This is a rare neutral milk hotel song that i found out about at a site (http://www.knerd.com/~sashwap/). it's available for download in the sounds page. its only available live as far as i know. jeff offers and explanation before playing, but i feel that there is more to the song. a boy is born into a christian family, and begins doing something that they view wrongfully as evil. the boys father threatens him with the christian concept of "hell." the parts that mention "the burning hell that took your baby brother" seem to be about the boy's brother, who was a homosexual, and commited suicide by jumping from a high place, because his family couldn't accept him. the second last paragraph involves a forced baptism, and the family's strong belief in their holy righteousness. "here beneath the water i can see how the light distorts so strange" may be a reference that through the eyes of a christian, he sees things don't make sense. an ironic reference to suicide and reincarnation by drowning ends the song. i don't mean to offend christians. this is the song as i see it. i apologize for the long entry. by the way, i don't know what i'm talking about.

Deep man.

spooky and deep...

I agree with subvert over there. The idea of ending your life being baptized is darkly ironic, juxtiposing suicided (impure) with an important religeous ritual (pure). very funny kinda. in a dark dark way.

no the song is not funny. The conceptual irony is what's funny, but in a dark way as I stated before. Darkly funny, Darkly ironic.

Subverted, I don't think "how far he fell" is literal, I think it means they believe he fell into sin. If the brother is in fact supposed to be dead, it would be at the father's hands (beating his brains in with a hammer).

I definately agree with yossarian about the death coming at the hands of the boy's father. To understand what is meant by "the light distorts so strange" we have to understand what Jeff percieves the light to be. It could be as subvert stated..."through the eyes of a christian, he sees things don't make sense". I would like to offer this alternate explanation: The boy is looking up through the water at those who forced the baptism on him. Jeff could be saying that it's not Christianity that is wrong...just the way that these people distort it.

This song put me into a trance-like state the first time I heard it. I just stared slack-jawed at the ceiling for ten minutes. Jeff Mangum is...everything.

I had heard this song before but today i've been listening really hard to all my NMH songs and paying attention to the lyrics and sweet jesus this is the most depressing song I have ever heard, but more songs must be made like it, in the form of a narrative.

Here's what Jeff says before the song is played in the version I have:

"This is a new song. It's kind of twisted, I'm sorry, but there are really sick parts and I haven't really worked all that out. But it's new and we just have to figure those out. It's about the beginnings of a story where a boy lives in a not-so-very-nice situation and one day either because of his mind or... because his mind thinks it's happening or it really is happening, Either way, little birds start to form around him in his room. They come out of the water coming out of the faucet and they start coming into his body and he's very happy about this. But unfortunately he tired to share it with other people and they get very upset. Because this is something that he finds to be very beautiful but since they don't find it to be very beautiful they want to destroy it... so... it's brand new so I'm probably really gonna screw it up. And it's not finished either."

The crowd laughs at this point and the song begins. I'm not sure I got everything exactly right but for the most part it should be correct. Any mistakes won't have any impact on the meaning.

This song is an anomaly. It is not only a much more straightforward narrative than any other Jeff Mangum song, but also the only one to surface after the trauma he faced in the wake of Aeroplane's success.

Though very little exists in the way of biography on Jeff, recordings of song explanations like this one point to the obvious fact that in the years preceding his much-obsessed-over musical career, he was living his life on the ropes. At the beginning of “Wishful eyes” he states “I wrote this song when was getting out of Seattle …when I first got back … that was … my life was coming apart at the time.” He pauses and chuckles ruefully. “I was really bad then. I was fucked.”

Anyone familiar with Jeff’s art, lyrics and life knows that his entire existence has been riddled with trauma. Everything he produces comes out as a fermented, childhood fever-dream, bottled up for years and allowed to grow into something strange, terrible, and not-a-little beautiful too. As such, most of his material seems to be autobiography, thickly shrouded in hallucinatory extended metaphor. “Little Birds” was created at a time in his life where he felt very exposed, which does much to explain its uncharacteristically direct approach. However, what immediately jumps out at me about this song is something that didn’t occur to most of my friends, probably because I’m the only one who’s gay.

“Do you really want the burning hell that we believe in?” is a question directed at the boy in the song who is having a new, wonderful, strange feeling welling up inside him like little birds. This question is followed by a lecture on the evils of homosexuality and its consequences, namely that his father was so grieved by his son’s sexual alignment that he killed him with a hammer.

I think this is the same father who hurled a garbage can at Jeff’s mother when she stabbed him with a fork, while Jeff and his brother would “Lay and learn what each other’s bodies were for.”

Two brothers, clinging on to each other for dear life, trying to survive a “not-so-very-nice situation,” inseparable, like a two-headed boy.

Most importantly, on Jeff addresses “Two-Headed Boy part two” directly to his father. After listening to “Little Birds” I read the lyrics with a sickeningly clear eye:

“Love to be with a brother of mine
How he'd love to find your tongue in his teeth
In a struggle to find secret songs that you keep wrapped in boxes so tight
Sounding only at night as you sleep

In my dreams you're alive and you're crying, as your mouth moves in mine soft and sweet, rings of flowers around your eyes and I'll love you for the rest of your life...

Brother see we are one in the same
And you left with your head filled with flames
And you watched as your brains fell out through your teeth
Push the pieces in place
Make your smile sweet to see
Don't you take this away
I'm still wanting my face on your cheek”

Jeff watched his dad do it. Jeff watched his brother’s brains fall out through his teeth, then pushed the pieces of his head back together in an effort to fix him. Wanting his face on his cheek … God, it makes you cry. One online reviewer observed:

“While the lyrics to "Little Birds" are certainly unsettling, Mangum's voice on the recording is perhaps even more so. Mangum has always pushed the limits of his vocal range, but on "Little Birds," the high notes are so pregnant with pain that one can barely listen to them without wincing. It's a powerful song, and not difficult to see why Mangum chose not to release any of his post-Aeroplane material-- it's too purely despondent to be nearly as affecting as his more emotionally complex material.”

Assuming Jeff’s father is still alive is at all aware of his musical career (neither of which are very likely, all things considered) I can’t even imagine the ruin his life is. He killed his own son because he loved him; loved him so much that he couldn’t stand to see him as a homosexual – something he hated deeply enough to kill, “knowing God in heaven could have, never could forgive him.”

This does much to explain the death and sex motif found through Jeff’s catalog. I might also point out that Jeff grew up in Louisiana, and that Louisiana Baptists are somewhat famous for their … uncompromising … outlook.

Which brings me to the end of the song; where Jeff’s father, after giving his son vigorous but fortunately non-lethal beating, subjects him to a forced baptism – during which Jeff speculates that drowning might not be such a bad way to go.

Jeff’s thoughts on suicide are a whole new can of worms. See “Song Against Sex” for starters.

God, I’m going to go throw-up or something.

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How exactly did you come to the conclusion that Mr. Mangum is singing about his life, and not that of another person?

This song is interesting. It's one of my favorite NMH songs. The one thing that annoys me is that lady that says "Come on..." when he's saying "... and it's not done yet..." in the beginning. I hate that!

The vocals are great in this song. It's a deep song.

This song is absolutely chilling. One of my favorites.

mrwuggs, I like your explaination. It makes me see major connections between all of the songs...but how do you know any of it is true?

Mr.Wuggs, your analysis of "Two Headed Boy Pt. 2" is stunningly sad. In fact the part about Jeff trying to put his brothers face together brings me to tears when I hear it now.

However, Jeff Magnum's father is still alive and Jeff keeps close to him. In fact I read an interview of Jeff talking about living at his dads house when he wrote "Oh Comely" and being amazed and playing it for his dad. So while your interpretation is the best I've ever heard for Two Headed Boy Pt. 2, I very much doubt it applies exactly to Jeff's life. It's much more likely to be based on someone else.

I wonder what he says before "And here beneath the water I can see"...
I can't clearly hear it out.

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Story:

Kid sees water turn into birds, he sees it as a miracle. His parents see it as a sign of evil, like they did his gay brother (a direct link to Jeff's life). In the end, his father drowns him.

Yeah, Jeff. It's good to say goodbye to your music. This was the best way to stop.

this song is incredible. but i still dont get it.

I always thought that in the imagery throughout the song could double as his body actually BEING the river...

"Now there is another in the middle of my mouth
A hundred altogether within me now
Little bird, little bird, come into my body"

A river has a mouth, and is a body of water.

"Put you hand within me and you'll know what I'm feeling
I just want to swallow up and promise to protect them "
also makes me think of a river.

So it seems to go back and forth, but comparing his body to a river, I think.

Whether or not that's intentional, I enjoy listening to it with that interpretation. :]

It's a beautiful song.

Going back to mrwuggs' intepretation of two headed boy pt 2, I always imagined the "brains fell out through your teeth" line to be a wierd and characterstically wonderful metaphor for speaking, rather than anything physical.

Jeff and his Dad are amazingly close and from everything I've read, his Dad seems to be a really nice guy. I really don't think this song is literally about his relationship with his father. Maybe it's not as specific.

I believe that this song is about how we come up with our ideals, and our beliefs, and then how some try to convince us that what we believe is wrong... just because it is not what they believe, or what they hold to be true and right. Also, the struggle to retain these ideals and protect them from the scrutiny of others.

I also agree that it centralizes around Christian beliefs.

This is only what I believe though... and don't claim it to be right at all.

It reminds me a little bit of the book "Drawing Blood" by Poppy Z. Brite.

this honestly has to be one of my favorite nmh songs.