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Neutral Milk Hotel – Two-Headed Boy Lyrics 10 years ago
While looking for more meanings to this song, I found the Two Headed Boy of Bengal. He was a boy born in 1783 with Craniopagus Parasiticus, a medical condition in which part of an underdeveloped twin is attached to a developed twin.

His mother was scared of his appearance and threw him in a fire. His parents later put him in the circus when they discovered that they could make a profit off of him, keeping him covered unless people paid. People paid his parents to rent him to showcase him in their homes. When not being exploited, he was often kept in the darkness where people couldn't see him. This fits the lyric:

"Two headed boy
All floating in glass
The sun it has passed
Now it's blacker than black"

Whether in someone's house for parties or in the circus, he was always stared and gawked at. This fits:
"Two headed boy
With pulleys and weights
Creating a radio played just for two
In the parlor with a moon across her face
And through the music he sweetly displays
Silver speakers that sparkle all day"

His second head had a completely independent, but underdeveloped brain. It would occasionally gave separate facial expressions, but it's eyes usually laid open, even during sleep. This fits the lyric:

"Now your eyes ain't moving
Now they just lay there in their climb"


He died at age four from a cobra bite. It does sound like a case Mangum would find interest in.

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