Summer Anne’s Best 125 Songs Of The 2000s: #95

“Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, Pt. 1” by The Flaming Lips

Read the introduction for details on my criteria.

And if you’re reading me in tumblr’s dashboard, be sure to visit the blog directly for video.

Someone on songmeanings.net wrote “my least favorite flaming lips song. i think this is a song for women,” and I laughed. But maybe it’s kind of true. This song is about a girl being a hero, remaining strong, and fighting something big and scary. Yoshimi herself doesn’t think she can do it, and “people” certainly don’t either. But she can.

The Flaming Lips made a dozen crazy-amazing songs when they recorded this album. They reached this unique middle ground between rock and roll, electronic music, pop, and hippie folk music, and they mined that ground and found gold. This particular song, lyrically, plays in the middle ground between fantasy and reality. Some people say it’s about batting cancer, and other people say it’s a joke. I think it’s a little bit of both.