| Regina Spektor – Us Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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This is definitely not a song about being in love with somebody. Why do people always interpret songs in that way, on the simplest level? I'll tell ya why; cos they've been contaminated with boy bands and girl bands that have lyrics that are just about love or lust, have no deep meanings at all and are written by other people and put together by an industry that doesent care about good music, but money! and as a result the people who grow up listening only to the charts couldn't care less about metaphors, symbolism and poetry and real artistic talent! The result of this is that they can't possibly imagine a song can mean anything other than something to do with love, because they've had no exposure to propoer music, which is written for the sake of itself, rather than for the sake of money. You see! The contagiousness is even there in the music 'industry'! 'Contagious' in the song is definitely a bad kind of contagion, not a good one. But anyhow, i don't disagree with the interpretations of mt. rushmore AND Lenin. Both were statues, both had cities named after them, and both had their ideologies wiped away with erosion of time. I don't think it is of particular importance which one is which; my impression of what the song is about is really the things that these two interpretations have in common: Statues are made of people because they were great leaders etc. etc. but also because they stand for something; Lenin and Washington both commited their lives to an ideology. What i think matters in the song is that the 'us' has an ideology, and this ideology is slowly being contaminated by the experience the 'us' has of the world. Everyone is buying things and partaking in capitalism and consumerism, and in this sense they are thieves. But in a world where nearly everybody is doing this, the few people who have principles or ideologies are finding it extremely hard to hold onto them, because it is much easier just to play along and be a consumer. I interpret the song as a kind of internal struggle inside your own mind; between holding on to what you believe in conflicting with your desire to take part in consumerism. Though like i say, the washington & lenin interpretations are spot on. But it's just that the emotional wealth of the song owes to this internal struggle against the contagious diesease of consumerism, which is why i would place this struggle at the core of the song. |
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| Radiohead – All I Need Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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WHEN A SINGER SAYS "YOU" IT DOESENT NECESSARILY MEAN HE IS SINGING ABOUT A PERSON. WHEN HE SAYS "I" HE ISNT NECESSARILY TALKING ABOUT HIMSELF. REMEMBER THIS!!!! In lyrics or poetry, the you is the muse, but it doesent need to be a person. And it hardly ever is in radiohead songs. In in rainbows, each song follows from the last one, and this is also true of Kid A Amnesiac and Hail to the Theif, as far as i can tell. These radiohead albums have a central theme. The central theme of In rainbows is selling your soul to the devil (wiki Faustus and mephistopheles). The previous song in the album, weird fishes, is about escaping consumerist society. This song, ALL I Need, is the narrator realising he can't escape consumerism "because there ar no others". By using the metaphor of a relationship between aman and a woman, Radiohead can talk about their political beliefs without being too in your face about it. Ill use what a post above me has said to show what i mean, it's so obvious when its pointed out to you. Keep in mind that the relationship is between individual and society, not a man and a woman. And the song is about dependency, not love. ""it's about a one-sided, co-dependant relationship where the lover has been neglected/forlorn/badly hurt for a long time, is aware of the unhealthiness of not ending it with his beloved, but has nothing and nobody else in his life to sustain him, so he stays - even though doing so only continues to hurt and atrophy him""" |
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| Radiohead – Weird Fishes/Arpeggi Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I heard that Kid A was all about a dream Thom had, where he floats down the river Liffey and then into the Irish sea. But then again its so political. I think Radiohead use dream imagery to symbolize their political beliefs. Pyramid song was either the same dream as Kid A or a different one or something, but i don't see it as too important, its a means to an end. But radiohead love water imagery dont they. In in rainbows, 15 steps and then a seer drop seems to be walking the plank somebody else said. ANd this song says the same thing but with the world instead. In rainbows talks a lot about faustus and mephistopheles (the man who sold his soul to the devil) which i take to mean conforming to society so much that you lose your individuality. Hitting bottom at the end, all i can think of is fight club fight club fight club!! I think this song is about finding a way to escape consumerist society and the rules it implicitly imposes on the individual. This fits with the next song "Im just an insect trying to get out of the hive" |
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| Radiohead – Nude Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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"You'll go to hell for what your dirty mind is thinking" Does anybody know if this linewas included in the song before the IN Rainbows version? Im asking because In rainbows seems to be about selling your soul to the devil, the devil being consumerism. I know Nude was written wayyyy before In Rainbows, so im wondering if the line about going to hell was added or if it has always been there. Anyhow, the song for me seems to be playing devils advocate; the subject becomes the narrator, rather than the narrator singing about the subject. All i need does the same thing i think. Bodysnatchers being about a battle between society and individual for the control of oneself, Nude seems to be consumerist society telling the disenfranchised individual why he will fail and should give up; a poetic way of reflecting the fears of the narrator when he s not playing devils advocate. ANyway, be good to know about this lyric. |
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| Radiohead – Bodysnatchers Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Refer back to the song Kid A on Kid A. A lyric from the song is 'we've got heads on sticks, you've got ventriliquists' The meaning of this i think is the same as bodysnatchers. It isn't that we can't express ourselves, it is that we've lost ourselves. Even our thoughts and emotions are conrolled by society (the bodysnatcher or the ventriliquist) THis fits with the fact that Hail to the thief was an album very Orwellian in meaning: It essentially said that Orwell's Thought police in 1984 are very much a part of reality: We are born and raised to love our culture, we are a part of it as much as it is imposed on us. The conflict in the song then is not a war between the body and the mind, it is a war for control of the mind between society and individual, and society is much much stronger but the indiviual is determined not to be erased. |
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| Radiohead – 15 Step Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I think the album in rainbows as a whole is making a political point, like all of em since ok computer. In Rainbows evokes the myth of dr faustus and mephistopheles (I cant be bothered to spell him right). Faust sells his soul to Mephistopheles who works for the devil. I think this (selling your soul to the devil) is what the whole album is about, but taking the devil only to be a metaphorical devil. Im pretty sure what the devil is supposed to symbolize is consumerist society. I think the song 15 STEPS then is about our fate being completely controlled by the thief (capitalism) The narrator seems to be asking the proponent of consumerist culture why it keeps leading him to dissapointment when he is trying to follow it. But this dissapointment comes to us all, one by one, because of the fleeting nature of the stuff we buy we have to go out and buy more stuff, and at some point in our lives we will become disenchanted with living in this way. This dissapointment i think might be taken to be shallow uniformity. Shallow uniformity is obeying the rules and norms of your society without knowing why and getting no pleasure out of this obedience. I thin this is what the nxt song, bodysnatchers, is about. Consumerism controls our fates to the extent that it controls what we are thinking about and believing in and talking about. 'i have no idea what i am talking about' seems to suggest somebody is putting words in his mouth, snatching his body. This bodysnatcher is society imposing beliefs and capitalist values in us |
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| Radiohead – Morning Bell Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Ooh, sory i forgot something important. As i was saying, Radiohead are a band with an anticapitalist sentiment, yet they realise that they cannot escape capitalism (They need to sign to a record label in the music industry, and we need to pay money to buy their music). The lyric 'Where'd you park the car?' epitomises this. Although the father doesn't care about the furniture and will freely give it to the mother, he is still extremely concerned with another material posseion; the car. Without the car, he cannot escape and survive for very long, and he cannot help his children. In short, the father needs a bit of capitalism in order to escape capitalism. Realizing the catch-22 situation (you cant escape capitalism if you use it, but you need to use it in order to escape it, but you cant escape it if you use it, and so on and so on,) is the problem at the heart of the album of Kid A. It is also why the album cant find an answer to the problem. In any case, listening to Kid A is a damn good mental excersize, and is says something quite complicated that needs to be said. I didn't get a full appreciation of Kid A until i came back to it after i was a teenager and a little smarter. But i think everyone will back me up here when i say that even if you don't fully understand what a Radiohead song is about (and i dont claim to by the way, hell i'm almost definitely overanalysing!) you still feel the moods and emotions that are at the heart of the music, and it is those moods that encaptulate the feelings of anxiety and isolation and hopelessness we feel as disenfranchised members of western society (not unlike Winston in George Orell's 1984 (2+2=5)). Above anything, Radiohead reassure us that we aren't alone in thinking what we think and feeling how we feel, and that is why they are my favorite band. |
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| Radiohead – Morning Bell Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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On the base level, yes, the song is about divorce. But we all know radiohead are cleverer than that. The reason most of us like them is that most of their songs are extremely difficult to find the exact meaning of, it generates conversations like this! I like to think of morning bell in the context of the whole album (kid A). So firstly I'll talk about what I think Kid A is all about. Skip further down if you just want to know what i think of Morning Bell. Kid A is a concept album, borne out of Radioheads abivalent feelings towards their own success after Ok computer; they didn't just want to churn out another similar sounding album and gradually fade away, churning out album after album, each slightly worse than the last, until nobody likes their new stuff any more. Kid A in my opinion is an experiment conducted by radiohead to see if they can escape this type of decaying popularity so many bands suffer from. Also, thnk about their music as a whole. Generally speaking, it is about the worries and anxieties created by a capitalist society that is fully in control of the world, but not in control of itself, to the extent that it will eventually destroy the planet and all of us along with it. Take for example idiotech: (we are not scaremongering, this is really happening! Women and children first etc.) Women and children first being a reference to the titanic, this is a metaphor that suggests living on earth is like being stuck on a sinking ship; hopelessly inescapable. Yet Kid A i think is about somehow trying to escape it, just like their own success. So, take these two things into consideration: 1-Radiohead wish to escape their own success. (this doesen't mean they want to be unsuccessful, but rather, they are worried that the future of their band if they carry on like they have been doing) 2-Their music (from the bends onwards) is generally about trying to escape a capitalist system which will destroy the earth. OK. BACK TO MORNING BELL. 'Cut the kids in half', as a few of you have suggested, refers to the well-known story about the two women claiming to be the mother of one child. I agree with you. However, notice the difference between this story and the lyrics in morning bell. In the story, 'cut the kids in half' is a test to find out who the real mother is; and the real mother' sentiment is that she would rather give her child to the other woman than allow her child to be cut in half. In the song however, the narrator (the father) is addressing the mother when he says 'you can keep the furniture'; and he is adressing her throughout the whole song. So 'cut the kids in half' is a way of saying 'you care more about the furniture than our children, and if we were tested (like the two women) I would be the one that really cared about them. The song in my opinion therefore , although about divorce, is more about the differences between the father and the mother. The father is the antithesis of capitalism; he wants to escape it. However, the mother is an embodiment of capitalism; she cares more about her material possessions than her children. And as the mother is an embodiment of capitalism, the father wants to escape her too. I like the comment about father christmas coming down the chimney. For me it further shows the mother's obsession with capitalism (christmas being the retailers favorite time of year). 'Bump on the head' for me symbolizes that father christamas (symbolic of her material possessions) have confused the mother to the extent that she is a slave to it. 'Nobody wants to be a slave' suggests more anxiety in the father's mind: he doesen't want to be a slave, he realizes what is important, being a friend to people, being there for his children. He believes that the mother is a slave to capitalism without even realizing it. He isn't, he tells her 'you can keep the furniture'. 'Release me'; well, after everything i've already said i think you see my train of thought on what this means. However, as I said before, the divorce, the mother and the father are metaphorical. The 'father' is somebody who thinks there are more important things in life than capitalism, while the 'mother' is a slave to capitalism, while the 'divorce' signifies a split between the two. THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION TO ASK ABOUT THE SONG!!! WHO DO THE KIDS REPRESENT? They represent us! We have a very grim choice; either we can go and live with the mother (capitalism), indulge ourselves in material posessions and contribute towards the destruction of the planet. OR we can go and live with the father (anticapitalism) and realise the truth; that friendship and humanity (and great music) are more important than material things. But then we come to a problem, how the hell are we going to do be independent from capitalist society, really? Radiohead face the same problem with their music; how can they write music with anticapitalist sentiments when they are signed to a record label, and we, the fans, escape capitalism when we need to buy their music? This is the main problem that Kid A tries to solve. But it can't. It tries to get away from itself (im not here, this isn't happening) And suceeds for a while in 'treefingers'. The struggle is born again in 'optimistic' with a new answer to the problem (you can try the best you can, the best you can is good enough). But too soon we find ourselves 'In Limbo', and then the original problem arises in idiotech and morning bell. And at the end, the only answer we get is 'i will see you in the next life'. |
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