Incidentally, Kacey Musgraves provides additional vocals on all three of these cuts. However, even the more fanciful tracks, such as “Flowers of Neptune 6”, “God and the Policeman”, and “Watching the Light-Bugs Glow” concern the taking of illegal substances. This is clear on cuts with titles like “You n’ Me Sellin’ Weed”, “At the Movies on Quaaludes” and “Will You Return/When You Come Down”. Many of the songs, like the previously mentioned ones, are explicitly about drugs. We never get over the fears we had as a youth even if we have outgrown them. We hear about the situation filtered through Coyne’s boyhood consciousness, but also recollected now in tranquility. Coyne didn’t want his older sibling to go crazy or die, which were the rumors concerning LSD at that time. The music is spookily psychedelic and sad. Coyne said he remembers the moment as a child when his brother said this to his mother. Take the ballad, “Mother, I’ve Taken LSD”. There are reminiscences of actual scenarios blended together with ones that never happened.
It’s a real-life fantasy, with all the contradictions that term implies. Each cut delivers a different story about the imagined characters and where their heads were at. It’s that mix of feelings like when one is too high and doesn’t know if one is going to puke or die or achieve nirvana, as described in the song “When We Die When We’re High”. The 13 tracks combine dark and light motifs in weird ways that are somber and strange yet oddly cheerful at the same time. One doesn’t need to understand the underlying narrative of American Head to appreciate the music, but it helps. The music is an attempt to capture that feeling. This album would be “the sad, homesick, naive songs they would have written in this fucked-up (wonderful) and depressed (ecstatic) state of mind”. Perhaps the band would break up as a result and the Heartbreakers never happened. Coyne then imagined what would have happened if Petty and his older brothers and their drug-dealing biker friends connected. Coyne learned that before Petty and his group at the time, Mudcrutch, began their career in Los Angeles, their producer had them stop in Tulsa to rehearse and polish their sound. He and the band were driving from a gig in Austin to Oklahoma City when they heard Tom Petty died.
Video By: Blake Studdard for AtriaCreative.The Flaming Lips‘ frontman Wayne Coyne describes the backstory of American Head like this.It's a thoughtful treat from a band that keeps on giving. This visually enchanting Tiny Desk comes down to earth, with technical glitches that are fun to witness and keep it real.We hear old tunes sparking old memories, including "Be Free, A Way" from 2013's The Terror and "It's Summertime" from 2002's Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. On the album's opening track "Will You Return/When You Come Down" (which also begins this concert), Steven Drozd asks in falsetto, "Will you return? Will you come down?" while Wayne Coyne responds, "Thinking back to those lost souls / And their ghosts / Floating around your bed / Hear it said / Now all your friends are dead." These are songs for the lost, the overdosed dreamers, the damaged, the car crashed. Drugs are undoubtedly part of the culture, and on their new songs from American Head, drugs are at the core. The Flaming Lips have always embraced the surreal.
I don't think it's a stretch to say that going to a Flaming Lips concert stoned is a thing. For this Tiny Desk (home) concert, Wayne and his bandmates are seemingly quarantined from one another, with the bubble-sharing green-haired drummers and keyboards pairing off, playing together yet apart. That was novelty long ago now it seems prescient. At concerts, he'd roll over the tops of adoring fans, their outstretched hands keeping him aloft. Wayne Coyne has appeared inside a bubble for over a decade. It's the same spirit - stripped-down sets, an intimate setting - just a different space. Introducing NPR Music's Tiny Desk (home) concerts, bringing you performances from across the country and the world. The Tiny Desk is working from home for the foreseeable future.
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