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Everything in Its Right Place Lyrics

Kid A, Kid A
Kid A, Kid A
Everything
Everything
Everything
Everything

In its right place
In its right place
In its right place
In its 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

Everything
Everything
Everything

In its right place
In its right place
In its right place
Right place

There are two colors in my head
There are two colors in my head
What, what is that you tried to say?
What, what was that you tried to say?

Tried to say
Tried to say
Tried to say
Tried to say

Everything
Everything
Everything
Everything
Song Info
Submitted by
vache On Jun 01, 2001
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Cover art for Everything in Its Right Place lyrics by Radiohead

How can so many people be so wrong about one song?

This song is about the conception of a sentient being. I.E. Kid A.

The phrase Everything in it's right place is common parlance for 'two eyes, two legs, four fingers and a thumb on each hand, etc.' In other words 'Kid A' has been brought into the world with no defects/mutations/disabilities.

The sucking a lemon, as already pointed out on this board, is a phrase referring to 'looking miserable'.

What is the first thing newborn babies do?

Why, cry of course! Face like he's sucking a lemon covered then.

There are two colours in my head.

I.E. black and white. As a newborn, Kid A is an innocent. He has no 'grey' concepts or befuddled morals. He is a blank slate without malice, and only the ability to distinguish between things that make him happy 'white' or make him unhappy 'black'.

The part which is most disturbing is the line 'What is that you tried to say.'

This implies that 'Kid A' has developed the first stage of sentience, the ability to understand speech. He is about to have all manner of dubious thoughts and concepts thrust into his open mind, corrupting the innocence therein, and robbing him of his monotonal morality.

Fare thee well Kid A.

God bless you, and all who sail in you.

You are kid a so am i and tom

@Max_Wayne The next track, Kid A does begin with like some cradle melodies, sounds like child toys. The whole song sounds like disorientation of being a baby, words make no sense.

@Max_Wayne yeah you shroomin for sure

Cover art for Everything in Its Right Place lyrics by Radiohead

This song, in my view, is specifically about the human condition. The two main opposing metaphors, sucking the lemon and the two colours highlight a common blight and a common desire. Its the awful bitterness of waking into a banal and impossibly complicated world contrasted with a desire for easy answers, for black and white solutions in our problems. In reality the two colours in our heads just dont fit the world around us- and that causes bitterness. Its probably one of the most powerful of all the radiohead songs for its spineshivering musical composition as much as its lyrical beauty. We all yearn for everything to be in its right place- this song is about our longing for contentment.

sounds exactly like an explanation of the meaning of vanilla sky... which i find to be incredibly interesting how much kid a had an impact onn that movie, theyd listen to it literally before every scene to get into character... and ill venture a guess that the line ill see you in another life when we are both cats came from the closing track..

Not Valid

sounds exactly like an explanation of the meaning of vanilla sky... which i find to be incredibly interesting how much kid a had an impact onn that movie, theyd listen to it literally before every scene to get into character... and ill venture a guess that the line ill see you in another life when we are both cats came from the closing track..

Not Valid
Cover art for Everything in Its Right Place lyrics by Radiohead

Well to me this song has to do with dreams. You know when you wake up sometimes and you're not sure if what you dreamed was actually only a dream, and you look around to make sure "Everything" is "in it's right place"? Also, "Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon" has a metaphorical sense to it, the way your face looks after sucking on a lemon, scared, as if it was a nightmare. Finally, the line "There are two colors in my head" is probably the thing I'm most sure of. The two colors are most probably Black and White. The idea being that black represents nightmares while white represents good dreams. And these colors are "inside his head" when he dreams. This is all a longshot I guess, but you never know. Also the mood of the song is very mellow and dreamy.

My only backup for my analogy is this: The soundtrack for Vanilla Sky was chosen pretty carefully, and if you look at the lyrics to most of the songs you will find they all have something to do with plot. Therefore, using a song having to do with dreams (maybe they actually know what this song is about?) would be a good choice.

Oh well, who knows? I could be totally off...

If you watch the documentary Reflections on Kid A, Thom tells us that this, and most of the songs on Kid A, were written by cutting up lyrics he had been unhappy with [due to writers block] and had previously been throwing away, then putting them all in a hat and pulling out bits of lyrics from the different, unsuccessful songs. Putting them together to form the lyrics you hear on at least half the songs on the album [inc. Idiotheque and National Anthem if i rmbr rightly]. IOW this and a lot of the other Kid A lyrics are...

Not Valid
Cover art for Everything in Its Right Place lyrics by Radiohead

being manic-depressive, i connect so much with the line 'there are two colors in my head'. describes it perfectly

Cover art for Everything in Its Right Place lyrics by Radiohead

Beautiful and sad song, my favorite radiohead song.. though some have pointed out that some lyrics were "pulled from a hat" I believe this song has a personal meaning to Thom Yorke from reading alot of his interviews. "Yesterday i woke up sucking a lemon" could refer to waking up in a bad mood but with radiohead its usual not that simple, I believe hes expressing his bitter disappointment aka sucking a lemon.The two colours in his head( spelled the english way) again speaks of the mood of a human being, and how we are influenced by our moods it would be interesting to see what these colours are but we know dont we? from Videotape red, blue and green."What is that you tried to say" is in my opinion a reference back to the o.k computer days where all the "noise" of our lives drowns out everything, we cant even express our inner thoughts, to Thom Yorke this is the prison of our lives.Finally "Everything in its right Place"signifies our desperate need for order, for everything and everyone to be in its "right place". Amazing that Radiohead could say so much with just five lines about the human condition but thats why they are the greatest band in the world.

Cover art for Everything in Its Right Place lyrics by Radiohead

sucking a lemon is a common uk phrase, it means you look miserable.

Cover art for Everything in Its Right Place lyrics by Radiohead

Perhaps a ref. to Fahrenheit 451?

"you weren't hurting anyone, you were only hurting THINGS! And since things couldn't really be hurt,since things felt nothing, and things don't scream or whimper,...there was nothing to tease your conscience later... you were simply cleaning up..."(p.37)

Thom could be relating these "things" to the emotions of kid A, who is, after all , an android, having the inability to feel.

"Everything to its proper place" (p.37)

just a connection...

Cover art for Everything in Its Right Place lyrics by Radiohead

Overall, I get the picture that waking up sucking on lemon starts the song which means to show that you have been living life but somehow it is a souring experience and you have now come to realize this on a conscious level. Yet as you try to question why things aren't the way they should be or why you are not as happy as you could have been, there are domineering tones of "everything in its right place" that come through the obvious experience of living in a world rife with systems and positions and rules for everything. So you are struggling to break free from convention and yet still not sure of why or how this going to happen..you have just a splinter in your mind that something is not right as things just don't feel right. And as you begin an introspective search, you find there is a repeating theme of absolutes that your logical mind will always offer in place of your heart's greatest aspiration. In this rumination, you have delved in so deep you are distracted by everything even the inner voice that has tried to say there may be another way out or perhaps you tried to say is an external person or event that has been warning of some kind of foreboding danger while you continue ever deeper in thought.

regardless the dark dangerous tones speak to me of conflict..an internal one in my opinion.

wow

I can't help but to agree, I can't help but to agree. Can't help but to agree. To Agree!!

Never feel you lack resource. Never need you lack resource; Never will you lack resource. Never lack RESOURCE.

As we clean. As we clean. As we clean. As we clean. In our braindrain. In our brain, drain. One hour brain drain. our be ranged rain!

Cover art for Everything in Its Right Place lyrics by Radiohead

Tonight as I'm listening to the song I feel is about being bitter and sad, and living on a little bubble of confinement: You are alone and everything is "In its right place" not necessarily good,it's just that you can not do anything to change things. Then you realize there is other people outside and the colours in your head might be memories about something/someone very specific. But is too late and you are not sure about their intentions, you can not comprehend what they mean, so you go back to your own crazy world, where everything is "In its right place" You try to explain yourself but it is just a futile effort.

Basically I think is about how hard is to put into words your thoughts and feelings. Even more to try to understand what the other people means.

My Interpretation
Cover art for Everything in Its Right Place lyrics by Radiohead

The way I see it is that the constituents of reality are set in a state of motion (its wrong place) relative to someones fixed perception. When something shitty happens, it is difficult to understand that the event of significance was in its right place in doing so and actually wasn't wrong at all. It is the universe saying, "all is as it should be" and we reciprocate by splitting the "allness" into right and wrong as we reject the universe - even if paint over the stain, all is as it should be

My Interpretation

Love this