Zopilote Machine ¹

"Zopilote" is Spanish for Coragyps atratus, the black vulture. ↩

Zopilote Machine was also rereleased by 3 Beads of Sweat on CD and vinyl in 2005. ↩

A line from one of the Orphic Gold Tablets unearthed in Thurii and elsewhere, which gave instructions to the dead in the Orphic religion, a set of beliefs related to Ancient Greek religion. Several tablets reference falling into milk:

"Greetings, you who have suffered the painful thing; you have never endured this before.
You have become a god instead of a mortal. A kid you fell into milk.
Rejoice, rejoice." Journey on the right-hand road
to holy meadows and groves of Persephone.

Another tablet reads:

I have sunk beneath the breast of the Lady, the Chthonian Queen,
I have approached the longed-for crown with swift feet.
"Happy and blessed, you will be a god instead of a mortal."
A kid I fell into milk.

The line in question has generated great curiosity and fewer answers. At present, a guess seems to be that "falling into milk" is a metaphor for experiencing bliss, however, we don't seem to truly know.

Graf, Fritz (2007). Ritual Texts for the Afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets. New York: Routledge.

Pajares, Alberto Bernabé, and San Cristóbal, Ana Isabel Jiménez (2008). Instructions for the Netherworld: The Orphic Gold Tablets. Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers. ↩

I discussed these lines with a professional Latin translator, and they gave this translation:

Thus said the young son
But the son was ignorant
Day by day he grew more stupid
Great gods, this boy is a great pain to me

They clarified that the final line could also translate to "Great gods, this boy is a pain to me, who is older", depending on the interpretation of magno. The lines, to the best of their and my knowledge, are original. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

Ayi Kwei Armah is a Ghanian writer, known for writing a number of books, among them Two Thousand Seasons, a book about colonialism in Africa and the inspiration for the identically-titled Mountain Goats song.

The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born was Armah's first novel and focuses on coming to terms with the still imperfect political state of Ghana after independence. ↩

Apuleius' Metamorphoses, more commonly known as The Golden Ass, is a Roman Latin novel and the only such novel to survive intact to the modern day. The story follows a man, Lucius, desperate to learn magic, who accidentally turns himself into a donkey. ↩

According to the same translator, these Latin words translate to "chain-rattling, high-ferocity mother". The translator informed me that mater is probably being used as an Anglicism to mean something formidable, rather than being used in a characteristic Latin fashion. Ferricrepina (or ferricrepinas, as it was originally used) was invented by Plautus for his play Asinaria. In that context, the lines were:

Libanus:

Vbi flent nequam homines, qui polentam pinsitant.
apud fústitudinas, ferricrepinas insulas,
ubi vivos homines mortui incursant boves.

Libanus, a slave, is begging Demaenetus, his master, not to send him to a place where he must do brutal work. Translated, this reads:

Why, in the islands of club-land and rattle-chains, where dead oxen attack living men.

Plautus (1895). Asinaria. Friedrich Leo, translator. Berlin: Weidmann. Perseus Digital Library, retrieved May 1, 2014. ↩

The Bright Mountain Choir were a group of four women, Rachel Ware (now Zooi), Sarah Arslanian, Amy Piatt, and Roseanne Lindley, who never recorded together all at once, but who sang in various combinations on many early Mountain Goats records. ↩

John mentions that he's lost touch with Zita and doesn't know where to find this film anymore in his interview with Space City Rock (2001). I have been unable to find any further information about Zita, but would love to hear more if you know something. My best guess is that Zita is another local from the Inland Empire scene. Zita also contributed the cover to Sweden. ↩

The same Mark and Joel of Song for Mark and Joel. ↩ ↩²

"It's a love song, kind of." — CBGB, New York, July 23, 1999

Pronounced with a hard C: in-KIP-ee-ens. John explains that this is probably affected, but does it anyway. Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, June 23, 2011; Swedish-American Hall, San Francisco, June 27, 2012.

With incipiens meaning "beginning" in Latin, it is the first song in the Alpha series, confirmed at the Swedish-American Hall, San Francisco, June 27, 2012. ↩

Alpha Incipiens is part of the Alpha couple series. ↩

"[This song] took its title from an Aztec poem, it's called 'Azo Tle Nelli in Tlalticpac?', which I'm probably pronouncing wrong, but as I understood it then, it was a formulaic thing that was said at the end of some religious poems... [meaning] 'is that the only thing in the world?' It's about the apocalypse." — Hopscotch, Durham, September 8, 2012 ↩

Azo Tle Nelli in Tlalticpac? is part of the informal series of Aztec songs. ↩

Taken from an old Nahuatl poem, called Xochicuicatl, meaning Flower Song. The verse in question reads:

Noyuh quichihua con teuctlon timaloa yecan quetzalmaquiztla matilolticoya conahuiltia icelteotlhuia achcanon azo a yan ipalnemoa achcanon azo tle nel in tlalticpac ohuaya.

Translated:

Thus do the nobles glorify themselves with things of beauty, honor and delight, that they may please the one only god, though one knows not the dwelling of the Giver of Life, one knows not whether he is on earth.

Brinton, Daniel G (1890). Ancient Nahuatl Poetry. Archived by Project Gutenberg, retrieved April 10, 2014. ↩

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

An alternate version of The Black Ice Cream Song exists, in which John, pretending to be someone else as the band the Yamaraja Racers, covers the song himself. The song was released on a tribute tape to the Mountain Goats, by an English fan who would prefer not to be named, called A Postcard to the Mountain Goats, on the Baccanalian Revel label. It was rereleased on a collection of the two Yamaraja Racers songs, also on Baccanalian Revel.

One other Yamaraja Racers cover exists, Chanson du Bon Chose. ↩

Malibu is a wealthy city on the California coast in Los Angeles. ↩

A likely reference to the famous Pogo quotation, "Yep, son, we have met the enemy and he is us", stated by Pogo in an Earth Day comic as he is disgusted by our destruction of the Earth. Walt Kelly, the author of Pogo, was himself referencing a commander from the War of 1812, who stated, "We have met the enemy, and they are ours." ↩

Standard Bitter Love Song #7 is part of the Standard Bitter Love Song series. ↩

Quetzalcoatl Eats Plums is part of the informal series of Aztec songs. ↩

Quetzalcoatl is a major Aztec deity. Meaning "feathered serpent", Quetzalcoatl is one of many winged snake deities throughout history in South and Central America. He is a creator god, credited with making the fifth incarnation, or 'sun', of humanity, which was considered to be the present era. He was additionally considered to be the deity who provided human beings with maize and the calendar, among other gifts. ↩ ↩²

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

"If you wanted this for the wrong personal reasons, I hope they get better. — Zoop II, Farm Sanctuary, New York, June 14, 2009

"This is a song that takes place in California... it's about that moment in which you know it's not going to get any better, but you're going to prove to somebody just exactly how strong you are." — Cow Haus, Tallahassee, February 6, 1998

"It's about the point at which in a dissolving relationship the line between the sex center of your brain and the anger center gets crossed." — Argo, Denton, September 11, 1996

John has discussed Orange Ball of Hate in the context of other Alpha songs, suggesting that it is both about the Alpha couple and one of the few songs specifically sung from one member of the couple — specifically, the husband, given the gendered pronoun in the opening verse. William Caxton Fan Club, Hi! Tallahassee has been one of my favorite albums..., retrieved March 3, 2022. ↩

Orange Ball of Hate is part of the Alpha couple series and Orange Ball of ... series. ↩

Alterately sung, "And I see you standing there in the doorway smoking". — Zoop II, Farm Sanctuary, New York, June 14, 2009 ↩

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

Bristol is a large city in southwest England. ↩

I cannot find a Caesar whose biography matches this story, so I am guessing that this is using Caesar metaphorically as a title, rather than referring to a specific Caesar. ↩

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

Lebanon is a country bordered by Syria and Israel on the coast of the eastern Mediterranean. ↩

Grendel's mother is a major antagonist in Beowulf, an anonymously-authored Old English poem written between the 8th and 11th centuries. In the poem, the Scandinavian hero, Beowulf, slays Grendel, a monster attacking Beowulf's Danish allies. Grendel's mother then attacks their hall as well, dying in the attempt. Upon returning home and being crowned king, Beowulf dies after killing a dragon.

This chronicles Grendel's mother's mourning of Grendel. ↩

Singapore is a city-state in southeast Asia, bordered by Malaysia and Indonesia. ↩

This sounds to be a description of a boat burial. ↩

Song for Tura Satana is part of the Song for ... series. ↩

Tura Satana was a cult actress and stripper. Originally from Japan, she spent much of her life and career in the Los Angeles area. ↩

The Doll Squad was a low budget, low quality action film starring Tura Satana and several other women fighting for the CIA in skintight suits against bioterrorism. ↩

San Bernardino is a Southern California Inland Empire city located east of Los Angeles. ↩

"It's about a person who's having a romantic affair with someone much older than himself, cloaking the whole thing in songs about other people." — Old Town School of Folk Music, Chicago, April 20, 2014 ↩

Alpha in Tauris is part of the Alpha couple series. ↩

Most likely an allusion to Iphigenia in Tauris, a dramatic play by Euripides. In his previous play, Iphigenia in Aulis, Agamemnon is ordered by the goddess Diana's oracle to sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia, so that he can be victorious against the Scythians. While Agamemnon believes the sacrifice to be completed, Diana rescued Iphigenia from the altar, placing her as Diana's priestess in Tauris, Scythia. Iphigenia in Tauris resumes the story with Iphigenia being pressured to sacrifice two Greeks in retribution for her own attempted sacrifice. As she discovers one to be her brother, she helps with their escape, becoming the priestess of Artemis at Brauron. ↩

An encore staple for the band, John has played this song many, many times live. There is a fantastic authorship story in which John was robbed on his way to buy cigarettes at a gas station on Christmas Eve, two days before writing the song, and was therefore unable to buy cigarettes, hence the aggression in the lyrics. Letters to Santa, Chicago, December 7, 2011.

In recent years, he has repudiated the song for its purported misogynistic streak. "I don't play 'Going to Georgia' any more because I can't really reconcile how buoyant it is with how much I dislike its narrator — when I wrote it, I enjoyed that tension, but I was more of an aesthete then and now I think more with my gut. My gut tells me the whole deal with 'Going to Georgia' is bogus, so that's that. A better song would be one from the perspective of the person whose former partner has shown up on the porch of his/her house with a damn gun, that's the hero of the song whose story is more interesting from where I'm at now. " William Caxton Fan Club, At which point do you decide that a song is to be exiled..., retrieved April 10, 2014. See also William Caxton Fan Club, Hi! So I totally get that you don't play "Going to Georgia" any more..., retrieved April 10, 2014.

"When I wrote that song, Georgia was a distant, mythical country, you know, that someone would only go to under dire circumstances." — China Clipper, Olympia, June 18, 2005. See also 40 Watt Club, Athens, Georgia, August 10, 2006.

"This song is like doing twenty Hail Marys and five Our Fathers." — Bimbo's 365 Club, San Francisco, February 29, 2008 ↩

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

Georgia is a state in the American South. ↩

The Colt Single Action Army, commonly called a Colt .45, is a popular, large revolver capable of firing 6 rounds, and was the standard military revolver in the late 19th century. As this original model lacked a safety catch, and the firearm was manufactured in 1967, another possibility is that the firearm was a Colt M1911 semi-automatic pistol rather than the traditional revolver associated with the Colt .45 name. ↩

Macon County is the name of several counties in the Unites States, but most obviously would refer to Macon County, Georgia, a rural county west of the Interstate 75 freeway. ↩

Quetzalcoatl Is Born is part of the informal series of Aztec songs. ↩

There are several versions of the myth of Quetzalcoatl's birth. Among these stories are that he was the son of the goddess Chimalman after she "swallowed a precious green stone". Another states that he was "the son of a mother who already has four thousand children who have left her and now form the stars of the Milky Way". Saddened by the loss of her children to the stars, she wept, and the god Onteotl pitied her and gave her a sacred quetzal feather, which impregnated her with the twins of Quetzalcoatl ("the greatest of her children") and "his dark twin brother, Tezcatlipoca". As Quetzalcoatl is identified with the planet Venus, his second version explained why the stars flee when Venus, the morning star, rose, heralding the day.

Yet another version is that during a battle between the Toltecs and the Chichimecas, Chimalman disguised herself as a Toltec soldier and visited Mixcoatl, the god and chief of the Toltecs, whom she loved. Mixcoatl mistakenly believed her to be from the Chichimecas, and so shot her with four arrows. One of these pierced her womb, impregnating her with the child Quetzalcoatl, then dying in childbirth. These stories blend a narrative of Quetzalcoatl as a deity and being a great, but human, hero and leader of the Toltecs.

None of those stories seem to be what this song describes, however. For that, see below.

León-Portilla, Miguel and Shorris, Earl (2001). In the Language of Kings: An Anthology of Mesoamerican Literature — Pre-Columbian to the Present. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-02010-X

Bierlein, JF (1999). Living Myths: How Myth Gives Meaning to Human Experience. New York: Ballantine Publishing. ISBN 0-34542207-4 ↩

This story is a retelling of the creation of the 'fifth sun' in Aztec mythology. (The Aztecs considered themselves to be living in the era of the fifth sun.) Documented by Uruguayan journalist and writer Eduardo Galeano as El sol y la luna (The sun and the moon), one version of the myth is as follows:

Al primer sol, el sol de agua, se lo llevó la inundación. Todos los que en el mundo moraban se convirtieron en peces.

Al segundo sol lo devoraron los tigres.

Al tercero lo arrasó una lluvia de fuego, que incendió a las gentes.

Al cuarto sol, el sol de viento, lo borró la tempestad. Las personas se volvieron monos y por los montes se esparcieron.

Pensativos, los dioses se reunieron en Teotihuacán.

—¿Quién se ocupará de traer el alba?

El Señor de los Caracoles, famoso por su fuerza y su hermosura, dio un paso adelante.

— Yo seré el sol —dijo.

—¿Quién más?

Silencio.

Todos miraron al Pequeño Dios Purulento, el más feo y desgraciado de los dioses, y decidieron:

—Tú.

El Señor de los Caracoles y el Pequeño Dios Purulento se retiraron a los cerros que ahora son las pirámides del sol y de la luna. Allí, en ayunas, meditaron.

Después los dioses juntaron leña, armaron una hoguera enorme y los llamaron.

El Pequeño Dios Purulento tomó impulso y se arrojó a las llamas. En seguida emergió, incandescente, en el cielo.

El Señor de los Caracoles miró la fogata con el ceño fruncido. Avanzó, retrocedió, se detuvo. Dio un par de vueltas. Como no se decidía, tuvieron que empujarlo. Con mucha demora se alzó en el cielo. Los dioses, furiosos, lo abofetearon. Le golpearon la cara con un conejo, una y otra vez, hasta que le mataron el brillo. Así, el arrogante Señor de los Caracoles se convirtió en la luna. Las manchas de la luna son las cicatrices de aquel castigo.

Pero el sol resplandeciente no se movía. El gavilán de obsidiana voló hacia el Pequeño Dios Purulento:

—¿Por qué no andas?

Y respondió el despreciado, el maloliente, el jorobado, el cojo:

—Porque quiero la sangre y el reino.

Este quinto sol, el sol del movimiento, alumbró a los toltecas y alumbra a los aztecas. Tiene garras y se alimenta de corazones humanos.

Translated by Frank Thomas Smith, this reads:

The first sun, the water sun, was carried off by the flood. All who lived in the world were turned into fishes.

The second sun was devoured by tigers.

The third was destroyed by a firestorm, which burned up the people.

The fourth sun, the wind sun, was wiped away by the storm. The people turned into monkeys and scattered in the woods.

Deep in thought, the gods met in Teotihuacán.

"Who will take care of bringing the dawn?"

The Lord of the Snails, famous for his strength and beauty, stepped forward.

"I will be the sun," he said.

"Who else?

Silence.

The all looked at Little God Purulent, the ugliest and unluckiest of the gods, and they decided:

"You."

The Lord of the Snails and Little God Purulent retired to the hills, which are now the pyramids of the sun and of the moon. There, fasting, they mediated.

Then the gods gathered firewood, built an enormous bonfire, and called them.

The Little God Purulent braced himself and jumped into the flames. He immediately emerged incandescent in the sky.

The Lord of the Snails looked frowning at the fire. He advanced, retreated, stopped. He turned around a few times. As he didn't make up his mind, they had to push him. After much delay he rose into the sky. Furious, the gods slapped his face. They hit his face with a rabbit, again and again, until they killed his brightness. Thus, the arrogant Lord of the Snails became the moon. The stains on the moon are the scars of that punishment.

But the resplendent sun did not move. The sparrow hawk of obsidian (lava) flew to the Little God Purulent:

"Why don't you move?"

And the despised, the purulent, the hunchback, the cripple, answered:

"Because I want the blood and the kingdom."

This fifth sun, the sun of movement, illuminated the Toltecs and illuminates the Aztecs. It has claws and feeds on human hearts.

The Lord of Snails is also translated as the Lord of Shells, and was originally called Tecuciztecatl, and the Little God Purulent as the Small Syphilitic God, originally Nanahuatzin. This story demonstrates how in the Aztec and Toltec cosmology, the despised and miserable can rise through courage and sacrifice, and the beautiful and wealthy can destroy themselves through arrogance and cowardice.

Galeano, Eduardo (1982). Memoria del fuego I: Los Nacimientos. Madrid: Editores Siglo XXI. ISBN 84-323-0440-9

For an English translation, see Galeano, Eduardo (1985). Memory of Fire I: Genesis. Cedric Belfrage, translator. New York: Nation Books. ISBN 0-393-31773-0

Smith, Frank Thomas (2002). The Sun and the Moon. Southern Cross Review, 19.

Marin, Guillermo (2000). Los viejos abuelos: nuestra raíz indígena. Marie Eugenie La Rué de Eibich, translator. Oaxaca: Universidad José Vasconcelos de Oaxaca. OCLC 50432272 ↩ ↩²

This sound clip is from Barbra Streisand's 1965 song, "He Touched Me". ↩

Sonora is one of the northwesternmost states of Mexico. It contains the large Sonoran Desert, which spans from Sonora through Baja California, Baja California Sur, and up into the United States in southern California and Arizona.

Sonora is also a town in California, the county seat of Tuolumne County, located near Yosemite National Park, and being on the route to Sonora Pass, an important pass across the Sierra Nevada north of Tioga Pass Road in Yosemite. ↩

Given that the 'you' in the song appears to jump first, is said to "take on divinity", and the Lord of the Snails is named separately, I believe the 'you' is the Little God Purulent mentioned above. ↩

Quetzalcoatl, as mentioned above, gave the gift of maize, or corn, to the Aztec people in Aztec mythology. As the Irish folklorist Padraic Colum retells the story:

There was a time when they did not have maize, when they lived upon roots and on what they gained in the chase. Maize there was, but it was hidden within a mountain, and no one could come to where it was. Different gods had tried to rend the mountain apart that they might come to where the maize was; but this could not be done. Then Quetzalcoatl took the form of a black ant; with a red ant to guide him he went within the mountain Tonacatepetl, and he came to where the maize was: he took the grain, and laboriously he bore it back to men. Then men planted fields with maize; they had crops for the first time; they built cities, and they lived settled lives, and Quetzalcoatl showed them all the crafts that they could learn from him. They honoured him who dwelt in the shining house.

Colum, Padraic (1930). Orpheus: Myths of the World. New York: Macmillan Company. ↩