October 16th - Passaic 1975

As a song, this is a beautifully sad tale of the damage of the road. It's part of the ongoing Ozzy project, but much like Song for Black Sabbath's Second North American Tour it isn't actually on the Marsh Witch Visions EP. Lyrically and overall as a piece it does the frequent Mountain Goats trick of sounding delightful and a little dreamy and then having lyrics that track someone's descent. There's a section in this qhere the narrative character is given a present by the tech crew: a teleprompter, a wonderful and shiny piece of technology, one of only 4000 made. The song never says "because you can't remember the lyrics". The song doesn't have to.

There's a sort of synchronicity with this song coming up on the day I saw the Mountain Goatsa live. I've noticed as I've got a bit older that pretty much every live event I go to is one where I as someone straight, white, and male am in the minority. This even extends to wrestling shows, and the Mountain Goats / Wrestling crossover was definitely in effect during this show. But in general I think I feel better in crowds where queer people feel safe. In cities where trans people have community. In places where the hatred of the world doesn't go away but is kept out. And part of that is my job.

I'm not all that concerned about everyone getting high (although they can if they want). I just want everyone to be safe and themselves.