two headed boy pt.2 observation

[ispeakhopelandic]

the lines in question are:

"In a struggle to find, secret songs that you keep wrapped in boxes so tight."

"In a struggle to find, secret songs that you keep buried deep in your eyes." (jittery joes)

both have

"Sounding only at night as you sleep."

the first line could potentialy suggest that people spend (or would spend) time searching for unrelased music. "boxes" cd, computer, a head, nothing. "deep in your eyes" could suggest in someone's mind as well. the "sounding only at night" bit could suggest that some occour only in the mind of those who pen them (jeff's vivid dream translated into songs i.e. "pree sisters...").

this song (clearly) predates his departure from public musical interaction, and i am not suggesting that here lies evidence that he had planned to do so; however, some of the parallels are intriguing. prehaps it occoured to him that people would, if he ever did stop playing, this could potential become a reality.

i don't know if anyone has ever brought this up before. i have never seen anyone (that i can remember of the top of my head) address this part of THBpt2.

chris

by the way, this is just a musing, and i am not exactly inclined to beleave these lyrics are what i propose the could be, rather than part of some deeper story. it's just a thought :)

[Edited on 9-29-0606 by ispeakhopelandic]

[Edited on 9-29-0606 by ispeakhopelandic]

[tomatoesandradiowires]

Interesting thoughts but I disagree. Also, this would be right at home in stormys post about "what do you think about Neutral milk hotel songs" but that ended up being sort of general feelings so I won't get on your back. I havent seen you around much, welcome to E6. :]

[milkandholywater]

i always thought of the "secret songs" as things you've kept hidden in your subconscious, beautiful or painful things that come out in your dreams.

[Stormx]

I don't think you're looking at the whole picture, which is quite difficult to do with NMH songs.

To me, the first verse it clearly about an older man (40+) who's lost his wife and is falling apart. All the joy has gone from his life and he can no longer express his emotions.

[glovguy]

To me, the lyrics refer to someone keeping secrets from people (main character, Jeff, the other people in the song, it gets kindof confusing who he's refering to), and both are just slightly different ways of expressing that.

[witahemuii]

I don't think "Two-Headed Boy, Pt. 2" is a subtle message about unreleased music, but it's an interesting thought.

[pgrube]

I've noticed some strange coincidences too. Here's a simalar post about gardenhead.

http://www.e6townhall.com/viewthread.php?tid=6662

I never really thought that jeff was one to weave prophacies into his work, but it's funny that somebody else see some interesting connections.

[tomatoesandradiowires]

I was just gonna link to pgrubes ealier post. But yeah, Mostly whenever an observation comes up about Mangum trying to insert a message about his fans, I disregard it completely except when marked as a coincidence. For me, "struggling to find secret songs that you keep in boxes wrapped so tight, sounding only at night as you sleep" is far too poetic to be about fans of NMH (as is just about every lyric of jeff mangum's) and is just an extention of the story of the two headed boy. After all, Mangum actually made a part two, which unless I'm mistaken isn't something he does often. Usually when he has more to say about a song, or snippets of lyrics or melodies he thinks tie in with other stories, he inserts them into new songs, or in different versions of the original song. (example, goldadine my dear's appearance in a few different songs.) Or so seems the trend that I've noticed

Anyway, The one thing I will note about your observation is that it's in two headed boy pt. 2, the last track on aeroplane. I think this lends some weight to your argument, the whole feel of the song does have an underlying tone of Mangum's departure from music, i.e. the gentle sound of his putting down the guitar at the end and the last lyric "don't hate her when she gets up to leave"

Overall two headed boy pt. 2 is an amazing song, and one of my favorites (if you couldn't tell by my handle), and I find each lyric within it to be a continuation of the whole story of ITAOTS, and I really don't feel like Jeff Mangum would weave prophecies into his works. it just doesn't seem like something he would do, but then again, I don't know jeff mangum at all do I? But then again, I don't think on avery Island garnered too many fans untill people 'discovered it' after Aeroplane. So, as my last argument, I don't think Mangum even had enough fans to send messages to or predict the actions of. I think a far better argument would be to try to compile evidence to try to decipher how mangum saw people in general. But overall, this would be a waste of time as well. If you listen to the albums enough, you get it, and your time is better spent just enjoying the music.

[Big-H]

I always thought it was a last resort to comfort someone - a lullaby.

But interesting idea.

[ispeakhopelandic]

thanks for the welcome! i don't post too much.

i feel that i should clarify that i DO NOT, beleave what proposed. the ideas arrival to my mind was not a function of some kind of deep study, or anything of that nature. in fact i was at my desk at work, listening to the song.

i love the point that was raised about the song being the end of the album, and the last line being so ironicly poinent. the album is so full of coincedence, irony, lyrical links, title links, chord progression links, and everything that made NMH wonderful in the first place that it is easy to be overwhelmed with all those types of things. but tomatosandradiowire made a wonderful point that after enough time you just get it and you can truly enjoy the album. but i would offer that the temptation too try to understand, something that may not be able to be totaly under stood by anyone (jeff included, that x variable he seems to refer to as a magic), can somtimes serve to undermine the wonderful and once ever experance of In an Aeroplane Over the Sea.

[tomatoesandradiowires]

I'm also a hypocrite. I'm definatly having a battle with pgrube about the meaning of communist daughter in another thread.

[atrocities]

I think another thing that weighs heavily to his argument is that on the Aeroplane recordings, the recording is deliberately left on to hear Jeff place his guitar down and stand up, or leave or whatever. That's obviously a deliberate recording decision by Jeff or Robert.

So I guess we're all just waiting for him to sit down and pick up his guitar in front of a mic again!!1! [/fanboy]

[tomatoesandradiowires]

[i]
I think this lends some weight to your argument, the whole feel of the song does have an underlying tone of Mangum's departure from music, i.e. the gentle sound of his putting down the guitar at the end

[bloodrexdale]

i dislike this song a bunch

[milkandholywater]

he will feed us tomatoes and radio wires but don't hate him when he gets up to leave.

[tomatoesandradiowires]

Don't eat me! :(

[milkandholywater]

but you're all i could need!

[Stormx]

I really love this song actually. My mum seems to hate it (shes into NMH too) but I like it. I know my older bro likes it.

[Code_J]

Originally posted by tomatoesandradiowires
Anyway, The one thing I will note about your observation is that it's in two headed boy pt. 2, the last track on aeroplane. I think this lends some weight to your argument, the whole feel of the song does have an underlying tone of Mangum's departure from music, i.e. the gentle sound of his putting down the guitar at the end and the last lyric "don't hate her when she gets up to leave"

Heh. That's a nice image. Like the end of the album is the end of Jeff in music. Sad, but nice at the same time...

[Edited on 10-1-0606 by Code_J]

[ispeakhopelandic]

and you hear jeff leave; the chair squeaks, the guitar bangs into the mic, and he walks out of the room. the album is over; everything is over. until you push play again :)

[atrocities]

Or flip the vinyl and place the needle back at TKoCFp1 ( :
Which is certainly my preference.