The fact that he can ad lib a comedic routine from a past song that he despises, and make it utterly remarkable, speaks to his talent as a musician and an artist.
I didn’t think the song was about the narrator killing the woman he loves. I thought it was about a man who wanted to kill himself. I thought it was a song where severe mental illness is juxtaposed to loving, intense music.
The "grand gesture" JD often mentions is implying that the guy doesn't want to live if he can't be with the person at the door. By showing up with a gun, some part of you was supposed to take that as oddly romantic (it's ultimately not and everyone can agree on this I hope). I take the song now days as a fantasy playing in the driver's head as he's driving across the county line to the person they are trying to win back, which is how the song ends. You get to decide if the fantasy played out like it did in the narrators head.... or he got the cops called on his ass
Damn. That right there shatters the illusion I held of this song. This never read as "I've got a gun, and I'm going to make you see how much I love you" before. To me it was someone coming to the rescue of someone at that perfect moment to save them. The gun was always against the narrators head when I listened. Not showing up at someone's house out of the blue with a guldurn fscking gun... Shit dude.
I read the narrator as suicidal as well. Even then dude, driving across states and putting that emotional burden on someone who has no choice is also all kinds of fucked up.
I still read it as a figurative gun... like he's in emotional distress and seeing the person he loves eases his pain... like fucking obviously that wasn't John Darnelle's intent but that's how I'm reading it damn it
I always thought the gun wasn't literal. Like coming home to someone you love after being miserable all day was as if a gun had been removed from your head. Him going on about how bad the song is was kind of counter intuitive
Where was this performance. I've watched the whole thing once and really enjoyed it but I don't remember where it was so I'm having trouble finding it.
I still love the line. "the most remarkable thing about you standing in the doorway is that it's you, and you're standing in the doorway." I used to sing that to a girl when she would stand in the doorway. But that was a long time ago now.
I agree from the bottom of my heart. One of the greatest lines ever sung in a song. But I also get John's reluctance to play the song, now, that he so strongly disagrees with the narrator. It's a bummer, but I guess we gotta live with that…
@@ollipoppolli Also it was years after that relationship ended that I finally realized it was abusive, and not just like, tumultuous or whatever. And so it's fitting that I sang a song that I didn't realize was about an abusive relationship to someone who I didn't even realize was abusing me.
@@Minotauronabike I'm incredibly glad you're free from that relationship and I hope you're in a healthier place. I had a similar experience of realizing a past relationship had been abusive, years after the fact (It's funny- not haha funny -how we can't see what it is when we're in the middle of it). I'd always excused the lectures and berating as 'He just wants me to be happy and healthy. He has a shitty way of doing it, but it's okay because behind it is good intentions." We stayed friends quite for a while after we mutually broke up. Eventually I moved home, thousands of miles away and we talked but rarely saw each other. The last time I visited him he pushed me to do all these self-destructive behaviors (the same ones he berated me for when we were together!), and as I observed his interactions with other people I realized, VERY CLEARLY, that he didn't give a fuck about my health or happiness, or anyone else's. He only cared about himself, and he didn't care if people did things that were destructive, as long as he didn't have to be around for the fallout. That was the last time I talked to him. Thankfully I'm in a healthy, respectful, loving relationship now. I really do hope you're doing well, whether you're in a relationship or single. ❤️
I never heard this song as misogynistic. Obviously JD wrote the song, so he knows the true meaning of it, but to me it always spoke of a guy who has reached some kind of breaking point and the woman (his girlfriend or wife) prevents him from doing something stupid by calming him and taking away the gun. It never sounded like he was going there to hurt her to prove his love or something. But music is subjective. So I can love it and he can hate it lol.
I kinda think that's the misogynistic part of it tho? He's not there to kill her because he loves her, he's there to hurt himself to prove his love for her, how much he needs her. What he would do without her. It sounds romantic, but it's a toxic codependent pattern many get into because of ideas of love. It gets misogynistic when it's a man shouldering all of his emotional bagage onto the woman he's supposed to love. Men making women pay for the consequences of their own toxicity. I do think it has some of the most beautiful mg lines written though.
Wow yeah that is the same chord progression and strum pattern as I thought you were cool... "Same 4 chords I use most of the time/ When I've got something on my mind" Indeed
Okay not exactly. The You Wee Cool progression is 1-5-6-4 (D Em A G) This is 1-5sus-4 (D-Asus-G) Does that matter? No. No it doesn’t. They create the same vibe. But it’s not exactly the same
I'm sorry, but You must have mistaken this for another set. The show that this is clipped from (which is linked in the description) doesnt include that song.
This was recorded at a charity event on 11-21-2016. I uploaded it here because every other upload I could find had around 2-3 minutes of other chatter before someone requested going to georgia.
I think that's the beauty of art. You're allowed to have your own interpretation. After my wife survived a stroke induced coma the line "...is that it's you, and that you're standing, in the doorway" took on a whole new level of significance for me. John, the young you may have imagined a misogynistic youth singing this song, but for many it is the exact opposite: it's a song about how the mere existence of another can give meaning to your own existence. You may be the author, but it's not your song anymore...
One of the things I always loved about the Mountain Goats is that their lyrics are gender-neutral. So I was a little disappointed to see this one get retroactively gendered. Super cool performance though.
The insidious thing about misogyny is that it gets to women too, but it's still hurtful. As a young woman, my heart finds something "attractive" about the idea of being a carer, being the only one able to calm a guy, "save" him from himself or taming the beast he might be. But realistically, entering a relationship with the idea of saving the other one, or entering a relationship with the idea of being saved by the other makes for toxic relationships. The image of a girl smiling as she gently eases the gun from a guy's "two big hands" feels beautiful, but really it also makes for an incredibly traumatic event for the girl. But nevermind that, she is smiling.
@@Coeurlarme these are both good points, I think it's also valid for people to like the song- even do a cover of it- with a different interpretation of the song.
![The Mountain Goats - Going to Georgia For Sixty US Dollars [Live]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vpe6faYAvuE/mqdefault.jpg)
Now we know he can be bribed lol
This is valuable information.
john arguing with his song's narrator midsong is fucking fascinating
The fact that he can ad lib a comedic routine from a past song that he despises, and make it utterly remarkable, speaks to his talent as a musician and an artist.
even when he's actively fighting against the song he's singing this man still manages to preform it beautifully, love you john
I love John, and I say this with the utmost respect:
If his guitar was any lower, it would be in another hemisphere
Even singing a song he hates, he still gives 110%
I didn’t think the song was about the narrator killing the woman he loves. I thought it was about a man who wanted to kill himself. I thought it was a song where severe mental illness is juxtaposed to loving, intense music.
“As a young male songwriter in 1993, I was good at being pathetic,” followed by fucking up the first line of the song, is so iconic to me
I PUNCHED OUT A WINDOW FOR YOU DEBBIE!
How much he hates the song always ends up making it sound better bc he’s actually mad at something when singing jt
I always read the narrator as suicidal, not homicidal...?
You would be correct. But that's still hurting others.
@@dangshnizzle6929 yeah but people kept making me think it was homicide and I was confused!
The "grand gesture" JD often mentions is implying that the guy doesn't want to live if he can't be with the person at the door. By showing up with a gun, some part of you was supposed to take that as oddly romantic (it's ultimately not and everyone can agree on this I hope).
I take the song now days as a fantasy playing in the driver's head as he's driving across the county line to the person they are trying to win back, which is how the song ends. You get to decide if the fantasy played out like it did in the narrators head.... or he got the cops called on his ass
@@dangshnizzle6929 oh the tone of the song makes me think it's 100% fantasy and dude is in a psych ward
Same
love this video
This is my new favorite video in the world
Damn.
That right there shatters the illusion I held of this song.
This never read as "I've got a gun, and I'm going to make you see how much I love you" before.
To me it was someone coming to the rescue of someone at that perfect moment to save them. The gun was always against the narrators head when I listened.
Not showing up at someone's house out of the blue with a guldurn fscking gun... Shit dude.
I read the narrator as suicidal as well. Even then dude, driving across states and putting that emotional burden on someone who has no choice is also all kinds of fucked up.
Exactly, I always read the narrator as suicidal
I think it's both tbh.
It can very well still be that way; the person in front of the narrator and their gun, however, does not need to be the one to intervene.
I still read it as a figurative gun... like he's in emotional distress and seeing the person he loves eases his pain... like fucking obviously that wasn't John Darnelle's intent but that's how I'm reading it damn it
Shoutout to the psychopaths who related to this pov
I always thought the gun wasn't literal. Like coming home to someone you love after being miserable all day was as if a gun had been removed from your head. Him going on about how bad the song is was kind of counter intuitive
Where was this performance. I've watched the whole thing once and really enjoyed it but I don't remember where it was so I'm having trouble finding it.
I got the clip from this video at around 1:00:04
czcams.com/video/52qFvPyiJ3c/video.html
@@jeffemerson60 thanks
I still love the line.
"the most remarkable thing about you standing in the doorway
is that it's you,
and you're standing in the doorway."
I used to sing that to a girl when she would stand in the doorway.
But that was a long time ago now.
Perfect lyric tbh
pathetic
I agree from the bottom of my heart. One of the greatest lines ever sung in a song.
But I also get John's reluctance to play the song, now, that he so strongly disagrees with the narrator. It's a bummer, but I guess we gotta live with that…
@@ollipoppolli Also it was years after that relationship ended that I finally realized it was abusive, and not just like, tumultuous or whatever. And so it's fitting that I sang a song that I didn't realize was about an abusive relationship to someone who I didn't even realize was abusing me.
@@Minotauronabike I'm incredibly glad you're free from that relationship and I hope you're in a healthier place.
I had a similar experience of realizing a past relationship had been abusive, years after the fact (It's funny- not haha funny -how we can't see what it is when we're in the middle of it). I'd always excused the lectures and berating as 'He just wants me to be happy and healthy. He has a shitty way of doing it, but it's okay because behind it is good intentions." We stayed friends quite for a while after we mutually broke up. Eventually I moved home, thousands of miles away and we talked but rarely saw each other. The last time I visited him he pushed me to do all these self-destructive behaviors (the same ones he berated me for when we were together!), and as I observed his interactions with other people I realized, VERY CLEARLY, that he didn't give a fuck about my health or happiness, or anyone else's. He only cared about himself, and he didn't care if people did things that were destructive, as long as he didn't have to be around for the fallout.
That was the last time I talked to him.
Thankfully I'm in a healthy, respectful, loving relationship now.
I really do hope you're doing well, whether you're in a relationship or single. ❤️
John, here's sixty dollars, play it with hate!
I never heard this song as misogynistic. Obviously JD wrote the song, so he knows the true meaning of it, but to me it always spoke of a guy who has reached some kind of breaking point and the woman (his girlfriend or wife) prevents him from doing something stupid by calming him and taking away the gun. It never sounded like he was going there to hurt her to prove his love or something.
But music is subjective. So I can love it and he can hate it lol.
I kinda think that's the misogynistic part of it tho? He's not there to kill her because he loves her, he's there to hurt himself to prove his love for her, how much he needs her. What he would do without her. It sounds romantic, but it's a toxic codependent pattern many get into because of ideas of love.
It gets misogynistic when it's a man shouldering all of his emotional bagage onto the woman he's supposed to love. Men making women pay for the consequences of their own toxicity.
I do think it has some of the most beautiful mg lines written though.
This song is awesome
Wow yeah that is the same chord progression and strum pattern as I thought you were cool...
"Same 4 chords I use most of the time/
When I've got something on my mind"
Indeed
Okay not exactly. The You Wee Cool progression is
1-5-6-4 (D Em A G)
This is
1-5sus-4
(D-Asus-G)
Does that matter? No. No it doesn’t. They create the same vibe. But it’s not exactly the same
Do you have Mathew 25:21 from this show? Please?
I'm sorry, but You must have mistaken this for another set. The show that this is clipped from (which is linked in the description) doesnt include that song.
@@jeffemerson60 sorry.
Sorry that it's one on my favorite songs. :(
when was this recorded?
This was recorded at a charity event on 11-21-2016. I uploaded it here because every other upload I could find had around 2-3 minutes of other chatter before someone requested going to georgia.
thanks!
I think that's the beauty of art. You're allowed to have your own interpretation.
After my wife survived a stroke induced coma the line "...is that it's you, and that you're standing, in the doorway" took on a whole new level of significance for me.
John, the young you may have imagined a misogynistic youth singing this song, but for many it is the exact opposite: it's a song about how the mere existence of another can give meaning to your own existence.
You may be the author, but it's not your song anymore...
One of the things I always loved about the Mountain Goats is that their lyrics are gender-neutral. So I was a little disappointed to see this one get retroactively gendered. Super cool performance though.
The weird thing is he does not play it because he feels it is misogynistic but i know tons of women who love this song.
The insidious thing about misogyny is that it gets to women too, but it's still hurtful.
As a young woman, my heart finds something "attractive" about the idea of being a carer, being the only one able to calm a guy, "save" him from himself or taming the beast he might be. But realistically, entering a relationship with the idea of saving the other one, or entering a relationship with the idea of being saved by the other makes for toxic relationships. The image of a girl smiling as she gently eases the gun from a guy's "two big hands" feels beautiful, but really it also makes for an incredibly traumatic event for the girl. But nevermind that, she is smiling.
@@Coeurlarme these are both good points, I think it's also valid for people to like the song- even do a cover of it- with a different interpretation of the song.
"Misogynistic garbage"
One might say the same thing about lovemaking.