"See America Right," the first single from The Mountain Goats' seventh album, Tallahassee, is also the first official single ever released by the band. This album marks a dramatic change for The Mountain Goats, as it is the first album of high production quality, with a major recording label, as well as the first album with a full-fledged band backing lead singer, guitarist and songwriter, John Darnielle. This album, and the track "See America Right," are part of the "Alpha Couple" cycle. This cycle of songs, and the whole of Tallahassee, tell the story of a couple caught in a toxic relationship and slowly killing themselves with alcohol. The driving guitar and drums of "See America Right" is accented by the dark intention in Darnielle's voice and the lyrics that traverse the state of Florida, documenting the narrator's desperate, drunken journey back to Tallahassee.

Darnielle said in an interview following the release of Tallahassee that the fictional couple "opted to go down with the ship rather than save themselves... but what could deepen a love more than the shared knowledge that all is lost?" As a result, "they start running, Mexico, Catalina. They spend a year in a motel in Vegas. Where it all comes to a boil is in Tallahassee" [neumu.net]. This track, dead in the middle of the album, ultimately chronicles an ill-fated journey north from Tampa, Florida, via the coastal cities of Inglis and Cedar Key. On the way, car trouble leads to an arrest and a night in jail. When the narrator finally gets out of jail (presumably somewhere along US-19 North) he is shaking so badly that he breaks into a car for a handle of vodka before boarding a Greyhound, drunk again. He exits the bus at Inglis, a location that is likely very intentional and consciously chosen on the part of Darnielle.

The year before Tallahassee was released, the mayor of Inglis famously banned Satan from the small city, saying that Satan "is not now, nor ever again will be a part of this town." The imagery recurrent in Tallahassee makes this an illuminating, and even funny, detail. Mayor Carolyn Risher, who made the statement during her term as mayor of the small fishing town, said it was a reaction to the events of September 11th, and because there were a large number of people in Inglis who needed to repent. The ACLU, however, disagreed with Risher's proclamation and its clear violation of separation between church and state.

Risher later retracted the statement and reimbursed the city for the official stationery it was printed upon. From Inglis, the narrator hitchhikes to Cedar Key, a collection of islands near the coast about an hour northwest. Cedar Key has made an effort to maintain its rustic origins and traditional ways of life. The city's primary industry is fishing, with tourism being a close second, as tourists flock to the quaint seaside town to experience exquisite seafood and get a glimpse at a simpler way of life.

The whole of "See America Right" doesn't see the return of the narrator to his home on Southwood Plantation Road in Tallahassee, but articulates the influence of geography on the couple's demise, and ultimately, their inability to escape it despite where they stand. The final stanza of the song removes the narrator far from Florida as Darnielle sings, "If we never make it back to California/ I want you to know I love you." The sweetness of this sentiment is undercut by the sharp knowledge that his "love is like a dark cloud full of rain/ that's always right there above you." The pervasive and doomed quality of the song, of the album, looms in every city and in every syllable of this song, fully realized in the narrator's short journey, in which he is still caught in the same hopeless struggles.

Maggie Grimason
May 18, 2013

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