See America Right

See America Right
	; On "See America Right"
Album	Tallahassee
Released	2002
Artist	the Mountain Goats
Length	1:54
Previous track	"No Children"
Next Track	"Peacocks"
Next Track (single)	"New Chevrolet in Flames"

See America Right is the eighth song on the album Tallahassee. It also appears as the 33rd song on the 2020 live album The Jordan Lake Sessions: Volumes 1 and 2. It was performed by Jeffery Lewis in Tallahassee Turns Ten. It was first released as an EP, along with the songs "New Chevrolet in Flames" and "Design Your Own Container Garden."

Lyrics[]

I was driving up from Tampa
When the radiator burst
I was three sheets to the wind
A civilian saw me first
And then there was the cop
And then the children standing on the corner
Your love is like a cyclone in a swamp
And the weather's getting warmer 

I was getting out of jail
Heading to the Greyhound
You said you'd hop on one yourself
And meet me on the way down
I was shaking way too hard to think
Dead on my feet about to drop
Went and got the case of vodka from a car
And walked the two miles to the bus stop 

Got on the bus half drunk again
The driver glared at me
Met up with you in Inglis
Thumbed a ride to Cedar Key
If we never make it back to California
I want you to know I love you
But my love is like a dark cloud full of rain
That's always right there up above you
Hey!

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[]

"It's a song about love, the love you feel for a person who can drink you under the fucking table. Takes its title from the Greyhound Bus Lines." -- 2003-06-06 - Triple Rock Social Club - Minneapolis, MN
"Usually when I say that this is a true story, I mean that it's about my own life. This is not about my own life. But I feel utterly confident that this is a true story. That there's some guy down there in Florida who remembers the one time that he found it necessary to go down to the bus station and say, 'I have, I have to go home, I have to go home, I only have twelve dollars,' and the guy behind the counter said, 'It costs twenty-two dollars,' and he said, 'I don't really have any way of getting the extra ten dollars' and had to stand there for a rather uncomfortable three minutes while the men behind the counter decided to cut him a break." -- 2007-03-08 - The Independent - San Francisco, CA
"Well, I’m nowhere near the mic when that happens. It’s spontaneous, I think it was the only take where I did that though it was a while back so I’m not 100% sure about that. But I do remember getting through the 'it’s always right there up above you' with my headphones on and then whirling away and yelling 'hey' at about 45° angle from the mic, really loud, half bent at the waist in an incipient-mosh stance. So the mic is picking it up, but it’s not directed at the mic, and you end up with both whatever the mic’s directly grabbing at that angle plus a big room reflection getting picked up during that half-second where the drums and everything else except the palm-muted guitar ('chk-chk-chk-chk-chk-chk-chk') have dropped out. Later, several confused reviewers would call the album 'lo-fi' anyway, but producer Tony Doogan knows his business and did a spectacular job there in my opinion." -- Tumblr, on the "hey" at the end of the song

Things Referenced in this Song[]

Live Shows this Song Was Played at[]

Videos of this Song[]

Tallahassee
Track list: "Tallahassee" • "First Few Desperate Hours" • "Southwood Plantation Road" • "Game Shows Touch Our Lives" • "The House That Dripped Blood" • "Idylls of the King" • "No Children" • "See America Right" • "Peacocks" • "International Small Arms Traffic Blues" • "Have to Explode" • "Old College Try" • "Oceanographer's Choice" • "Alpha Rats Nest"

See America Right
Track list: "See America Right" • "New Chevrolet in Flames" • "Design Your Own Container Garden"

The "Alpha" Series

Track list: "Alpha Aquae" • "Alpha Desperation March" • "Alpha Double Negative: Going to Catalina" • "Alpha Gelida" • "Alpha Incipiens" • "Alpha Negative" • "Alpha Omega" • "Alpha Rats Nest" • "Alpha Sun Hat" • "Alpha in Tauris" • "Alphabetizing" • "Letter from a Motel" • "One Winter at Point Alpha Privative" • "Spilling Toward Alpha" • "Fit Alpha Vi" • "Alpha Compunction" • "Going to Dade County" • "Tallahassee" • "First Few Desperate Hours" • "Southwood Plantation Road" • "Game Shows Touch Our Lives" • "The House That Dripped Blood" • "Idylls of the Kings" • "No Children" • "See America Right" • "Peacocks" • "International Small Arms Traffic Blues" • "Have to Explode" • "Old College Try" • "Oceanographer's Choice" • "Ethiopians" • "Alpha Chum Gatherer" • "New Chevrolet in Flames" • "Design Your Own Container Garden" • "Going to Federal Prison" • "Orange Ball of Hate"

The Jordan Lake Sessions: Volumes 1 and 2

Track list: "The Plague" • "Aulon Raid" • "Cry for Judas" • "Amy AKA Spent Gladiator 1" • "Until I Am Whole" • "Younger" • "Heel Turn 2" • "Southwestern Territory" • "The Diaz Brothers" • "Genesis 30:3" • "1 Samuel 15:23" • "Heretic Pride" • "Estate Sale Sign • "Getting Into Knives" • "Lion's Teeth" • "This Year" • "No Children" • "Lovecraft in Brooklyn" • "Tollund Man" • "Cotton" • "Pigs That Ran Straightaway into the Water, Triumph Of" • "In League with Dragons" • "Southwood Plantation Road" • "Lakeside View Apartments Suite" • "Tallahassee" • "My Little Panda" • "Love Cuts the Strings" • "International Small Arms Traffic Blues" • "Stabbed to Death Outside San Juan" • "Damn These Vampires" • "Foreign Object" • "Golden Boy" • "See America Right" • "Up the Wolves" • "This Year" • "Spent Gladiator 2"