Bird Dream Of The Olympus Mons Lyrics

Lyric discussion by ebbsayflood 

Cover art for Bird Dream Of The Olympus Mons lyrics by Pixies

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.

Song Meaning
Positive
Subjective
Enjoyment
Wonder
Peace
Nature
Imagination
Dreams
Exploration
Mystery