Taking the Dative ^{1 2}

From the Ghana liner notes:

Vain Priestly, a gore/grindmetal "singer" from near Ukiah, was convinced that the whole indie scene was going to break wide open and that cassettes would shortly displace compact discs in the marketplace. Grabbing opportunity by the horns, he set up a production-and-distribution center out in the woods and invited us up to see it. When we arrived, we were forced at knifepoint to write and record these six songs. I think this extra incentive is what lends "Going to Jamaica" its desperate edge. Thanks, Vain! You are a true patron of the arts.

I've been unable to find any information about Priestly. If you know something, please drop me a line.

Taking the Dative, like Transmissions to Horace before it, has some copies with extra songs on them, supposedly. This would include the otherwise unheard-of song "8 to 20 on a Weapons Charge".

Mountain Goats forums. Transimssions To Horace Extra Songs, September 17, 2013. ↩

The dative is a grammatical case used to denote the indirect (and in some languages, the direct) object of a verb. While not found in English, it is found in Latin, which is presumably where John learned about it. ↩

The Stardust Resort and Casino was a famous casino located on the Las Vegas strip until 2007. ↩

Given the consistency with the Alpha couple, I assume this describes them. However, this story is inconsistent with the established narrative in three ways: living in Portland, pregnancy, and flying or taking some other sort of transit to Florida rather than driving along the bottom of the country. I'm not sure if these are reliable additions or parts of the story that were later removed from the narrative. ↩

The long-tailed weasel, or Mustela frenata, is as described. They live widely throughout North and Central America. ↩

"This is about a guy's ambitions. You know, everybody has to have dreams. Even people whose dreams will surely result in some damage." – Showbox, Seattle, November 10, 2009

John has explained that this describes an arsonist, not a firefighter. Mountain Goats Twitter, (1), (2), June 12, 2012, retrieved August 7, 2014; Folk Music Center, Claremont, July 3, 2012. ↩

Orange Ball of Peace is part of the Orange Ball of ... series. ↩

Also sung, "They wanted me to be a cop". Showbox, Seattle, November 10, 2009. ↩

Often sung with a concluding "Yep!" not present in the original recording. Folk Music Center, Claremont, July 3, 2012; Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, June 13, 2014. ↩

Standard Bitter Love Song #8 is part of the Standard Bitter Love Song series. ↩

Lloyd Center is a shopping mall in Portland containing numerous stores, a cinema, and an ice rink, as described. ↩

Chino Love Song 1979 is part of the informal series of Biblical references. ↩

Chino is an Inland Empire city in Southern California, located near Claremont. ↩

I don't have any idea what this is from, but if you do, I'd love to hear from you.

The opening line references Genesis 2:24: "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh."

Genesis 2:24, King James Bible, retrieved August 10, 2014. ↩

There are several Riverside Drives, but given the Southern California context, this most likely refers to Riverside Drive, a major east-west road running from downtown Los Angeles through the San Fernando Valley, including Chino, following the Los Angeles River. ↩

Norwalk is a suburb in Southern California located near downtown Los Angeles. ↩

"So, like a lot of my songs, this one is about anticipatory loss. Right? It's like, it's about bracing yourself, right. You get this feeling after you have a little practice that the best thing to do is to develop a good stance against incoming heavy forces. OK? That way, when it comes... then maybe you won't get knocked entirely down, right. Then maybe you can at least stand there and challenge it, and come at you again. It doesn't really work at all, because the force continues to redouble its efforts, because it has all time, and you don't have that long. This is a song about not having that long." — Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, June 13, 2014

"This is another one of those songs where you got two people, they were once deeply in love, and then it's like a monster came, a terrible monster. But it wasn't really a monster, it was poor communication skills. But because in all likelihood they have or have had in the past some difficulties with alcohol, it seems more like it must have been a monster, because how could poor communication skills have made such an awful mess?" — Go Rehearsal Studios, Room 4, Carrboro, October 15, 2000

With descriptions like those above, and the similarity between this and Have to Explode, people occasionally argue that Going to Jamaica is an Alpha couple song. While there are songs that are unrelated to Tallahassee and lack Alpha in the title yet are still in the series, many songs about divorce and alcoholism exist in the Mountain Goats canon and yet are not Alpha songs. I have yet to hear anything where John states that this belongs in the Alpha couple series and so at this point I am of the opinion that it stands outside of it. ↩

Going to Jamaica is part of the Going to ... series. ↩

Jamaica is a Caribbean country located south of Cuba and west of Hispaniola, the island containing Haiti and the Dominican Republic. ↩

Kingston is the capital of Jamaica. ↩

Trenchtown is a neighborhood of St. Andrews, Jamaica, located next to Kingston, famous for being the origin of numerous reggae, ska, and rocksteady musicians. ↩

This song takes place in Nevada while the Alpha couple is living on Flamingo Drive, just off the strip, similar to what is described in the liner notes. Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, June 13, 2014

"It's a song about a refrigerator, essentially." — Cobblestone, Dublin, October 9, 2002

"... I don't quite get what's going on in the song. I mean, most of the time I have a pretty good idea of what's going on with the people, and I don't really know what is behind the refrigerator in this song. I hope someday to find out." — Swedish-American Hall, San Francisco, June 28, 2012. See also McCabe's Guitar Shop, Santa Monica, June 30, 2012.

"I'm pretty sure that both the people in it are crazy, and I know — I have people that I talk to about, like, trying to, like, eliminate the word crazy as a dismissive, and I get that, right, and I understand that, but then you think about, well, but no, these people, can we at least call them crazy? Can we agree that they seem to set everything they love on fire, and that's, like, totally not a good working strategy?" — McCabe's Guitar Shop, Santa Monica, June 30, 2012

"This is a — well, I don't really know what to say about this song, really. The people in it seem to be having a hard time of it. I hope it they feel better soon... Bet they won't." — Swedish-American Hall, San Francisco, June 27, 2012 ↩

Alpha Gelida is part of the Alpha couple series and the informal series of Biblical references. ↩

Gelida is a conjugated version of the Latin word gelidus, meaning icy or ice-cold. ↩

Other adjectives are sometimes used in these lines, for example, "ringing", "tearing", "drifting", "breaking", "keening", and "roaring". Broadway Kino, Essen, Germany, March 14, 1996; Cobblestone, Dublin, October 9, 2002; Zoop, Farm Sanctuary, New York, June 16, 2007; Swedish-American Hall, San Francisco, June 27, 2012; Swedish-American Hall, San Francisco, June 28, 2012; McCabe's Guitar Shop, Santa Monica, June 30, 2012; Bottletree, Birmingham, June 22, 2013. ↩

A reference to Psalms 58:6, which, in describing how God will wreak vengeance upon the wicked, exhorts:

God, knock the teeth out of their mouths;
Lord, tear out the young lions' fangs.

Holman Christian Standard Bible, retrieved August 10, 2014. ↩

Nall transcribes this word as "hip", but it's clearly two syllables both here and in live versions. The clearest live show recording for this phrase in my opinion are the Zoop or Broadway Kino shows listed above. ↩