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Anonanimal Lyrics

I see a sea anemone
The enemy
See a sea anemone
And that'll be the end of me.

While the vicious fish was caught unawares in the tenderest of tendrils
Underneath her tender gills

I will become this animal
Perfectly adapted to the music halls
I will become this animal
Anomalous appendages
A non-animal

Hold on just a second
Don't tell me this one you know
I know this one I know this song
I know this one I love this song
Hold on just a second
Don't tell me this one you know
i know this one I know this song
I know this one I love this song
I know this one

Underneath the stalactites
The troglobites lost their sight
Uh oh

The seemingly innocuous plecostomus
though posthumus
They talk to us
They talk too much

See a sea anemone
The enemy
See a sea anemone
That'll be the end of me
Vicious fish was caught unawares
In the tend'rest tendrils
Underneath her tender gills and

I will become this animal
Perfectly adapted to a music hall
I will become this animal

Anomalous appendages
A non-animal
18 Meanings

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Cover art for Anonanimal lyrics by Andrew Bird

"The seemingly innocuous plecostomus though posthumous They talk to us They talk too much"

Plecostomus are the algae suckers people have in their fish tanks to clean the walls. I suppose analyzing the death of one of those would tell us a lot about the tank's history, which might reflect our own history... It's a cute analogy, those little wall suckers always with their mouths at us as if trying to tell us something.

Cover art for Anonanimal lyrics by Andrew Bird

The amount of alliteration and anaphora in this song is amazing! We all know by now that Andrew Bird doesn't really write lyrics with a meaning in mind. He likes funky words that have a nice sound to them. And this here is beautiful: "I see a sea anemone The enemy See a sea anemone And that'll be the end of me"

(sigh) I love him.

Don't we all.

Cover art for Anonanimal lyrics by Andrew Bird

I see it as not a transition or transformation. To me it all wraps together in the lines, "I will become this animal; Perfectly adapted to the music halls." It's the artist's reflection of his place in the world of music.

My Interpretation
Cover art for Anonanimal lyrics by Andrew Bird

placostamous?

I think I hear "Posthumous", which works in the context of digesting and disecting too much. It makes me think of post show moments when he meets and talks to fans and the random chit-chat that occurs. And I am sure that people will randomly make some comment about a transition or ask "Why didn't you play etc?" You know the small critques....and how they can creep in if you let them.

Which is really fantastic when you stop to think about it because that is exactly what we are \ I am doing here at this very moment. Posthumously trying to disect his work. <LMAO!>

plecostomus is a kind of bottom-feeding fish, I think.

turns out we were both right

Cover art for Anonanimal lyrics by Andrew Bird

I deliberately didn't read any posts before me so this would be a completely honest interpretation. I think what he's saying is that all forms of life are basically the same. When he dies he will become a "Non-animal" just as all other life will become. "See a sea anemone the enemy" Is saying that there really is no enemy, just the ones that we humans create for ourselves or each other. Most of this song is Andrew Bird using language beautifully and artistically to illustrate a fairly simple point. I think most of his songs are like that. The verse that is "Hold on just a second" etc. Is illustrating an urge for a concrete feeling that is exclusively human. (That may be why it is in an unorthodox time signature). It is only us humans that feel emotions that we want to hang on to and look back on. But then he goes back to the (I will become this, etc.) A Non-animal.

Oh, and also the amazing double meaning of the song title A non-animal and Anon animal (as in anonymous). Brilliant.

hm, i think i love you.

"Hold on just a second Don't tell me this one you know I know this one I know this song I know this one I love this song"

When a past love of mine and I first began spending our time together, we often shared music for hours and hours. I remember the quality of time it was just pulling up a song that resonated with ourselves. We would forget about time and sit silently across each other listening to the song to observe what it meant to each other. I remember I pulled this song up and during that line, it was such a beautiful experience because it reflected that interaction that we had and it was very special. This is one of my favorite pieces of music.

Memory
Cover art for Anonanimal lyrics by Andrew Bird

just wait until people start getting their copies, and have someone who has a copy to the real lyrics upload them. these aren't correct.

I've just updated this with the official lyrics

Cover art for Anonanimal lyrics by Andrew Bird

I think this is my favorite song of the new album.

The last Andrew Bird concert I went to, before he played this song, he said it was inspired by an episode of Planet Earth in which a salamander, called the troglobite, spends so much time in a cave that over time his eyes disappear. I just recently revisited Planet Earth during the discovery channel marathon and saw the exact scene he was talking about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHhSCdBiVvk&annotation_id=annotation_5778&feature=iv

At about five minutes, the segment I'm talking about begins. Watch it!

that's funny, because last night at the Orpheum in LA he said that he was sitting in the hollywood bowl seats, thinking about how vast and how many people are going to be there for the show, and it made him think "oh my gosh, what kind of animal am i becoming?" and told us that the song was about what kind of animal he'd be...

That's in line with something I read by him. His own words...

"The Texas Salamander ekes out an isolated, eyeless existence in a cave in Mexico. Sea Anenomies, so liquid and malleable, take the shape of an enclosed space. Can we evolve within our own lifetimes certain appendages that help us do our jobs and get through the day? At what cost?"

I think all of these basic ideas can configure into what the song was inspired by. What I think about when I hear this song is that possibly by spending some much time in isolation, (with his life touring, recording, writing, etc) he figures he will become something like a troglobite and 'perfectly adapt' to everything around him, but like the troglobite will loose his sense of how he once saw things or something to that effect .. You see the idea of being alone in a lot of his songs so it wouldn't be anything surprising.

Cover art for Anonanimal lyrics by Andrew Bird

I like the narration by Sigourney Weaver much more, but this is the only one I could find on Youtube.

Cover art for Anonanimal lyrics by Andrew Bird

This is also my favorite song off of the album. I listen to it over and over and it has thankfully knocked What if God Was One of Us?" out of permanent rotation in my head when my mind wanders.

I love the alliteration and the imagery. I can imagine a sea anemone under the sea, its tentacles stretched out like an exotic flower waiting to sting some unsuspecting fish for its meal. Beautiful and dangerous at the same time. When I walk around the office I sometimes wonder what animal best suits my office mates and the way they move.

 
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