| Beck – Tropicalia Lyrics | 22 years ago |
| Love this song. Absolutely. All of Beck's Latin songs are excellent. I like how he has assimilated all these musical styles into his repertoire. It makes his albums infinitely listenable - there are Beck songs for every mood, and you can go through all of his albums and never get sick of him because of all the differences. | |
| Beck – Ramshackle Lyrics | 22 years ago |
|
Yeah there is a really weird 2nd part to this song. It scared me the first time I heard it - all of a sudden these beeps and whatever after about a minute of silence. If you go to beck.com they might know if the 2nd part has a title. After the last track ("Static") on Mutations there is a really cool song called "Diamond Bollocks." I don't know why he puts songs at the end of songs but Beck is awesome so I forgive him. |
|
| Radiohead – Paranoid Android Lyrics | 22 years ago |
| Also, "Paranoid Android" could relate to "Karma Police" on the same album. Maybe the Karma Police work for the dictator to terrorize the population. They act on his paranoia. OK, maybe this is out there, and I have no lyrics to back it up, but I think it's an interesting thought. And if OK Computer is an epic then the songs have to interrelate somehow. Yes I know about the technology theme. | |
| Radiohead – Airbag Lyrics | 22 years ago |
|
I think the "jackknifed juggernaut" is a semi truck or tractor-trailer, whatever you want to call it. I always hear about a semi that "jackknifed on I-94" or something. So I think the accident had to do with a car and a semi. Did the accident actually happen to Thom or one of the band, or is it just hypothetical? |
|
| Radiohead – Paranoid Android Lyrics | 22 years ago |
|
This is one of my favorite songs. While reading this I saw some good interpretations I hadn't thought about. But I was surprised no one has the same interpretation as I do. I don't know if it's right at all. Who knows. Anyway --- I think "Paranoid Android" is about a megalomanical dictator, or someone's fantasy of being "the king." He hears voices in his head. (schizophrenia?) Maybe the voices are who he's talking to when he says "what's that" (like he can't understand what they're saying) He is paranoid; he suspects everyone of treason. His paranoia leads him to see people all around him who are plotting against him ("ambition makes you look pretty ugly") He wants to get rid of all challengers to his throne ("you will be first against the wall"). He wants complete power - others' opinions "are of no consequence at all." Above all, he wants to be remembered and feared, which is why he asks "why won't he remember my name" and orders the executions of those who don't show him respect. Perhaps the voices are the ones who respond "I guess he does" to his question. The comparison to a "kicking squealing Gucci little piggy" could be the 'traitors' being dragged out into the street. And "the crackle of pigskin" could be those traitors suffering his wrath. "The dust and the screaming" and "the panic, the vomit" could describe a scene of soldiers coming into a town to root out the traitors, tearing apart families and killing all who get in their way. Sort of like what I imagine Serbia, Iraq and other countries under the heel of a despot experienced. Hitler's Holocaust is another example - remember the scenes from "Schindler's List" and other Holocaust movies where the Nazis go through the ghettoes rounding up Jews. The "rain down" part might be the dictator standing out in the rain by himself, yelling at the heavens. Dictators are known to be pretty insane. The lyrics reminded me for some reason of Roman Emperor Nero, playing his fiddle as Rome burned. The lyric "God loves his children" reflects the dictator's belief that he is the son of God, just as the Roman emperors claimed divine descent. Of course, as others have suggested, the "dictator" could be anyone, including the Roman empire/emperors, or America, or Saddam Hussein, or Thom Yorke, or me. Some of the lyrics could have personal meaning for the songwriter, like the "Gucci little piggy" story above. Anyway, this is what I thought of when I listened to the song on repeat about 15x because it is such a great song. |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.