| Stone Temple Pilots – Creep Lyrics | 4 years ago |
| DISCLAIMER: Please don\'t think that I am in any way condoning violence in this interpretation. \n\nI see this as a young man\'s descent into madness and violence as a result of how he is treated by society, a la Taxi Driver or Fight Club. "Half the man I used to be" sounds like it is from the perspective of an older man pining for the past, but I think this means the speaker feels he has become a shell of himself due to his current situation, feeling he is insignificant. "Feeling uninspired/Think I\'ll start a fire" refers to the man wanting to engage in antisocial behavior just to make something of his life. "Everybody run/Bobby\'s got a gun" is the man imagining (or perhaps actualizing) violence, thinking it will somehow make him feel better. "Think you\'re kinda neat/Then she tells me I\'m a creep" I see as more literal, he attempts to form a relationship with a girl he likes (not necessarily romantic even) but is rejected and takes it personally. (Clearly, "creep" was a popular insult in 1992. But seriously, it can be hurtful to come across as creepy when you\'re just trying to befriend someone.) "Friends don\'t mean a thing" he may have "friends" per se, but he doesn\'t have a real connection with them and those people truly don\'t mean anything to him. Overall, I think this relates the experience of a volatile man who feels rejected by everyone around him, and this drives him to violent ends. | |
| Radiohead – Just Lyrics | 4 years ago |
| I think this song is about living with/having a friend who’s an addict. “Changed the locks three times/Still come reeling through the door” refers to the addict breaking into his/her friend’s (the speaker) house and/or coming back despite being told to leave. “Comes like a comet/Suckered you but not your friends” refers to the fact that the speaker’s friend got hooked even though their friends didn’t. “One day I’ll get to you/And teach you how to get to purest hell” maybe refers to the addict not even really getting benefits/highs off of doing drugs, and the speaker is offering to make his friend’s life better. “You do it to yourself…” refrain refers to the addict constantly self-sabotaging and the speaker sees it as tragic that his friend is constantly making things harder for themselves. | |
| Radiohead – Nude Lyrics | 4 years ago |
| I think this song is about (especially in the Western world) the obsession with success, and us all having the idea that we're going to be great someday, if only that were true... when in fact the vast, vast majority of us will do nothing spectacular and even if we do, we will eventually fade into the ether of the universe (I'm metaphorically speaking, I'm not from the 1500s) and everything we ever said or did will be forgotten. It's a pessimistic song for a pessimistic universe. | |
| Radiohead – Anyone Can Play Guitar Lyrics | 4 years ago |
| I actually kind of love this song, it's catchy and fun (and has a memorable "performance"... look up "Anyone Can Play Guitar at the 1993 MTV Beachhouse" on YouTube if you haven't seen that hilarious and cringeworthy escapade), and in my opinion it's Radiohead making fun of themselves, even at an early stage. Before the success of OK Computer, Kid A, In Rainbows, etc., Radiohead was a cringey grunge band with only a couple of half-decent songs (IMO, this one and Creep were pretty good songs, but not nearly as good as their other works), and they were desperate for success. The speaker is an aspiring rockstar who thinks too highly of himself. He thinks he will be great someday, like Jim Morrison ("grow my hair I am Jim Morrison"), but doesn't want to put in the work involved in becoming that great. Hence he relies on "destiny" for success instead of what it actually takes. "I wanna be in a band when I get to heaven" indicates that he doesn't even want to put in the work in this life, he'd rather wait until he died to be a rockstar. Finally, "anyone can play guitar and they won't be a nothing anymore" is the speaker dismissing the talent it takes to play guitar, and shows that he thinks non-famous musicians are "nothings". It could also even be a joke about how talented Jonny Greenwood is, since he is an excellent guitarist (among many other instruments) and just an overall talented person. | |
| Radiohead – No Surprises Lyrics | 5 years ago |
| I hate to sound like a pretentious as fuck Radiohead fan, but I love this song and this is my personal interpretation. You can interpret it however you want though, it's a song after all. A lot of people see this as being about suicide and deciding to live at the end, but I actually have a slightly more pessimistic interpretation. I think the first three lines ("a heart that's full up like a landfill...") refer to how shitty society is (telling that this was written in the 90's and things are still exactly the same). "Heart" refers to either literal heart disease or more likely having a lot of emotional burden. "Job" is easy, refers to how most people are unsatisfied or poorly treated at their job and the stress is "slowly kill[ing]" them". "Bruises" refer to trauma or other bad experiences that don't easily "heal". "You look so tired, unhappy, bring down the government..." refers to frustration with aforementioned shitty society and the "you" the speaker refers to is the other people he sees around him (I'm just referring to the speaker as "him" for convenience's sake, but it could be anyone), he sees that everyone is downtrodden by an oppressive society. "Bring down the government" is not Radiohead literally telling us to bring down the government (that would be RATM's department), it's just a frustrated "fuck the government" sentiment because the government is shitty and "[doesn't] speak for us". (Again telling that this was written from a British perspective but could apply anywhere.) "I'll take a quiet life, a handshake of carbon monoxide" refers to suicide (as a lot of people have already interpreted it), the speaker wants the quiet oblivion he sees in death, and carbon monoxide is considered a painless death so that's what he wants. (This doesn't mean he's literally committing suicide this way, I see it as more of a metaphor for a painless death.) The "no alarms and no surprises" refrain again refers to the quiet oblivion seen with death, also I believe he is contrasting this to the many "alarms" and "surprises" seen in the unpredictability of life. "Silent, silent" refers again to the quietness associated with death. "This is my final fit, my final bellyache" could either refer to this being the last time the speaker ever feels pain or anything else associated with the drag of life, or it could be more literal, referring to the final thrashes and pain of death. Then the refrain is repeated but this time with "please" at the end, indicating a more desperate appeal (perhaps to the universe or God or however you interpret it) that this will indeed be his death and that he will get the pleasant ending he hopes for. "Such a pretty house and such a pretty garden" is my favorite line, unlike a lot of people who either see it as him describing heaven (so he has died or at least wants to go to heaven) or him deciding to live and once again appreciating life, but this is where I differ in my opinion. I think this line refers to an angry and frustrated mindset, the speaker looks at the false promise society gives of the "pretty house and pretty garden" (kind of like the "white picket fence" ideal) and reacts in anger that he has been duped, and instead gets the "heart that's full up like a landfill" reality instead. Finally the song ends with the refrain, this time with "let me out of here". Some people interpret it as the speaker committing suicide and either surviving it and regretting his attempt, or dying from it and regretting that he's dying. I interpret it that he has not yet died, but he again feels the desperation, he is trapped and just wants out. Beautiful song and I think it has powerful social commentary too. | |
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