Week 2: Song

Lyrics:  

"The only girl I've ever loved
Was born with roses in her eyes
But then they buried her alive
One evening 1945
With just her sister at her side
And only weeks before the guns
All came and rained on everyone
Now she's a little boy in Spain
Playing pianos filled with flames
On empty rings around the sun
All sing to say my dream has come

But now we must pick up every piece
Of the life we used to love
Just to keep ourselves
At least enough to carry on

And now we ride the circus wheel
With your dark brother wrapped in white
Says it was good to be alive
But now he rides a comet's flame
And won't be coming back again
The Earth looks better from a star
That's right above from where you are
He didn't mean to make you cry
With sparks that ring and bullets fly
On empty rings around your heart
The world just screams and falls apart

But now we must pick up every piece
Of the life we used to love
Just to keep ourselves
At least enough to carry on

And here's where your mother sleeps
And here is the room where your brothers were born
Indentions in the sheets
Where their bodies once moved but don't move anymore
And it's so sad to see the world agree
That they'd rather see their faces fill with flies
All when I'd want to keep white roses in their eyes"
(Lyrics from http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/neutralmilkhotel/holland1945.html)

     What we have above is the song "Holland, 1945" by the band Neutral Milk Hotel. I find this song interesting for many reasons. First of all, it has a unique poetic form. When viewing the lyrics as they are above, the song is structured into a 12 line stanza, a 4 line refrain, a second 12 line stanza, a second refrain, and finally a 7 line concluding stanza. What is neat about this song is that it bends what we might consider a rhyme. This is a technique used by artists where one can match two words as rhyming by somewhat mispronouncing the word. The first example of this in the lyrics are the words "eyes" "alive" "nineteen forty five" found in lines 2, 3, and 4 respectively. When normally speaking these words, it may be argued that they do not rhyme. However in the context of the song with instruments and background noise the similar sounds of these words create rhyme. While the song does not appear to follow a set rhyme scheme (as each stanza follows a different pattern) successive lines often follow the same rhyme. However, the song does follow a certain meter. Each line of stanza 1 and 3 have 8 syllables, while both refrains follows the meter 9-7-5-8. Other than this, structurally the song is similar to most others, in the fact that it has verses followed by a chorus or refrain, and bridge at the end.

     One of the main reasons I chose this song is because of its meaning. The song is written from the perspective of Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Mangum. The song is debatably written to Anne Frank (as Mangum wrote many songs on the subject), however without debate the song is written about Anne Frank, and various second world war/ holocaust subject matter. This creates a more melancholy or depressed tone in the song, despite its upbeat tempo and melodies (can we argue that this is some form of weird oxymoron?) The song is filled with metaphors, allusions, and other poetic devices. An example of allusion is apparent in the title of the song "Holland, 1945" which alludes the Second World War (having taken place in Holland in 1945). The lyrics "but then they buried her alive/ one evening 1945" alludes to the death of Anne Frank and her sister who died of disease during the holocaust. The lyrics "now we must pick up every piece of the life we used to love" is a metaphor comparing life to a broken object, hence we must pick up the (broken) pieces of the "life we used to love". There are several metaphors and hyperboles in the song. A final example of poetic devises at work in the song is the personification "the world just screams and falls apart". In this personification the planet earth is given the human characteristic of being able to scream.

     To conclude, I will discuss my personal thoughts and opinions on the song and its content. Personally, I am a fan on Neutral Milk Hotel because of their lyrics, and daring bravery to do different in an ever-conforming musical world. On one plain the song is a commentary on issues surrounding the Second World War. However to me, the song is a vast and intricate tale not only of hardship and heartbreak, but of the speakers deep feeling and love towards the story of Anne Frank, or similar tales. In the first words of the tune "The only girl I've ever loved" emphasizing the word loved he goes on to allude this girl to the death of Anne Frank. However the song becomes more than a love story. Reading the lyrics, we are taken on a journey of sadness, despair, and related emotions, suiting to the subject matter. This combined with the more positive/ upbeat music of the song have caused me to somewhat fall in-love with it. On a musical note, being an adept guitarist I adore the simplistic chord structure and how good Neutral Milk Hotel have made it sound. As well, being a developing trumpet player, the brass part in the chorus is very catchy and a nice touch to give the song an added dimension. If you have bothered to read this far into the post, I encourage you to comment your thoughts on the song. As with poetry, it is open to many different interpretations.