When examined in the context of This Is Not A Song About A Train, the story about the chickens getting killed, and Andrew Bird's own words as related by akindabird above, at least two layers of meaning become apparent.
The first is the literal: there are dead things burning up and getting in our hair.
The second is on a more abstract macroscopic scale: the cycle of life is obvious, ignored, but no less mysterious and meaningful.
Reading the song as an environmentalist manifesto or song about extinction is a bit of a stretch, except insofar as the meaningful cycle of life invoked by the ashes of the chickens implies the interconnectedness of all life (and death) on Earth, and the song's meaning can therefore encompass such topics indirectly. Blades of Grass, and all that. ;)
When examined in the context of This Is Not A Song About A Train, the story about the chickens getting killed, and Andrew Bird's own words as related by akindabird above, at least two layers of meaning become apparent.
The first is the literal: there are dead things burning up and getting in our hair. The second is on a more abstract macroscopic scale: the cycle of life is obvious, ignored, but no less mysterious and meaningful.
Reading the song as an environmentalist manifesto or song about extinction is a bit of a stretch, except insofar as the meaningful cycle of life invoked by the ashes of the chickens implies the interconnectedness of all life (and death) on Earth, and the song's meaning can therefore encompass such topics indirectly. Blades of Grass, and all that. ;)