MX Missiles; Andrew Bird

Somewhere in Andrew Bird’s website I found a text about his early influences:

“Sometime in 1977 - A four-year-old Andrew Bird picks up his first violin at the age of 4. Actually, it is a Cracker Jack box with a ruler taped to it, as the first of his many Suzuki music lessons involve simply bowing to the teacher and going home. So begins a formative period soaking up classical repertoire completely by ear followed by a teenage expansion into Hungarian Gypsy music, early jazz, country blues, South Indian music and more, as well as the discovery of an uncanny whistling ability.”

Although this excerpt from his bio doesn’t say, I think Andrew (at least on the album “Mysterious Production of Eggs”) received some influence of French-folk by Yann Tiersen (“Sovay” is an example of this) and also The Beatles (The first verse of “MX Missiles” reminds me a lot the brigde in “All You Need Is Love”).

The “MX Missiles” whistling intro is one of the most beautiful of all I’ve ever heard. The lyrics, which has the war as a backdrop and speaks of the condition of equality of all people ‘cause “maybe you were not really MX Missiles-proof” (...) “it gives me the proof that I need, it's the proof that you bleed,” was wonderfully written.

I found in SongMeanings.net the meaning of this song but I don’t know from where they took this information: “Mr. Bird himself says: The song MX Missiles is about how, when I was 19 or 20, my hometown was filled with bizarre, almost ritualistic suicides. I remember every week my mom would have another story, like ‘Remember so-and-so? He poured gasoline on himself and went up in flames.’ It’s kind of about how people seem very two-dimensional till they kill themselves and then suicide makes them really seem alive”.

By the way, there is here an explanation about the MX Missile Project.

Those that will judge will say you’re aloof
But you know the truth is a seed
You know what you need
Is a conflagration
'Cause when I see your blood
And the bits of your broken tooth
It gives me the proof that I need
It’s the proof that you bleed
And it’s a revelation,
Yeah, it’s a revelation,
It’s a revelation

I thought you were a life-sized paper doll
Propped up in the hardware store
Propped up on the front lawn watching the parade
of the legionnaires with 2/4s marching off to wars

I didn’t know what you were made of
color of your blood what you’re afraid of
Are you made of calcium or are you carbon based
Cause if you’re made of calcium I’ll have to take a taste
Calcium is deadly, but tender to the tooth
but it’s one sure-fire way to know if you’re MX-Missile proof
Or if you’re just aloof

And you were in the ground in late November
Though the leaves and Earth were damp
Did you think they would remember
How you almost made state champ
and when you’re running for the game against Alfonsus
And you fell up on the ground and chipped your tooth
That might really have surprised us
To learn that maybe you weren’t really MX-Missiles proof

I thought you were a life-sized paper doll
Propped up in the hardware store
Propped up on the front lawn watching the parade
of the legionnaires with 2/4s marching off to wars