Lyrics for Ghost as interpreted by foxyurchin

Ghost Lyrics
Ghost, ghost, I know you live within me
I feel you as you fly
In thunderclouds above the city
Into one that I love

With all that was left within me
Until we tore in two
Now wings and rings and there's so many
Waiting here for you

And she was born in a bottle rocket, 1929
With rings that wringed right around a socket
Right between her spine
All drenched in milk, in holy water
Pouring from the sky
I know that she will live forever
She won't ever die

And she goes
And now she knows that she'll never be afraid
To watch the morning paper blow
Into a hole where no one can escape

And one day in New York City, baby
A girl fell from the sky
From the top of a burning apartment building
Fourteen stories high
And when her spirit left her body
How it split the sun
I know that she will live forever
All goes on and on

And she goes
And now she knows that she'll never be afraid
To watch the moring paper blow
Into a hole where no one can escape

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wayne_ozacrot
03-10-2003

Rated 0 
this song has a definite hymnal feel to it, and i'm not sure why - maybe his vocal melody line? anyway. not really sure what this song is about. i'd say the afterlife in general, and the bit at the beginning "you fly... into one that i love/ with all that was left within me/til we tore in two" sounds like he lost somebody very close to him, and that loss made him unable to love someone else in a similar way. just a thought

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xReadysetSTAB
06-18-2003

Rated 0 
My opinion is that this is yet another song about Anne Frank.

He dreams about her, and he could have possibly dreamt about her falling from a burning building in NY.

Who knows. It's almost impossible to decipher Mangum's genius.

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emotion_is_dead
06-22-2003

Rated 0 
of course it's about anne frank.

"and she was born in a bottle rocket 1929".. anne frank was born in 1929..

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ataraxia37
06-24-2003

Rated -1 
i think... mangum thinks that the spirit of anne frank lives in him. or like he's the reincarnated anne frank? or how i am sid vicious. something like that.
and i think the part about the girl in new york was something different.

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mrtrout
04-13-2004

Rated 0 
Perhaps the girl in New York City represents the reincarnated Anne Frank. The parallel lyrics about the morning paper make it seem like the two have something to do with each other.

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lost business
05-01-2004

Rated 0 
I think it's about being afraid of death, whether your own or a person that you love.

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archit84
05-17-2004

Rated 0 
I disagree with "lost business"
I think this song has much more to do with being comfortable with death by realizing we all live on. Not a religious song about heaven more a spiritual one about how we carry every one we love with us even after they pass.
"Ghost Ghost I know you live within me"
Anyone who has lost someone close to them knows that their ghost lives within them, it does not haunt them, more like guides them. People never die because we live in the hearts and minds of those we touch. This can occur in a positive or negative way, but this song is positive to me. Ann Frank's story touched JM, he felt overwhelmed by her strength, I feel he invited Ann Frank to live inside of him. He knows she will never die because her story lives on.

I feel you as you fly
In thunder clouds above the city
Into one that I love

A ghost will hover around until it finds someone to become a part of.

Now wings and rings and there's so many
Waiting here for you

wings and rings are a reference to an angel...waiting here for you means there are so many Ann Frank has touched, she becomes a part of all of these people.

I know that she will live forever
She won't ever die
And she goes
And now she knows that she'll never be afraid
To watch the morning paper blow
Into a hole where no one can escape

She is not afraid because she lives on as her story lives on.

A morning paper tells yesterdays news. If one is to die they become the news in the morning paper. She is no longer afraid of the morning paper cause she knows she will transcend it by living on in the hearts of others.

Into a hole where no one can escape is explaining that we all must go at some point but the key is to touch those we meet. To transcend time. To find immortality. This is a very spiritual song not a religious one, it is about Ann Frank but it doesn't have to be. Like I said anyone that has lost anyone close to them knows what this song is about, listen to it when you miss them, they will come back to u. Your brain records every second of your life, play it back every once in awhile, those that your carry with you will be alive once again.
JM said he woke up at 3 am. walked into the bathroom and felt this song inside him.
Sometimes without a warning you remember someone from your past, you have their ghost telling you stories, listen to them.
This is a great song on the best album ever recorded.

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Sum1LsesChpstck
12-10-2004

Rated 0 
Don't quote me on this, but i heard somewhere that this song was about a ghost that the lead singer believed lived in his apartment. It kinda matches with the lyrics if you think about it. But i'm pretty sure this is incorrect. Oh well. It rocks however you look at it.

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JimDillon
12-11-2004

Rated 0 
i think this song is connected to my dream girl don't exist. at the beginning of the live recording (i am assuming) he says that it is a connection to another song he wrote and at the end of the song he sings "And she goes, And now she knows that she'll never be afraid". pretty obvious really.

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pigoinkwhere
01-18-2005

Rated 0 
the meaning of this song, to me, is encapsulated in

"And when her spirit left her body
How it split the sun
I know that she will live forever
All goes on and on"

Mangum is exploring/questioning the value of a human life, maybe specifically that of anne frank.

Her soul splits the sun-- yet no one notices-> keeps on truckin'

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shortpants
02-05-2005

Rated 0 
I just like the way the song continues to build and becomes more powerful. I like to crank it up, oh yeah, and then cry.

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Leif Erikson
10-06-2005

Rated 0 
The whole reference to a girl falling out of a New York City building that's on fire sounds a lot more about the Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire then it does a dream of Anne Frank, perhaps he just has a proclivity for women who had to endure a severe amount of abuse by the world the rest is obviously about anne frank

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jamieflagg
12-08-2005

Rated 0 
SomeoneElsesChapstick is right about the ghost part. Mangum or his girlfriend or his friend or someon thought there was a ghost in their bathroom so he went in there and just started singing to it. This song I guess came from it and evolved from there. I haven't put a bunch of thought into it tho.

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()
02-07-2006

Rated 0 
i'm pretty sure i agree with archit (except for the misspellings of "Anne Frank"). the song might've come up from Mangum thinking there was a ghost in his apartment, but it evolved into something else -knowing that even if someone dies, he/she can still live within the people who remember him/her.

the message might be cliché, but Mangum makes it seem new.

it's a cool song, and it's loud. it's a cloud. of intense manguminity.

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peepeehead
03-17-2006

Rated 0 
the drumming is intense. it gives me such a rush when i listen to this song.

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ClickForth
05-02-2006

Rated 0 
I agree in plenty of ways with some of the other comments, I think this song is about that feeling you get when you make a decision with the ideas of someone who's died in the back of your mind, or when you just see the effects that someone has even after they've died.

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Mollz
07-12-2006

Rated 0 
when was this song written? the first girl is obviously anna, but the second part about a burning building reminds me of someone jumping out of the World Trade Center or September 11th. both girls are victims of war. yet this song is from 98 I think

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Cynothoglys
07-14-2006

Rated 0 
The melody began in being sung to a ghost. Honestly. It's in an interview somewhere. At least, he and his girlfriend think it was a ghost. It's also a continuation of "My Dreamgirl Don't Exist". It isn't just about Anne Frank; It's also about a fire the band members witnessed in New York.

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tarks
08-07-2006

Rated 0 
I love the line and one day in new york city baby a girl fell from the sky. best

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KingJelle
12-23-2006

Rated +3 
Original quote from Jeff :

When I started writing "Ghost," the song that goes [he sings] "Ghost ghost I know you live within me," we thought we had a ghost living in the house, in the bathroom. So I locked the door and started to sing to the ghost in the bathroom. But that was sort of like singing about the ghost who we thought was whistling in the other room, and that kept waking me up, and then also a ghost that may or may not live within me. And it ended up being a reference to Anne Frank, too. A lot of the songs on this record are about Anne Frank.

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etcetera_whatever
07-25-2007

Rated 0 
"And she was born in a bottle rocket 1929"
I think this may refer to Robert Goddard, an American scientist famous for developing liquid fuels in bottle rockets in the 1920s.

From Wikipedia: "After a launch of one of Goddard's rockets in July 1929 again gained the attention of the newspapers, Charles Lindbergh learned of his work ... By late 1929, Goddard had been attracting additional notoriety with each rocket launch. He was finding it increasingly difficult to conduct his research without unwanted distractions."

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Ukljukani
07-10-2008

Rated 0 
The soul of human existance spins in circles. The good lives on in memories of those who are still alive. Ana Frank reincarnates not only through the goodness left in her diary, but also - according to Magnum - to people in the future who are direct reincarnations of her. Like a girl from New York city who fell from the sky or a little boy in Spain from NMH's song Holland 1945.

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julian333
07-18-2008

Rated +1 
Jeff Mangum is a pretty bizarre musician. That IS a compliment by the way.

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BleatsandTinks
03-05-2009

Rated 0 
This song is fantastic, I love the way he sings this song, his vocal tone is amazing.

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A_Raging_Bull
03-12-2009

Rated 0 
On an album where every track offers something unique and exciting some may get initially overlooked. Such is the case with Ghost with me, which has now become one of my favorite songs; but in all actuality every song on this album is my favorite. I suppose Ghost has now just established itself firmly in my conscience where as Holland, 1945, Communist Daughter & Two-Headed Boy, Pt.II were quicker to the punch, as it were.

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