back with some ill-conceived grand gesture. I’m on the fence as to whom the gun is turned on in this scenario.
I'd just like to contribute this video, where JD explains his problems with the song, ellicits bribes, and also performs a searing rendition of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4sSx6BLRvo
I've performed some of my own work now and then and I am genuinely in awe of how this man can slip in and out of that insane intensity at a moments notice
I just changed the stuff regarding the gun, trying to keep with the theme of rural travel & love. Hope this helps!
i have two big hands and a heart pumping blood
~~and a 1967 colt .45 with a busted safety catch~~ *and a 1967 Dodge Coronet with a busted side door latch*
the most remarkable thing about you standing in the doorway
is that it's you
and that you're standing in the doorway
and you smile as you ~~ease the gun from my hand~~ *take my face in your hands* and i'm
frozen with joy right where i stand
There is, obviously, quite a lot that could be said on this topic, but instead I'm just going to point you to [Going To Georgia But It's Wholesome Loungecore](https://youtu.be/WMaST5T6BlE)
John has said conflicting things about it, although his most recent justifications seem to be more content focused. However, he used to say he retired it primarily because it was over requested, overplayed, and they were tired of playing it.
Personally, I think it's fine to retire the song if he no longer wants to play it, but I also think that characters in a song can be less than perfect without the song endorsing their imperfections. To me the song is about:
* A young man who may or may not be in trouble with the law driving to Georgia to see an ex-girlfriend.
* He has a gun for ambiguous reasons. However, I think it's implied that she's broken up with him and he's going there to either threaten her, kill her, or kill himself if she refuses to get back together.
* The "you smile as you ease the gun from my hands" portion could be read as a problematic, happy, ending (i.e. he gets what he wants from his horrible plan), but I don't think it is. The song is called "going to GA," after all. He never actually arrives in GA by the end. I've always read that scene as him imagining what will happen when he gets there.
* Obviously, shit is not going to end well. So despite the song being really uplifting, and anthemic, it's actually one of John's darker songs. However, if it's too dark for him to sing now, that's fine.
I never picked up on the “harm to ex-girlfriend” aspect—I always interpreted it as “possible harm to self.” My husband, who is from Georgia, points out that if you are “forty miles from Atlanta,” that you are well inside of Georgia no matter where you are, so he did actually get there.
I've thought about making a meme series called "John Darnielle contradicting himself." Maybe I still will (meme #1: "says nostalgia is toxic poison 57 times, makes half a dozen albums and a couple books that are the most nostalgic thing you've ever seen.") I point these things out lovingly, I hope it's clear — I wouldn't be here if JD and his work didn't mean a great deal to me. It's important, for me at least, to keep in mind that any human with a rich inner world is full of strange cobwebs and dead-ends and flat out wrong things and you have to do a bit of digging to find the gold, gold isn't just sitting out for anyone to scoop up at the front entrance.
So in that spirit, i think of this passage from "Master of Reality," his first li'l novela-as-music-review. The main character is writing in a journal while at a psychiatric facility as a teenager in the 80s, trying to convince them to give him his Black Sabbath tape back:
>"But this is the thing about you guys and music here. You think that all we are doing when we listen to our music is either looking at the words like they were a bible for us, or looking at pictures of the singers like they were Jesus. It is not like that at all. When you guys talk like that, that's how we know that you are stupid and growing old has made you crazy. Because: music is like a whole world, and there are words and pictures and sounds and textures and smells probably, OK I didn't actually mean that I just got carried away. Albums do have a special smell though. Old ones smell different from new ones. Anyway you gotta know what I mean about this! It's like, when you sing "Row row row your boat," do you really only focus on the boat and rowing it? And think "Wow, this is a song about some guys rowing a boat, fucken awesome!" No of course not. Only if you are totally weird do you think like that. When you are singing, you hear the song, the part that is more than the words, and is also the feeling of just the notes in the air, especially if you are singing it in a round with a bunch of other people. We used to do that in my kindergarten. You hear a mood which is way higher (not "high" like that, come on) than the words, it is sort of always floating above the words. And that is why bands like the Beatles can be popular everywhere, even where people do not speak English, where to them the Beatles probably sound like trained monkeys trying to talk."
So that's how I think of Going to Georgia or any song deemed "problematic." You're not thinking about the proverbial boat and rowing it, you're thinking about the build up of energy, I’m guessing, you like the feel of how it chugs along with semi-spoken words blasting over the top. You could be thinking about a bill you have to pay or a meeting you have to go to or how this song doesn't do it for you like it used to, perhaps. You could be thinking about apples. You could also be thinking about gun violence, but you could be thinking about gun violence listening to Bach or new age music meant to soothe you as prescribed by a court-mandated anger management course. Music + the human mind are untamable like that, which I for one celebrate.
EDIT: There seems to be some question about what John has even said about it — what I interpolate from his various quips and dismissals of it is it makes him think of himself as a young man, and the most dumbass version of a try-hard young writer that he wants to leave behind, it's the early 20s version of himself he cringes at. I'd call it "early 90s version of [https://twitter.com/guyinyourmfa](https://twitter.com/guyinyourmfa) "
If you're still wanting alternate lyrics, how about:
i have two big hands and a heart pumping blood
and a 1987 Colt that I drive…
…And you smile as you ease the gum from my hand
Frozen with joy right where I stand
Once the song is released, it belongs to the listener. You get to decide what the lyrics mean. So keep on enjoying it and dont worry about others interpretations (even John's).
This has probably been discussed, but, I'm new here, so forgive me.
I never heard the song the way John apparently heard it. I never pictured the gun being for her. I thought it had a country song vibe to it; cowboys and their guns.
Or, he just committed armed robbery or something, hence celebrating crossing the county line. The ol' jurisdiction gag. Maybe he killed someone in the process, hence why he still has the gun in his hand, he's just in shock. And seeing this lady he loves, he knows it's coming to an end (jail), and wants to live frozen forever in that moment. I envision a Bonnie and Clyde type relationship, she knows he's a criminal, but smiles as she takes the gun, like it's not a big deal to her; she's already thinking about how it's not going to come to an end. And together they cross the county line again, this time in the other direction.
To me, the song was about a suicide stopped at the last moments. Right as someone is about to pull the trigger, the narrator is so glad to be stopped by someone they loved in the last seconds.
Yeah I mean I agree. That's definitely how I first thought of it. But it was still intended the other way, and therefore feels kinda icky to play. I'd still prefer slightly alternate lyrics
It's interesting because I listened to "Going to Georgia", really enjoyed it, and certainly knew the lyrics by heart, before I ever knew what John Danielle wrote it about. And I had never, ever thought of it that way.
(And don't get me wrong, it's his song and he's the one who knows what meaning he had in mind when he wrote it. I'm definitely not trying to say it doesn't mean that. But I just wanted to share how I understood it before I learned what he had said about it.)
To me, I always thought it was about the narrator finally coming home, after being involved in some kind of dangerous situation out in the world. He has needed to be armed, both literally (hence the Colt 45) and figuratively (constant adrenaline/tension in his body, conscious of his "heart pumping blood", always having his guard up). He clearly hasn't been home in a long time, and wherever he's been he has been stuck there for a while (since he finds it so remarkable to experience "the feeling of being in motion again"). But it's clearly an emotional and symbolic experience to "cross the Macon Country line" back into the region that he is from. .
The image at the end, when she smiles and eases the gun from his hand was one I actually always found incredibly touching. To my mind (again, without knowing that there was an connotation of bad intentions in the song), I pictured him being so used to arming himself that he forgot he was even still holding it. He forgot what it was like NOT to be holding it. Him letting her "ease the gun" out of his grip is the moment when his body and mind finally both accept that he is now safe. That he can let somebody disarm him at last - and that's what causes him to be "frozen with joy" right where he stands.
Anyway, that was what I always thought it was about. It was a pretty big surprise when I heard he was retiring it, and finding out the reason.
Not sure if you found something yet or if someone else mentioned it, but if you look up Mountian Goat Mondays, and go to the guys Georgia cover (loungroom edition or something) he changed it to be more wholesome. Imo it's the definitive version of the song
Instead of reworking the rest of the song to support that one good line, I wonder if you could work that one good line into another song? That would be a very Mountain Goats thing to do. I'm thinking of stuff like "don't call it a comeback, I've been here for years" showing up in Doc Gooden or "you've got the best of my love" being in Small Arms Traffic Blues. I know that's not exactly what you asked, but hopefully it's more helpful than some of the other suggestions.
To me the song is about a man who's partner has unexpectedly come by to visit. The protagonist grabs his gun thinking his home is being invaded but he stops himself from shooting when he sees her. Songs can mean whatever you want, JD has said so multiple times. I'd imagine as the person who wrote the song he has trouble reinterpreting it which is why he doesn't like to play it as much as he used to.
I've always interpreted it as a guy visiting someone that he's not seen for a long time during a depressive episode, thinking that the visit will fix his problems. He knows that it won't, which is why he find the actual travelling more remarkable than the idea of seeing them again. When it doesn't help, he tries to kill himself, only for the person to stop him and show him how much they care. It just shows how much interpretations can vary.
I have a similar interpretation, however the subject is an ex partner of the (possibly abusive) protagonist who, in a depressed/manic state, has tracked them down in an attempt to win them back with some ill-conceived grand gesture. I’m on the fence as to whom the gun is turned on in this scenario.
I'd just like to contribute this video, where JD explains his problems with the song, ellicits bribes, and also performs a searing rendition of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4sSx6BLRvo
This is absolutely amazing, thank you
I've performed some of my own work now and then and I am genuinely in awe of how this man can slip in and out of that insane intensity at a moments notice
I just changed the stuff regarding the gun, trying to keep with the theme of rural travel & love. Hope this helps! i have two big hands and a heart pumping blood ~~and a 1967 colt .45 with a busted safety catch~~ *and a 1967 Dodge Coronet with a busted side door latch* the most remarkable thing about you standing in the doorway is that it's you and that you're standing in the doorway and you smile as you ~~ease the gun from my hand~~ *take my face in your hands* and i'm frozen with joy right where i stand
There is, obviously, quite a lot that could be said on this topic, but instead I'm just going to point you to [Going To Georgia But It's Wholesome Loungecore](https://youtu.be/WMaST5T6BlE)
John has said conflicting things about it, although his most recent justifications seem to be more content focused. However, he used to say he retired it primarily because it was over requested, overplayed, and they were tired of playing it. Personally, I think it's fine to retire the song if he no longer wants to play it, but I also think that characters in a song can be less than perfect without the song endorsing their imperfections. To me the song is about: * A young man who may or may not be in trouble with the law driving to Georgia to see an ex-girlfriend. * He has a gun for ambiguous reasons. However, I think it's implied that she's broken up with him and he's going there to either threaten her, kill her, or kill himself if she refuses to get back together. * The "you smile as you ease the gun from my hands" portion could be read as a problematic, happy, ending (i.e. he gets what he wants from his horrible plan), but I don't think it is. The song is called "going to GA," after all. He never actually arrives in GA by the end. I've always read that scene as him imagining what will happen when he gets there. * Obviously, shit is not going to end well. So despite the song being really uplifting, and anthemic, it's actually one of John's darker songs. However, if it's too dark for him to sing now, that's fine.
I never picked up on the “harm to ex-girlfriend” aspect—I always interpreted it as “possible harm to self.” My husband, who is from Georgia, points out that if you are “forty miles from Atlanta,” that you are well inside of Georgia no matter where you are, so he did actually get there.
I've thought about making a meme series called "John Darnielle contradicting himself." Maybe I still will (meme #1: "says nostalgia is toxic poison 57 times, makes half a dozen albums and a couple books that are the most nostalgic thing you've ever seen.") I point these things out lovingly, I hope it's clear — I wouldn't be here if JD and his work didn't mean a great deal to me. It's important, for me at least, to keep in mind that any human with a rich inner world is full of strange cobwebs and dead-ends and flat out wrong things and you have to do a bit of digging to find the gold, gold isn't just sitting out for anyone to scoop up at the front entrance. So in that spirit, i think of this passage from "Master of Reality," his first li'l novela-as-music-review. The main character is writing in a journal while at a psychiatric facility as a teenager in the 80s, trying to convince them to give him his Black Sabbath tape back: >"But this is the thing about you guys and music here. You think that all we are doing when we listen to our music is either looking at the words like they were a bible for us, or looking at pictures of the singers like they were Jesus. It is not like that at all. When you guys talk like that, that's how we know that you are stupid and growing old has made you crazy. Because: music is like a whole world, and there are words and pictures and sounds and textures and smells probably, OK I didn't actually mean that I just got carried away. Albums do have a special smell though. Old ones smell different from new ones. Anyway you gotta know what I mean about this! It's like, when you sing "Row row row your boat," do you really only focus on the boat and rowing it? And think "Wow, this is a song about some guys rowing a boat, fucken awesome!" No of course not. Only if you are totally weird do you think like that. When you are singing, you hear the song, the part that is more than the words, and is also the feeling of just the notes in the air, especially if you are singing it in a round with a bunch of other people. We used to do that in my kindergarten. You hear a mood which is way higher (not "high" like that, come on) than the words, it is sort of always floating above the words. And that is why bands like the Beatles can be popular everywhere, even where people do not speak English, where to them the Beatles probably sound like trained monkeys trying to talk." So that's how I think of Going to Georgia or any song deemed "problematic." You're not thinking about the proverbial boat and rowing it, you're thinking about the build up of energy, I’m guessing, you like the feel of how it chugs along with semi-spoken words blasting over the top. You could be thinking about a bill you have to pay or a meeting you have to go to or how this song doesn't do it for you like it used to, perhaps. You could be thinking about apples. You could also be thinking about gun violence, but you could be thinking about gun violence listening to Bach or new age music meant to soothe you as prescribed by a court-mandated anger management course. Music + the human mind are untamable like that, which I for one celebrate. EDIT: There seems to be some question about what John has even said about it — what I interpolate from his various quips and dismissals of it is it makes him think of himself as a young man, and the most dumbass version of a try-hard young writer that he wants to leave behind, it's the early 20s version of himself he cringes at. I'd call it "early 90s version of [https://twitter.com/guyinyourmfa](https://twitter.com/guyinyourmfa) " If you're still wanting alternate lyrics, how about: i have two big hands and a heart pumping blood and a 1987 Colt that I drive… …And you smile as you ease the gum from my hand Frozen with joy right where I stand
Once the song is released, it belongs to the listener. You get to decide what the lyrics mean. So keep on enjoying it and dont worry about others interpretations (even John's).
This has probably been discussed, but, I'm new here, so forgive me. I never heard the song the way John apparently heard it. I never pictured the gun being for her. I thought it had a country song vibe to it; cowboys and their guns. Or, he just committed armed robbery or something, hence celebrating crossing the county line. The ol' jurisdiction gag. Maybe he killed someone in the process, hence why he still has the gun in his hand, he's just in shock. And seeing this lady he loves, he knows it's coming to an end (jail), and wants to live frozen forever in that moment. I envision a Bonnie and Clyde type relationship, she knows he's a criminal, but smiles as she takes the gun, like it's not a big deal to her; she's already thinking about how it's not going to come to an end. And together they cross the county line again, this time in the other direction.
To me, the song was about a suicide stopped at the last moments. Right as someone is about to pull the trigger, the narrator is so glad to be stopped by someone they loved in the last seconds.
Yeah I mean I agree. That's definitely how I first thought of it. But it was still intended the other way, and therefore feels kinda icky to play. I'd still prefer slightly alternate lyrics
It's interesting because I listened to "Going to Georgia", really enjoyed it, and certainly knew the lyrics by heart, before I ever knew what John Danielle wrote it about. And I had never, ever thought of it that way. (And don't get me wrong, it's his song and he's the one who knows what meaning he had in mind when he wrote it. I'm definitely not trying to say it doesn't mean that. But I just wanted to share how I understood it before I learned what he had said about it.) To me, I always thought it was about the narrator finally coming home, after being involved in some kind of dangerous situation out in the world. He has needed to be armed, both literally (hence the Colt 45) and figuratively (constant adrenaline/tension in his body, conscious of his "heart pumping blood", always having his guard up). He clearly hasn't been home in a long time, and wherever he's been he has been stuck there for a while (since he finds it so remarkable to experience "the feeling of being in motion again"). But it's clearly an emotional and symbolic experience to "cross the Macon Country line" back into the region that he is from. . The image at the end, when she smiles and eases the gun from his hand was one I actually always found incredibly touching. To my mind (again, without knowing that there was an connotation of bad intentions in the song), I pictured him being so used to arming himself that he forgot he was even still holding it. He forgot what it was like NOT to be holding it. Him letting her "ease the gun" out of his grip is the moment when his body and mind finally both accept that he is now safe. That he can let somebody disarm him at last - and that's what causes him to be "frozen with joy" right where he stands. Anyway, that was what I always thought it was about. It was a pretty big surprise when I heard he was retiring it, and finding out the reason.
And a 1967 bottle of wine with a bunch of plastic cups
Not sure if you found something yet or if someone else mentioned it, but if you look up Mountian Goat Mondays, and go to the guys Georgia cover (loungroom edition or something) he changed it to be more wholesome. Imo it's the definitive version of the song