Bird Dream Of The Olympus Mons

Seems to me this song could have parallels to 'Motorway to Roswell' ("his tiny ship..."), though not necessarily involving the same character. I imagine a human-piloted spacecraft experiencing engine failure ("speed leaving without warning..."); the pilot crashes, stays the night, and watches the Martian sunrise as his oxygen runs out. He contemplates his life ... "once I had a good fly..."

I've heard one of the recordings where he says explicitely it's about a bird dreaming about Olympus Mons. But... kshe95's interpretation is incredible. If this song isn't about that, it SHOULD be.

Also, this is, bar none, my favorite song by the Pixies. It's like my eyes glaze over and I'm in another dimension when I listen to this, absolutely incredible.

Olympus Mons is the largest mountain on Mars, and the largest mountain in the solar system. The 'rusty morning' also has overtones of Mars, which is made of a lot of ferrous oxide (rust) making it red.

Not that I know what the song is about, however.

this tune is just sublime! i reminds me of tannhauser's retreat from the "sad" and " martial" (the rusty morn) of the european middle ages--he falls exhausted into the olympus mon(tallest mount on mars)--to me the venusberg--he follows the setting sun of the love goddess to retire with her and her entourage into her subterranean paradise.

See Aubrey Beardsleys's ":Under the Hill", Wagner"s "Tannhauser" and the references to "Under the Hill" in Nabokov's "Lolita"---somehow I think that Francis, clever boy that he is, is familiar with all of these.

I just feel that the meaning of the lyrics of Pixies song aren't resolvable--they relate to a field of possible meaning and feelings. most interesting rt can't be boiled down.

It about a bird, dreaming of soaring over the mountains of mars.

Yes... the "official" interpretation of the song is the one which Feinstein stated. On the "Situation Red" bootleg Black Francis says that at the beginning of the song, and I think that the first half of the song, where it says "I need some place to sleep tonight" refers to the bird falling asleep.

Anyway, the interpretation of Kshe95 is simply beautiful and breathtaking. An incredible and romantic way to go off...

I think exactly that, albium - this song it's just awesome... I still remember the first time I listened to it... Thought it was actually something like dawn on the Moon, but it was just way too strong... fantastic imagery!... how he screams "sunshine in the rusty morning" and the final "I will fall..."... tear-inducing!

In the words of Frank Black, "This song is about a little bird who goes to sleep, and he has a dream that he goes to Mars".

Olympus Mons is the largest mountain in the Solar System, it's a shield volcano and at a height of 85,000 feet it is three times larger than Mount Everest. Its slope is very gradual though, only about a 5% grade so if you were to stand at its base, you could not see the summit due to the curvature of the planet.

So this bird is getting out of the wind and nestling down in a pine tree, and closing its eyes and dreaming about flying over the biggest mountain in the solar system. You could imagine that flying up the slope it would take a very long time and be a very gradual moment before you would "fall" into this mountain, and thus feels like it would be a long and seemingly endless dream.

I was introduced to the Pixies by hearing Doolittle and I didn’t think the band could do anything better and I haven’t listened to them in a long time. But I listened to this song and it blows me away and I read all the comments and I think that Pixies fans are beyond the best

This is absolutely the most underrated song in musical (let alone Pixies) history.

Its meaning is pretty straightforward; it's just imagery. Good imagery set to delightful guitar work and such.

Absolutely beautiful.