Since the 1650s, sailors have reported castles, boats and islands in the ocean that, when further investigated, are revealed to have never existed. They weren’t phantom ships or mythical lands. Instead, they were fata morgana, an illusion caused by light traveling downwards and refracting off cold air near the water’s surface. Since our eyes and minds don’t account for refraction, we see the light bouncing back up and distorting in unusual ways, thereby creating the image of a distant object or place. Reports vary depending on the conditions: some fata morgana create what appear to be ships hovering above water in the distance while others show entire mountain ranges (such as the case of the Croker Mountains). Fata morgana have also been used as an explanation for viral videos such as China’s floating city. Flight b741 opens with a story about a location similar to said video.
The lyrics describe someone who lives in a small town and deals with their parents’ fighting at home. They want to escape their troubles by going to the land supposedly just across the horizon named Mirage City. The place seems to exist beyond our consciousness with the waters flowing superluminally, tachyons flying faster than we can comprehend and the Chinese goddess of the moon Chang’e playing music. The narrator is destined to go but has some doubts about its existence, guessing that it could just be a mirage. That said, they’re so eager to leave their life behind that they give it a shot anyways. They “follow the crow” before confirming their worst fears: that Mirage City was nothing more than an illusion. After this realization, the protagonist abandons their quest to this mythical place and decides to face their struggles head-on rather than run away.
Thematically the song has similarities to “The Last Oasis,” “Magenta Mountain” and “Phantom Island” with how the narrator is trying to reach a place of debatable existence. Of course, “Mirage City” references The Silver Cord by bringing up Chang’e, but we can also tie this song indirectly to The Silver Cord’s folklore inspiration through fata morgana, which shares its name with the Italian name of Morgan le Fey, a sorceress in the legend of King Arthur. The song also alludes to “Paper Mâché Dream Balloon,” both songs deal with confronting personal issues and the lyrics draw a parallel between them. “Mirage City” has the line “so I build my own chimera and face up to its hate,” which ties into the line “when I get troubles my way, like paper mâché, they stick to chimera balloon and I kick it out my door.”
Musically “Mirage City” takes influence from country with prominent pedal steel work, yodels from Stu and breezy chord progressions befitting an artist like Hank Williams. However, the song also takes from southern rock, notably the massive peaks at the song’s beginning and end.
Before it was ever known by fans, Gizzard had referenced it in the extended version of “Extinction” with the lyric “mirage city on the ridge, Beowulf, can you land deadstick?”
The band can be seen working out “Mirage City” in ”Oink Oink” Flight b741: The Making Of…. The footage shows Stu keeping the song simple while figuring out how the band will come in. A video of Stu playing the song’s intro/outro riff was later posted to their Instagram story on August 8th, 2024. This section is notable as it wasn’t necessarily part of the song but ended up becoming bookends. Stu said to Guitar World “That intro was not really part of the song. It was just kind of like… played! ‘Is that wrong? Where’s that gone!?’ Then we started the song and that intro turned into the outro, which is also not part of the song… The song was originally just that middle part.”
Interestingly, the studio jams show “Mirage City” being played in the key of A while the final version is in B flat, indicating that the band pitched the song up a half step after recording the instrumental. This is further backed up by four videos of the band recording vocal harmonies that were posted to their Instagram story on August 7th. Here the band sings in B flat.
The song’s placement on the album was noted as “a big choice” by Lucas as it introduces the “back to basics” roots of Flight b741.
The studio version was performed by Ambrose (piano/harmonica/saxophone/vocals), Cavs (drums/percussion/vocals), Cook (Mellotron/vocals), Joey (guitar/vocals), Lucas (bass/vocals), Stu (guitar/vocals) and guest Sam Joseph (pedal steel). The ASCAP ACE Repertory lists that the entire band received songwriting credits.
The song made its live debut on 2024-05-31 during the band’s acoustic show at the Brighton Dome. This version did not include the intro and outro. The electric version was debuted three shows later on 2024-06-04 at Unaltrofestival in Milan. Unlike the performance before it, this included the outro, though the intro was still missing. This would be the final performance before the release of Flight b741 on August 9th, 2024.
The first full performance wouldn’t come until 2024-08-28 at Brown’s Island in Richmond. Despite completing the song, Gizzard would reinvent “Mirage City” in multiple ways throughout the year. Some cities would see new additions such as improvisation before the first verse rather than the normal intro while others would see Joey on acoustic guitar within the standard electric line-up. These acoustic/electric mixes sometimes led to sandwiches with the main song being played up to the outro where it would then shift to another song like “Let Me Mend The Past” or “Dirt.” It would then pick up at the outro with Joey switching to electric guitar. The band settled on a new formation starting on 2024-11-10. From this show to the end of the year, the song was slowed down and given a long jam before Joey’s final verse, which itself was more relaxed than the studio version. While these were sometimes played with the entire band on electric instruments, it would occasionally include Joey or Stu on acoustic guitar.
Live performances of “Mirage City” stay in the key of A like the original studio jams.