Bob Vila's Hammer's Journal: Neutral Milk Hotel, King of Carrot Flowers

The King of Carrot Flowers Part One

by Neutral Milk Hotel

When you were young
You were the king of carrot flowers
And how you built a tower tumbling through the
trees
In holy rattlesnakes that fell all around your
feet

And your mom would stick a fork right into
daddy's shoulder
And your dad would throw the garbage all across
the floor
As we would lay and learn what each other's
bodies were for

And this is the room
One afternoon I knew I could love you
And from above you how I sank into your soul
Into that secret place where no one dares to
go

And your mom would sink until she was no longer
speaking
And dad would dream of all the different ways to
die
Each one a little more than he could dare to
try

For this journal entry I have changed the lyrics in the first stanza to appropriately model this song that I wanted to share as being truly remarkable - my favorite song by one of my favorite bands. The song itself is complete on many different levels. The writing is sound, beautiful and brilliant with its imagery and richness. The music is melodic and frightening, terrifically addictive and fantastically singable. And the bottom line is that it is simple and efficiently powerful with this formula. The reason for the change of the first lyrics is complicated to explain. The words 'feet', 'floor', 'soul', and 'high' all are special in this song as it is sung. They each have within them another word. To appropriately describe this phenomenon, say the words out loug and stretch them out as in the song.

feet becomes "fee--- heat "
floor becomes "flo--- whore "
soul becomes "sou--- hole "
die becomes "die--- high "

And this phenomenon - as you notice the additional words that are pronounced in the singing - creates again an entirely new song. It is wonderfully beautiful and elegant as you sing it and everyone should realize the genius of Jeff Magnums's songwriting. Here is the song as it would be changed for improved meaning and listed with the pronunciations for those 4 special words and their hidden words within.

When you were young
You were the king of carrot flowers
In holy rattlesnakes that fell all around your
fee---heat
And how you built a tower tumbling through the
trees

And your mom would stick a fork right into
daddy's shoulder
And your dad would throw the garbage all across
the flo---whore
As we would lay and learn what each other's
bodies were for

And this is the room
One afternoon I knew I could love you
And from above you how I sank into your
sou---hole
Into that secret place where no one dares to go

And your mom would sink until she was no longer
speaking
And dad would dream of all the different ways to
die---high
Each one a little more than he could dare to try


I hope the lyrics and the changes are noticed and appreciated fully by listening to this song. And I had also hoped that somehow Jeff Magnum and Neutral Milk hotel would notice and maybe enjoy the changes or at least the wonderful side-effect of their brilliant songwriting that I have outlined - if it hadn't been brought to light before.