Little Birds, by Neutral Milk Hotel

Little Birds

by Neutral Milk Hotel

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	1.	Little Birds (Live) [2014] 06:13		buy track
	2.	Little Birds (Demo) [1998] 06:02		buy track

about

Little Birds (Live)

Recorded at the Prospect Park Bandshell, Brooklyn NY, July 22,2014

Jeff Mangum — Guitar, Voice
Heather Trost — Violin
Jeremy Barnes — Accordion

Recorded by Jeremy Lemos
Mixed by Jeremy Barnes and Jeff Mangum

Thanks to Guy Picciotto for his invaluable ear

Little Birds (Demo)

Recorded by Robert Schneider
Engineered by Craig Morris

Jeff Mangum — Guitar, Voice

Design by Jeff and Mark Ohe

From The Collected Works of Neutral Milk Hotel

Lyrics:

Little birds born without a mother or a father
I can feel their feathers forming in the running water
Now there is another in the middle of my mouth
A hundred altogether inside of me now
Little birds, little birds, come into my body

Mother, they're within me every moment I'm awaking
Bodies multiplying til they finally overtake me
Put your ears up to my mouth and you can hear them singing
Put your hands within me and you'll know what I am feeling
I just want to swallow up and promise to protect them

Daddy, come towards me, I could see his hands were shaking
Put his hands against me, he could feel their bodies breaking
Pushed me to the floor and put his hands up for a beating
"I don't want to hear it anymore," he kept repeating
"Do you really want the burning hell to come and get you?"

"Did you see the burning hell it took your baby brother?
Did you see how far he fell and how he made us suffer?
Another boy in town at night, he took him for his lover
And deep in sin they held each other
So I took a hammer, nearly beat his little brains in
Knowing God in heaven no could never could forgive him
So I took a hammer nearly beat his little brains in"

Little boy born without a mother or a father
Taken to the river and then pushed into the water
And the priest was singing that the hell was getting hotter
"Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the only ones to save him
From the thing he loves the most but we know will betray him
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the only ones to save him"

And here beneath the water I can see
How the light, distorts so strange
And this is how I would like to leave my body
And start again

credits

released January 10, 2023

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Neutral Milk Hotel

Neutral Milk Hotel has its origins in the small town of Ruston, LA. Jeff Mangum has always been Neutral Milk Hotel’s central figure, and he’s used that moniker for everything from his own solo excursions to marching band-like musical happenings.

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