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Tallahassee
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Album

Tallahassee

Released

2002

Artist

the Mountain Goats

Length

4:42

Next track

"First Few Desperate Hours"

Tallahassee is the first song on the album Tallahassee. It also appears as the 25th song on the 2020 live album The Jordan Lake Sessions: Volumes 1 and 2. It was performed by Youngest Son on Tallahassee Turns Ten.

Lyrics[]

Window facing an ill-kept front yard
Plums on the tree heavy with nectar
Prayers to summon the destroying angel
Moon stuttering in the sky like film stuck in a projector
And you
You

Twin prop airplanes passing loudly overhead
Road to the airport two lanes clear
Half the whole town gone for the summer
Terrible silence coming down here
And you
You

There is no deadline
There is no schedule
There is no plan we can fall back on
The road this far can't be retraced
There is no punch line anybody can tack on
There are loose ends by the score
What did I come down here for?
You
You

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]

  • "You remember earlier we were talking about feelings? Um, and what happens to feelings, uh, when you have a discount card at the liquor store. This song is about a guy whose marriage has gone to hell and he's trying very hard and successfully at times to remember what the feeling was that drove him to abandon everything he had and plunge it into this marriage that he is now trying to rescue. I have bad news: he cannot rescue his marriage. He should stop trying. He's not going to stop trying, because I'm the guy who controls what he does and it amuses my sorry sadistic ass to watch him ride." -- 2003-10-03 - Berbati's Pan - Portland, OR
  • "You have, uh, memories of the house that you first gained consciousness in, as a child, you think, when was the first time I was really conscious of my house? Even if you grew up in a hateful house, it's probably a nice memory, this awareness of your surroundings and that's where you belong. Now, the negative of that image, right, where you're conscious of where you are for the first time ever and you become conscious at the exact same instant that it's really not where you want to be? That's where these two people live." -- 2004-02-11 - Mills College Chapel - Oakland, CA

Things Referenced in this Song[]

Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]

Videos of this Song[]




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