Radiohead Lyrics

[Approaching Infinity]

I was listening to some recent Radiohead songs, and some of the lyrics caught my attention. I've noticed many interesting themes that can be interpreted as weather changes, "sleeping," psychopathy, building an Ark, reptiles and comets ("the dinosaurs roam the earth, the sky turns green"). Here are some relevant excerpts. Notice the mention of a coming ice age, one-sided media reporting, capitalist/psychopathic greed in this one:

Idioteque:
Ice age coming, ice age coming
Let me hear both sides, let me hear both sides, let me hear both
Ice age coming, ice age coming
Throw 'em in the fire, throw 'em in the fire, throw 'em on the
We're not scaremongering
This is really happening, happening
Mobiles skwrking, Mobiles chirping
Take the money and run, take the money

Their latest album was appropriately titled "Hail to the Thief."

2+2=5:
Are you such a dreamer, to put the world to rights?
I'll stay home forever, where two and two always makes five
I'll lay down the tracks, sandbag and hide
January has April's showers, and two and two always makes five
It's the devil's way now, there is no way out
You can scream and you can shout; it is too late now
Because, you have not been paying attention

Sit Down, Stand Up:
Sit down, stand up
Walk into the jaws of hell
We can wipe you out anytime
We can wipe you out
Sit down, stand up
The rain drops

Go To Sleep:
Something for the rag and bone man
Over my dead body
Something big is gonna happen
Over my dead body
Someone's son or someone’s daughter
Over my dead body
This is how I end up sucked in
Over my dead body
I’m gonna go to sleep
And let this wash all over me
We don't really want a monster taking over
Tip toe around, tie him down
We don’t want the loonies takin’ over
Tip toe around, tie him down
May pretty horses come to you as you sleep
I’m gonna go to sleep
And let this wash all over me

I Will:
I will lay me down in a bunker underground
I won’t let this happen to my children
Meet the real world coming out of your shell
With white elephants, sitting ducks
I will rise up
Little babies' eyes

 

[morgan]

On Radiohead's blog Dead Air Space, they often comment on weather changes and politics. Thom's last post is just this quote:

"Political language . . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." George Orwell

 

[Stuart]

I find that "No surprises" is all about entropy with such lyrics as "I'll take a quite life, a hand shake of carbon minoxide"; the whole song has a lullaby feel to it as it spouts "No alarms and no surprises", alluding to no shocks to the system and the fact that people choose sleep over awakening. I don't know many radiohead songs, but I think I'll look up more of their material.

 

[Lotus]

I guess this is going to be my first post, so I will take this opportunity to say hello to everyone.

I'm still quite new round here, however I found this topic rather interesting. I have been a radiohead fan for a while now, long before I came across this site. Radiohead's music always struck a chord with me. Now looking back at a lot of the material on this site and the themes of Radiohead's music it's hard not to notice a lot of similarities, in fact it's quite spooky!

I suppose I could add a little to what has already been mentioned. Taking a record at a time you would start with Pablo Honey. Perhaps there is not so much here apart from the song whih made them big to start with, Creep: which is all about feeling like you don't fit in/alienation, which I think a lot of people can relate to. The next album was 'The Bends', things start getting a bit more interesting here, in particular with Fake Plastic Trees and Street Spirit (fade out). Fake Plastic Trees seems to be about living in a sort of plastic world, both material and emotional:

Her green plastic watering can
for her fake chinese rubber plant
....
a cracked polystyrene man
who just crumbles and burns.
He used to do surgery
for girls in the eighties
but GRAVITY always wins

She looks like the real thing
She tastes like the real thing
my fake plastic love.

Street Spirit is allegedly about staring the devil/evil straight in the eye and becoming aware that it doesn't matter what you do because in the end he will always get you:

cracked eggs dead birds
scream as they fight for life
I can feel death see it's beady eyes
all these things into frution
all these things we'll one day swallow whole

Next up is Ok Computer, most notable songs are probably Subterranean Homesick Alien which touches on the alien abduction theme, in a strange sort of way it seems this person wants to be abducted to learn more/gain higher knowledge:

Up above aliens hover making movies for the folks back home
of all these weird creatures who lock up their spirits
drill holes in themselves and live for their secrets
...
I wish that they'd swoop down in a country lane, late at night when I'm drivin
take me on board their beautiful ship
show me the world as i'd love to see it
I'd tell all my friends but they'd never believe, they'd think I'd finally lost it completely.
I'd show them the stars, and the meaning of life.
They'd shut me away. But I'd be alright.

A more politically oriented song, Electionering:

I will stop
I will stop at nothing
say the right things
when electioneering
I trust I can count on your vote

No surprises (already mentioned), to me it seems to allude to being sick of the daily stress of modern life, I guess it could also be interpreted as wanting to get back to a more normal and sane way of life, a bit like knowing you're being exploited and want a way out? The whole of Ok computer seems to deal with this theme of alienation in a modern world where technology is taking over and we just can't keep up. The whole record has this sort of futuristic feel about it which sounds kind of grandiose but the lyrics seem to imply a different sort of meaning.

The next album is probably the most intereting, Kid A. Now at this point the band changed direction by producing a record that was very much a concept album. Not a particularly easy listen, but the album probably makes more sense as a whole rather than by looking at any individual tracks (I say tracks because some them may not really classify as songs!). In many ways it continues some of the themes from the previous album but bring them to an altogether higher level, one where you feel you should be really worried about what's going on in the world and what is to com. Some of these lyrics should give some idea:

Everything in its right place:
Everything, everything, everything, everything..
In its right place
In its right place
In its right place
Right place

Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon
Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon
Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon
Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon

Kid A:
We got heads on sticks
You got ventriloquists
We got heads on sticks
You got ventriloquists

Next is The National Anthem, which plods along with a strong bass line, which is eventually drowned out by a racket of brass instruments all playing randomly and out of tune, to me this seemed to be another way of describing the madness of a world where we are bombarded with information from all angles and yet are in a complete state of confusion.

Next is How to Disappear Completely which seems to deal with death or impending death (In a little while I'll be gone), or another interpretation is the will to to leave this world which is about to go all wrong:

Strobe lights and blown speakers
Fireworks and hurricanes
I'm not here
This isn't happening
I'm not here
I'm not here

The last track of note is Idioteque, which has already been commented on. So overall Kid A has more of an end of the world feel to it than its predecessor, together with subtle elements which would indicate to the listener to pay more attention to what is going on and wake up!

Amnesiac is very much a follow up to Kid A, with many similar themes again. In particular You and Whose army which could well be directed to someone like Tony Blair, but could now easily apply to Bush as well:
You and whose army?
You and your cronies
Come on, come on
Holy Roman empire
...
You and whose army?
You and your cronies

You forget so easily


Another is Knives out, which is one of the tracks where the idea of eating other animals/beings crops up:

So knives out
Cook him up
Squash his head, put him
in the pot

Dollars and Cents continues with more grim images:

All over, the planet's dead
All over the planet, so let me
Out of here
All over, all over, all over, all over
Quiet down (We are the dollars and cents and the pounds and pence and the mark and yen and yeah, we're gonna)
Why don't you quiet down? (Kill your little souls, we're gonna kill your little souls)

At this point it is a good idea to make comment on the artwork of these last two records, which incorporate things like barren landscapes, some could be interpreted as the coming ice age, then there is the introduction of these sort of 'evil' teddy bear type of creatures, which possibly represent us humans, who go round killing each other and generally being nasty and looking after our own interests. It's not pretty. In Kid A there was also a secret booklet included (hidden underneath the cd tray), in which there is a drawing/cartoon which looks a lot like Tony Blair with big smile you can't really trust. There was another detail however which I din't think much of at first, but after becoming familiar with some of the Cassiopaea material I suddenly remembered this image. When this happened I knew I just had to go take another look at it. My suspicions were correct, this cartoon of Blair depitcts him with lizard type eyes! I would upload a picture of it but I'm not sure how to do that yet....

Anyway, getting back to Radiohead and their last album, Hail to the Thief, Thom York stopped short of admitting it was directed at Bush, but I think it's obviously is. A lot of the lyrics have already been quoted. I might just like to add some from Myxomitosis:

i sat in the cupboard
and wrote it down neat
they were cheerin' and wavin'
cheerin' and wavin'
twitchin' and salivatin' like with myxomatosis
but it got edited #%$&!? up
strangled beaten up
used in a photo in Time magazine
buried in a burning black hole in Devon
and i don’t know why I
feel so tongue-tied
don’t know why i feel
so skinned alive.

These lyrics seem to imply some sort of (DNA?) interference from outside beings/forces, notice also a possible reference to the way the media twist and contort the information they present. Another song on the record is titled We suck young blood.

I always thought of Radiohead as a very intelligent band, and quite clued up. Now I'm beginning to think they may know/have figured out more than they would admit to, but if you look closely it seems like a lot of the signs are there.

 

[Juba]

I find that "No surprises" is all about entropy with such lyrics as "I'll take a quite life, a hand shake of carbon minoxide"; the whole song has a lullaby feel to it as it spouts "No alarms and no surprises", alluding to no shocks to the system and the fact that people choose sleep over awakening. I don't know many radiohead songs, but I think I'll look up more of their material.

Hi Stuart, you're right, No surprises is powerfull song:

No Surprises
A heart that's full up like a landfill,
a job that slowly kills you,
bruises that won't heal.
You look so tired-unhappy,
bring down the government,
they don't, they don't speak for us.
I'll take a quiet life,
a handshake of carbon monoxide,

with no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
Silent silence.

This is my final fit,
my final bellyache,

with no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises please.

Such a pretty house
and such a pretty garden.

No alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises please.

Simple, melodic, and with lyrics to touch a human soul, perhaps I'm a bit subjective but Radiohead's OK Computer album from 1997, is looking pretty fresh'n'cool after more than decade, would be nice to have more music like this in today's world, not just a jingle songs with 15 minutes of glory with questionable artistic value.

 

[tridean]

Hi guys,
I agree with you. I am a major fan of Radiohead, in fact that is an understatement! I am a musician and my biggest two influences have been the Beatles and Radiohead, for reasons other than just their songwriting. Once I became familiar with a lot of Laura's work and other such works, I started to realize that some members, but mostly, Thom, are very much doing their own research into the truth of our existence as well. I find that if you look closely enough, you'll see other artists at least trying to hint at things at times, but Radiohead are definitely the more outspoken, although it seems they are trying to give it a Nostradamus edge, i.e. not be too obvious. Bands and song writers have been taken to court and have had their lyrics used against them before. I write about similar themes in some of my songs (I have added my song 'Mechanical Being' and 'I'm out of the contest) to this music forum, with lyrics...I hope you enjoy them) http://www.cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=16984.0 , but even if I wrote a song about a president or leader etc, I wouldn't admit to it LOL!!

Dean

 

[Cecilfb4]

Every once in a while i will put on a CD of radiohead and I will ask myself, "Has Thom been abducted?" Usually after listening to Kid A or OK comuputer. He seems to know much more than he will directly state, I guess he says it through his music. I will be seeing him saturday at Santa Barbara bowl. I know at some point I will ask myself "has this guy been aducted or maybe he is a star being" either that or he has a very active imagination.

 

[anart]

Every once in a while i will put on a CD of radiohead and I will ask myself, "Has Thom been abducted?" Usually after listening to Kid A or OK comuputer. He seems to know much more than he will directly state, I guess he says it through his music. I will be seeing him saturday at Santa Barbara bowl. I know at some point I will ask myself "has this guy been aducted or maybe he is a star being" either that or he has a very active imagination.

Well, as we theorize, abductions are as common as dirt, so, it's not like it's out of the question.

I'm wondering if you can help me understand what a 'star being' is?