Two headed boy
All floating in glass
The sun it has passed
Now it's blacker than black
I can hear as you tap on your jar
I am listening to hear where you are
I am listening to hear where you are

Two headed boy
Put on Sunday shoes
And dance round the room to accordion keys
With the needle that sings in your heart
Catching signals that sound in the dark
Catching signals that sound in the dark
We will take off our clothes
And they'll be placing fingers through the notches in your spine
And when all is breaking
Everything that you could keep inside
Now your eyes ain't moving
Now they just lay there in their climb

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
Made for his lover who's floating and choking with her hands across her face
And in the dark we will take off our clothes
And they'll be placing fingers through the notches in your spine
And when all is breaking everything that you could keep inside
Now your eyes ain't moving now, they just lay there in their climb

Two headed boy
There is no reason to grieve
The world that you need is wrapped in gold silver sleeves
Left beneath Christmas trees in the snow
And I will take you and leave you alone
Watching spirals of white softly flow
Over your eyelids and all you did
Will wait until the point when you let go

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Lyrics submitted by PLANES, edited by riverajosie2, adngai, Mellow_Harsher

Two-Headed Boy Lyrics as written by Jeff Mangum

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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Two-Headed Boy song meanings

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I think the two-headed boy in reference in this song is Anne Frank herself. Here's my justification. 'All floating in glass', Anne lived much of her life within the confines of her hidden room, the only link to the outside world was her diary, but it is only read retroactively. Through her diary, Anne taps on the glass of her isolated existence, and Jeff, in reading the diary, and trying to identify with the girl protrayed through its words, 'listens to here where [she is]'.

'The sun it has passed now it's blacker than black' refers to the sun of her youth, gone are the days of "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea", Anne, by now, is now trapped in the nightmare of the room in which she would live out the rest of her life.

Essentially I think this song deals with her death. The repeating stanza:

"We will take off our clothes And they'll be placing fingers through the notches in your spine And when all is breaking Everything that you could keep aside Now your eyes ain't moving now They just lay there in their climb"

Sounds an awful lot like a Nazi raid, probing the most intimate parts of the victims, their homes, their bodies. It is disturbingly personal. 'When all is breaking everything that you could keep aside', this is the Nazis destroying the only piece of life that the Frank family had left, kept in that room. Towards the end of this stanza, Anne is gassed in a concentration camp, her eyes frozen in their 'climb'. Kind of grizzly.

My favourite lines are the ones about a radio created by the two-headed boy. The radio would've been important to Anne, her source of news in the outside world. But each day would bring bad news about the war leaving her 'choking with her hands across her face'. However, in keeping with the duality of the 'two-headed boy', Frank creates her own radio 'And through the music he sweetly displays, Silver speakers that sparkle all day'. This is her diary, sending news back into the world. The two radios are somehow merged into one.

For this to make sense, you have to know Anne Frank's diary. She often alluded to the two separate halves that made her her. She was fascinated by the notion of duality. At one point she falls in love with two boys of the same and wishes they would merge into one, because it is that one merged boy that she feels she is truly in love with.

Finally, in the last stanza there is some consolation. Though Frank is dead, there is something almost spiritual in the words Jeff sings. 'The world that you need is wrapped in gold silver sleeves, Left beneath Christmas trees in the snow'- we get the impression that Anne has somehow found peace, and we are told by the last words of the song that 'all you did will wait until the point when you let go'. A clear reference to Anne's diary, exposing her life to the world that she so wanted to be a part of. Now she is.

This is one of my favourite songs of all time, and I love some of the interpretations that people are putting up. :)

I think the two-headed boy in reference in this song is Anne Frank herself. Here's my justification. 'All floating in glass', Anne lived much of her life within the confines of her hidden room, the only link to the outside world was her diary, but it is only read retroactively. Through her diary, Anne taps on the glass of her isolated existence, and Jeff, in reading the diary, and trying to identify with the girl protrayed through its words, 'listens to here where [she is]'. 'The sun it has passed now it's blacker than black' refers to the sun of her youth, gone are the days of "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea", Anne, by now, is now trapped in the nightmare of the room in which she would live out the rest of her life. Essentially I think this song deals with her death. The repeating stanza: "We will take off our clothes And they'll be placing fingers through the notches in your spine And when all is breaking Everything that you could keep aside Now your eyes ain't moving now They just lay there in their climb" Sounds an awful lot like a Nazi raid, probing the most intimate parts of the victims, their homes, their bodies. It is disturbingly personal. 'When all is breaking everything that you could keep aside', this is the Nazis destroying the only piece of life that the Frank family had left, kept in that room. Towards the end of this stanza, Anne is gassed in a concentration camp, her eyes frozen in their 'climb'. Kind of grizzly. My favourite lines are the ones about a radio created by the two-headed boy. The radio would've been important to Anne, her source of news in the outside world. But each day would bring bad news about the war leaving her 'choking with her hands across her face'. However, in keeping with the duality of the 'two-headed boy', Frank creates her own radio 'And through the music he sweetly displays, Silver speakers that sparkle all day'. This is her diary, sending news back into the world. The two radios are somehow merged into one. For this to make sense, you have to know Anne Frank's diary. She often alluded to the two separate halves that made her her. She was fascinated by the notion of duality. At one point she falls in love with two boys of the same and wishes they would merge into one, because it is that one merged boy that she feels she is truly in love with. Finally, in the last stanza there is some consolation. Though Frank is dead, there is something almost spiritual in the words Jeff sings. 'The world that you need is wrapped in gold silver sleeves, Left beneath Christmas trees in the snow'- we get the impression that Anne has somehow found peace, and we are told by the last words of the song that 'all you did will wait until the point when you let go'. A clear reference to Anne's diary, exposing her life to the world that she so wanted to be a part of. Now she is. This is one of my favourite songs of all time, and I love some of the interpretations that people are putting up. :)

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poweroutageon May 27, 2008 Link
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