This song has a clear sexual theme. The most prominent example is the second 'verse':
"she runs through the night as if nobody cares
she screams and she cries and ignores all the stares
she wants me to come, but i'm never going there"
The literal meanings of these lines are most definitely related to public sex, or exhibitionism. It's possible Pollard is talking about erection dysfunction with the line "she wants me to come, but i'm never going there" and the line "she screams and she cries, and ignores all the stares" is pretty self explanatory here.
"the hallways of shatterproof glass" are a metaphoric reference to the vaginal passage, and "we passed
through" is another reference to sex.
"cold hands touching my face
don't hide - the snake can see you"
This is slightly more tricky, and more perverse. Pollard said in an interview that these lines were relating to a darker side of sex; necrophilia ("cold hands touching my face") and unconsensual sex ("don't hide, the snake can see you" - snake being a common colloquial term for penis)
This leaves the most important, and most cryptic part of the song - the title. At first it may seem like a meaningless sentence, "Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory" but there's actually a story behind the name. In the same interview previously mentioned, Pollard tells of an incident back in 1973 that occurred on a mountain in the Sierra Nevada known to locals as Goldheart Mountain. Apparently the details are sketchy, but Pollard tells the interviewer that there was a building, or encampment somewhere on the mountain that housed captive immigrants or missing girls (Queens) for the purpose of sex. A sort of nonconsensual brothel - clients would enter and pick which girl they would sleep with (the Directory). The operation was discovered and shut down in '73. But it explains the title - The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory.
This song has a clear sexual theme. The most prominent example is the second 'verse': "she runs through the night as if nobody cares she screams and she cries and ignores all the stares she wants me to come, but i'm never going there" The literal meanings of these lines are most definitely related to public sex, or exhibitionism. It's possible Pollard is talking about erection dysfunction with the line "she wants me to come, but i'm never going there" and the line "she screams and she cries, and ignores all the stares" is pretty self explanatory here.
"the hallways of shatterproof glass" are a metaphoric reference to the vaginal passage, and "we passed through" is another reference to sex.
"cold hands touching my face don't hide - the snake can see you" This is slightly more tricky, and more perverse. Pollard said in an interview that these lines were relating to a darker side of sex; necrophilia ("cold hands touching my face") and unconsensual sex ("don't hide, the snake can see you" - snake being a common colloquial term for penis)
This leaves the most important, and most cryptic part of the song - the title. At first it may seem like a meaningless sentence, "Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory" but there's actually a story behind the name. In the same interview previously mentioned, Pollard tells of an incident back in 1973 that occurred on a mountain in the Sierra Nevada known to locals as Goldheart Mountain. Apparently the details are sketchy, but Pollard tells the interviewer that there was a building, or encampment somewhere on the mountain that housed captive immigrants or missing girls (Queens) for the purpose of sex. A sort of nonconsensual brothel - clients would enter and pick which girl they would sleep with (the Directory). The operation was discovered and shut down in '73. But it explains the title - The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory.
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