The Flaming Lips are known for their lush, multi-layered arrangements, spacey lyrics and bizarre song titles. They are also acclaimed for their elaborate live shows, which typically feature animal suits, puppets, streamers, video projections and complex stage light configurations.
In 2002, Q magazine named The Flaming Lips one of the "50 Bands to See Before You Die". In 2006, Oklahoma City named a street Flaming Lips Alley in their honor.
The group recorded several albums and EPs for Restless Records in the 1980s and early 1990s. After signing to Warner Brothers, they scored a #9 hit on the Billboard Alternative charts (and #55 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart) in 1994 with "She Don't Use Jelly". Although it would be their only hit single, the band has maintained critical respect and, to a lesser extent, commercial viability with sonically majestic albums such as 1995's Clouds Taste Metallic, 1999's The Soft Bulletin, 2002's Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and 2006's At War with the Mystics. The Flaming Lips' 12th studio album, Embryonic, was released in October of 2009. A complete cover of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon was released in May 2010. The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, their collaborative album which features artists like Ke$ha, Bon Iver, Nick Cave and Erykah Badu, was released on Record Store Day, April 2012.
Their next studio album, tentatively titled The Terror, will be released in January 2013.
Their song "Do You Realize??" is the official State Rock Song of Oklahoma.
www.flaminglips.com
The Gold In The Mountain Of Our Madness
The Flaming Lips Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
With their young lives exploding still
They love to dream and run
They had the grass and the trees and the sun
They dreamed of the gold they'd find
At the top of the hill as they climbed
No one would ever doubt
Their spirit and strength would run out
But the hill was steep and long
They never thought they'd be wrong
It wasn't a hill at all
It was a mountain a thousand feet tall
But with the gold still in their thoughts
They used their young lives to climb and climb
By the time they got up to the peak
They were old and they were weak
There was no gold that they could find
It was all just in their minds
They had dreamed and they had loved
They found the grass and the trees and the sun
They said "What do we do now?"
Spend the rest of our lives climbing back down?
Or we can treasure what we find
And make it golden in our minds.
In "The Gold In The Mountain Of Our Madness," The Flaming Lips tell a poignant story about the futility of chasing material wealth at the expense of enjoying life's simple pleasures. The song tells the tale of a group of young people who set out to climb a hill in search of gold. They are full of energy, dreams, and optimism, and despite the steepness of the ascent, they believe that they will reach the summit and find their treasure.
As they climb, they begin to realize that the hill is not what they thought it was; it is a towering mountain that appears to be insurmountable. However, the gold is still on their minds, and they are determined to continue climbing. By the time they reach the summit, they are old and frail, having spent their lives in pursuit of wealth that was never really there.
The final verse of the song is a powerful message about finding joy in life's simple pleasures rather than striving for material success. The group realizes that there is no gold to be found; it was all in their minds. However, they have found something more valuable: the beauty of the grass, trees, and sun. They are faced with a choice: spend their remaining days making their way back down the mountain or learn to treasure what they have found and make it "golden in their minds." The song's message is that happiness is not found in the pursuit of material wealth but in the appreciation of life's simple pleasures, which are far more valuable than any amount of gold.
Line by Line Meaning
They started up the hill
They set out on a journey towards a goal
With their young lives exploding still
In the bloom of their youth, full of energy and ambition
They love to dream and run
They enjoyed fantasizing about their future and were always on the move
They had the grass and the trees and the sun
They had the simple pleasures of life that they cherished in their journey
They dreamed of the gold they'd find
They had an overarching goal that they were passionate about
At the top of the hill as they climbed
They thought their goal was within reach
No one would ever doubt
They were absolutely sure of themselves
Their spirit and strength would run out
They thought they would have the endurance to achieve their goal
But the hill was steep and long
The challenge they faced was tougher than they expected
They never thought they'd be wrong
They were overconfident in their abilities
It wasn't a hill at all
Their goal turned out to be more difficult than they imagined
It was a mountain a thousand feet tall
Their goal was an insurmountable challenge for them
But with the gold still in their thoughts
They still held onto their dream
They used their young lives to climb and climb
They put in all their effort and energy into achieving their goal, disregarding anything else
By the time they got up to the peak
After so much struggle and effort, they finally achieved their goal
They were old and they were weak
However, the long, arduous journey had taken a toll on them
There was no gold that they could find
Upon reaching their goal, they found that it was not what it seemed
It was all just in their minds
Their dream was a figment of their imagination
They had dreamed and they had loved
Nevertheless, they had enjoyed their journey and the simple pleasures of life
They found the grass and the trees and the sun
They found solace in the beauty of nature and the world around them
They said "What do we do now?"
After achieving their goal and realizing it was not what they thought, they asked themselves what they could do next
Spend the rest of our lives climbing back down?
They had two choices: to give up completely or to keep going back down and start a new journey
Or we can treasure what we find
They decided to look at their journey through a different lens
And make it golden in our minds.
They chose to see the good in everything they had experienced and learned along the way, rather than focusing on their failed goal
Contributed by Zoe S. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Green Floor Studio
All time best life lesson in a song. Literally brings tears to my eyes every damn time
Morpheus Jones
This song is incredible
DANIEL GAJDA
thank God you put this up!! I feel like they had restrictions on it.Before before I could never find it, love this song!!
Scott O
I never heard this until today!! Thanks for the upload!! :)
kdrog13
wow...years ago, i used to check quite often to see if anyone had uploaded this! i gave up so i just noticed that it's now been up for nearly 2.5 yrs now.
Thanks!
is33you01
Me too.
Ridinhigh408
Thank you for uploading. A million internetz to you!
MrKneller
Owned this b-side, had it stolen from me and have been looking for it for months. THANKS.
Paddy Lagan
Yeah Yeah Yeah B side,an A side for me all day long;perfect composition. :-)
Shik Ago
thank you