Ghost

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.

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.

Perhaps the lines: "All drenched in milk and holy water Pouring from the sky I know that she will live forever She won't ever die" refer to the mixture of milk and water that is sometimes used as rain in films, because regular water rain doesn't show up particularly well on camera. I think it's saying that Anne Frank will "never die" because she will be remembered by the public consciousness - an example being in cinema.

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

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.

"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"

I listened to this on LSD, and I thought the hole symbolized History. And how every event that is written in the morning paper (or noticed, for that matter) is- unavoidably throughout its process- thought about, created and produced, and remembered; and therefore birthed into existence and history and memory, as a Happened Thing. Where it can't not have happened, where it can never un-exist on a timeline.

In this way the Anne Frank (or Anne Frank-inspired) character Jeff is singing about takes comfort in knowing that when she dies, she will not be afraid, because you can never erase that she lived, you can never take away the love she ever felt or the struggles she ever faced.

Being jotted down into history (in very minuscule ways) is pretty much unavoidable, and that in itself can be an intimidating or terrifying thought (depending on how deeply you think about it). But Anne is no longer afraid of that fate, because she finally understands it.

Keep in mind that more people know about something in history that happened if it was a gruesome, terrible thing, or something really profoundly sad. Such as the Holocaust, such as when you forever vividly remember a girl falling from a burning building. In order to enter that level of history within someone's mind and to be that pronounced amongst the other thoughts of the masses, something really tragic must have happened to you. I feel this is also relevant to the song.

But like I said, LSD. Who knows.

I think the "until we tore in two" is an extension of the metaphor in Two-Headed Boy - Mangum's brother who killed himself. He was very close to his brother, and his suicide would have been devastating. (In case you're wondering, he was the dark brother wrapped in white.)

This seems like quantum entanglement, and I see some shiva or marian miracles with the sun. He seems to know the paranormal pretty well. The talent is incredible but idk if it is child friendly.

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

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.