I finally sat down and read the lyrics from start to finish of Neutral Milk Hotel's In The Aeroplane Over The Sea.
When I listened to the album next, I was fighting to not cry at the end of "Two-Headed Boy pt. II."
Daddy please hear this song that I sing
In your heart there's a spark that just screams
For a lover to bring a child to your chest that could lay as you sleep
And love all you have left like your boy used to be
Long ago wrapped in sheets warm and wet
Blister please with those wings in your spine
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
And in my dreams you're alive and you're crying,
As your mouth moves in mine, soft and sweet,
Rings of flowers 'round your eyes
And Ill love you for the rest of your life when you're ready
It's long-known that one of the main themes of the album is "The Diary of Anne Frank." These passages for me sum up the feeling of not just wanting to have protected her, but of wanting to reciprocate the (platonic? non-platonic?) intimacy the way that Anne bared her soul on those pages.
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
I struggled with this passage for a while... research helped me discover that, during the writing of this album, the brother of a friend committed suicide. The message seems to be that one should remember the moments leading up to the end, not focus on the end itself. Also, the "face on your cheek" line seems to echo the intimacy of previous stanzas.
And when we break we'll wait for our miracle
God is a place where some holy spectacle lies
When we break we'll wait for our miracle
God is a place you will wait for the rest of your life
Oh man, just... completely desperate unrequited longing.
But it's this last stanza that is what does me in:
Two headed boy she is all you could need
She will feed you tomatoes and radio wires
And retire to sheets safe and clean
But don't hate her when she gets up to leave
On paper, the idea of the two-headed boy is that of a carnival attraction, and the artwork on the album helps that... but what I used to think was literal might in fact be a distraction.
What if the two-headed boy (who lives in a jar) is a metaphor for being in a state of transition (puberty?) and you're either on the outside looking in (or vice versa) and you lack the ability to communicate, leaving all feelings unexpressed and therefore unrequited?
Jeff spent much of this album trying to empathize and offer protection to someone who is long gone, so it makes sense to me.
I wonder if this album is a dream, and the last stanza is the very vivid, sober moment right before you wake up. Anne is alive and happy and Jeff has been relegated to a bystander watching her leave for the last time.
When I look at it that way, I just can't... it's so profoundly sad that I can't believe I had never noticed it before. I can never listen to this album or this song the same way again.
