Pineapple Head

Neil was tending to his feverish son, Liam, who had cried out "Detective is flat" and "getaway car", which inspired Neil to immediatly head down to his home studio with the concept for "Pineapple Head", to the annoyance of his wife, Sharon!

neil finn said this song was written when his son had some sort of crazed fever and was rambling on.i cant remember the articale.but its a great song ,its reminds me of a dream.it 's so manical and unsorted its hard to figure it all out.

It was actually his youngest son, Elroy who had the fever and was sort of delirious. He was muttering noncence.

But some of this song makes sense. The "pineapple head" represents all the options (eg phone numbers) he has for a relationship. It is spinning in front of him, he does not want to choose because he does not want to make a commitment. But if he did, he would "play her like a shark" and "clutch (desperately) at her heart" meaning that he would commit deeply. So on one level this song could be about a person's struggle with staying single and free, or commiting to one person.

yeah i think sean is on the right track, combine a lot of the lines with the thought of gambling and it seems to make more sense. "pineapple head" reminds me of a roulet wheel somehow. gambling with things other than money.

Pineapple Head was written when Neil's youngest son Elroy had a fever. Sharon (Neil's Wife) and Neil were looking after him and he was going on and he randomly said "Pineapple Head". Neil ran down to the Piano in his living room and started writing Pineapple Head, when Sharon ran down and said in distraught "What on earth are you doing down here?"

I know that it is composed primarliy from lines from his feverish son,but i think we search for a meaning in the gibberish and create a personal meaning. I see a problem becoming overwhelming making him feel physically ill. the first three lines is he did something wrong and is failling to getway from it. the next three is that the events of his problems are just blurring into evrything that he can't process them causing illness. the chorus is if she make that decision, which involves leaving,he will cling to her and never leave. The following line is a bit oxymoronish as he is now happy he is alone. However he is only alone to think and process his thoughts. the girl he doesn't remember i imagine as someone in his past causing problems with his current relantionship, but she means so little to him that he doesn't remember her. i may completly wrong about that and can see many other ways of interpreting her. Such as she started out as his friend ages ago but her current behavior makes him wonder if she was just using him. Or there is only one girl. Like i said everyone probly has there own interpretation, and as it is gibberish, all interpretations are valid.

From an interview with Neil Finn:

NF: “‘Pineapple Head’ is an obvious example. It started with my son Liam who had a fever. He was delirious and I was standing by with a cloth to cool him down and he just started talking about all these things. ‘Pineapple Head! Pineapple Head!’ Then he said ‘detective is flat’ and ‘getaway car’. So instead of staying there and doing what a father should do I ran downstairs and committed it to a song. Until my wife Sharon came in and looked at me in horror and said, ‘What are you doing here?’ At the time you’ve got to go. There’s enough times when the idea pops into your head and you’re not on the ball enough to write it down. Liam’s 11 and I’ve exploited him mercilessly over the years. He wrote the line ‘here comes Mrs. Hairy Legs’ in ‘Chocolate Cake.’”

DH: “So does ‘Pineapple Head’ mean anything?”

NF: “‘Pineapple Head’ has the least meaning in the literal sense of any of the songs on the record, but in a strange way for me it all makes perfect sense. Line by line anyway. And the chorus is put over from the point of view of a fever, a virus, inhabiting somebody. ‘I’ll play you like a shark and I’ll clutch at your heart and come flying like a spark to inflame you.’ The rest of it’s just a stream of consciousness delirium put down on paper.”