Minnesota

Minnesota
	;
Album	Full Force Galesburg
Released	1997
Artist	the Mountain Goats
Length	3:57
Previous Track	"Evening in Stalingrad"
Next Track	"Original Air-Blue Gown"

Minnesota is the 14th song on the album Full Force Galesburg. It appears as the fourth song on the 2022 live album The Jordan Lake Sessions: Volume 5.

Lyrics[]

Seeds came in the mail today from Holland
And the language on the package is wonderful and strange
All sorts of flowers that grow up from the earth
In goodly colors gloriously arranged
I circled the house and I scattered them around
Let the water sink down into the soil
Stared a long time at the residue
Blood, milk and oil
God the humidity is something
Our shirts are soaked clean through
The house is throbbing and the heat keeps coming 
And I keep looking at you 

And then you're singing in Dutch to me
And I recognize the song
It seems so old and so fragile 
And I haven't heard it in so long
We may throw the windows open later
But we are not as far west as you suppose we are
Hot wind coming off the water
Sky gone crazy with stars
While we stay here we imagine we're alive
We see shadows on the walls
There's something waiting for us in the hot, wet air
Sweat, water and alcohol
Just the old blood
Rising up through the wooden floor again
Just the old love
Asking for more again

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]

"This is a song about that point in the relationship—you've all been there—where you've been drunk for weeks, and you look across the table at the person you used to know, and you say 'I used to know you. Don't you live here?' It's called 'Minnesota'." -- 2001-08-03 - 40 Watt Club - Athens, GA
"This is a, a love song from an album called Full Force Galesburg, and it's about a couple of people plotting harm." -- 2002-11-13 - Opolis - Norman, OK
"This is one about a collapsing marriage. It's called 'Minnesota'." -- 2017-12-14 - Holocene - Portland, OR

Things Referenced in this Song[]

Compare the lines "All sorts of flowers that grow up from the earth / In goodly colors gloriously arranged" with the lines "All sorts of flowers the which on earth do spring / In goodly colors gloriously arrayed" from Edmund Spenser's poem "Spring Sent to His Mistress Like a Herald".

Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]

Videos of this Song[]

Full Force Galesburg

Track list: "New Britain" • "Snow Owl" • "West Country Dream" • "Masher" • "Chinese House Flowers" • "Ontario" • "Down Here" • "Twin Human Highway Flares" • "Weekend in Western Illinois" • "US Mill" • "Song for the Julian Calendar" • "Maize Stalk Drinking Blood" • "Evening in Stalingrad" • "Minnesota" • "Original Air-Blue Gown" • "It's All Here in Brownsville"

The Jordan Lake Sessions: Volume 5

Track list: "Let Me Bathe in Demonic Light" • "First Blood" • "Mark On You" • "Minnesota" • "Make You Suffer" • "Choked Out" • "Tidal Wave" • "Torch Song" • "Tulsa Imperative" • "The Water Song" • "The Window Song" • "Abandoned Flesh" • "We Do It Different on the West Coast" • "Guys on Every Corner" • "Training Montage" • "Extraction Point" • "Damn These Vampires" • "Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome" • "Bleed Out"

Minnesota

Contents

Lyrics[]

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]

Things Referenced in this Song[]

Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]

Videos of this Song[]

Fan Feed

Minnesota

Album	Full Force Galesburg
Released	1997
Artist	the Mountain Goats
Length	3:57
Previous Track	"Evening in Stalingrad"
Next Track	"Original Air-Blue Gown"