Engine

The version from the Hype City Soundtrack definately goes, "For I am an engine and I'm holding on, through endless revisions to state what I mean..."

On a live version he talked about how he wrote this song when he was really depressed to make himself feel better; he even recorded it on his answering machine so he wouldn't forget it. I can see what he means, though, because it always makes me feel better.

--Correction: "For I am an engine and I'm rolling on"

--Interpretation:

This song is about the fleeting nature of beauty.

"For I am an engine and I'm rolling on Through endless revisions to state what I mean For sweetness alone who flew out through the window And landed back home in a garden of green"

This singer is in a tongue-tied, in a state of disbelief after a loved one leaves him. He refers to her simply as "sweetness". It could be a woman. It could also be a more general embodiment of the concept of beauty.

"You're riding alone in the back of a steamer And steaming yourself in the warm shower spray And water rolls on off the round captain's belly Who's talking to tigers from his cafeteria tray"

His love is leaving and doing so in a beautiful way.

NMH lyrics create wonderful imagery. It's probably not useful to try too hard to tie this verse to the theme of the song. Just enjoy the pictures it puts in you're head.

"And sweet babies cry for the cool taste of milking That milky delight that invited us all And if there's a taste in this life more inviting Then wake up your windows and watch as those sweet babies crawl away"

There are 2 parallels between this and the first verse.

1) "Sweet babies" and "Sweetness". Babies grow up. At first, they like the "cool taste of milking", but as toddlers, they give it up and crawl away. They move on to "a taste more inviting" and move forward in life. This explains the singer's loved one left as well. She had to fly away to a better place.

2) "Sweetness alone flew out through the window" and "Wake up you're windows". In the first verse, the singer doesn't know how to feel about his loved one leaving. In the last verse, he has come to terms with it. He even instructs the listener to open our windows and let beauty leave us.

This is because the nature of beauty is fleeting. We too were once babies who crawled away from our mother's milk for a taste more inviting.

If we want to move forward and leave things behind (and we do), we must accept that sweetness will leave us as well. All things change.

Well, I think I've had enough beer for one night.

Only Jeff Mangum can get away with such lyrics in a childrens song...

hahaha-agreed

it seems to say that in both versions i have, actually no matter how hard i try, i can't hear 'the world is all bending and breaking from me', although it does sound very mangum-esque

This is the version he did at the in-store show at Aquarius. You can download it at elephant6.com and it's pretty clear what he's saying. I haven't heard the Hype City recording. Do you know where it is possible to get those cassette albums?

Engine is the most impressive piece of music I've ever heard as a live recording. It pains me to realize that I was living in NC when the Carrboro recording was made and hadn't yet discovered NMH.

Odd that it was written to elevate mood; largely due to time and circumstances it's always going to have a sobering, levelling, disabling effect on me, but it's not bitter or aching, just... Awe-inspiring, I guess.

The first version I found I'm not sure I can identify; it's a live recording in which a happy new year is bade to the audience, followed by a couple of shouts for "Scotty". This is in my opinion still the best performance of the track, the poor mic quality, picking up constant but low chatter from the venue is perfect, it couldn't have been engineered, and Mr Mangum is in absolute top form.

He was in Carrboro? Awesome!

just for the record, "scotty" refers to The Gerbils member and NMH collaborator Scott Spillane who plays various brass instruments, most notably the trumpet. I've actually seen a video of that performance, and i assume it was one of his later as it was for New Year's 1999 and that was about the end up Jeff's live perfomances. I love this song, it's simple yet brilliant.

I find it strange because in the Jeff Mangum Live at Jittery Joes you can hear a baby in the audience crying or yelling or something in this song, maybe it means less to us because we arent children anymore.