Dollars and Cents

Wow, who came up with lyrics... whoever wrote that screwed up the meaning. First of all it doesnt say "bear witness, we can use" it says "their weapons, we can use" and at the end it says "crack your little souls" not "kill." This song is a threat to those in control of our society that the people could knock over the entire capitalistic system simply through economics. The line Why don't you quiet down? is the reaction to thoms message. All the types of currency represent the people of the world. Basically i think this is what thoms saying... hey their anarchists anyways! Niam... your a materialist too... all of us are.

soulless materialism and the evil things done in the name of money and the never shutting up, constant advertising, constant hot air blowing around and just singing "quiet down" at the top of your lungs but you can't be heard over the noise what an incredible album

I think this song can be taken as many different contexts. Such as much of Radiohead's lyrics are flexible, which makes them so unique. Personally, I sense the meaning of this song as a bitter confrontation with a depressive state of mind. "There are better things to talk about, be constructive with your blues." To me this serves as a reality check for a ruminating, depressed mindset that gets someone nowhere. Being constructive with your blues, in my view, relates to the troubling truth that often times we know what we want, what would make us happier, so if only we could be constructive with our "blues" and get the hell out of this hole by taking action towards our respective directives.

"Why don't you quiet down?" Rumination that drives us further down; we want these thoughts to stop, but the more we fight them the more we want them to "quiet down", as this question is repeated several times.

"He never goes and he never stays." The warnings never leave, and when they just so happen to, it never stays that way. Back to square one.

"All over the planet's dead, All over the planet so let me out of here." Nothing we encounter in the outside world can truly assuage the pains that leave us back-drifting. Pleasure is temporary, never long lasting - everything lies to you, even though it doesn't.

Just my thoughts...

I think this song is fairly obvious. It seems to me, that Radiohead is directing this lyric towards the record executives. "Be constructive with your blues, bear witness we can use".

Essentially, he's taking the role of the record companies, who are more interested in squeezing the creative juices out of depressed and screwed up people than they are about the souls of the people who are producing the music for them.

How much great music is created by depressed, upset people, who use music as their outlet? If Jeff Buckley had been a happy-go-lucky kind of guy, his music wouldn't have been as recognized as it was.

The instrumentation of this song is incredibly eerie. If im listening to this song in the dark, I feel as if death itself is hovering over my shoulder. Definitely a great song though.

when thom says that we are the dollars and cents, i think it means that we're controlled by the CEOs and business execs and stuff. When he sings "why dont u quiet down?" its kinda like the CEOs telling us to do our job so then can make their money

I always ask myself how differents views of the whole world we can have, me in Argentina, South America and lot of you in developments countries. You really don´t realize how strong are messagges like "D&C" in societies that are still discussing about capitalism or socialism...

radiohead 1125 makes sense. it's within our power to stop the advancement of capitalism by not spending our hard-earnt money with these massive corporations. shop local!

This has got to be one of the best songs Radiohead's ever done (along with "Bullet Proof...I Wish I Was...", "Street Spirit", "The Bends", and "Amazing Sounds of Orgy"). It sounds beautifully brooding, with a modern twist in it. I love this beautifuly repetative resonance! It has a modern jazzy feel to it, and at the same it has a rock beat. It has a desperate tone to it that cries out to you. It seems to me that Thom must have been influenced by Miles Davis, or Talk Talk (after all, their favorite artist is Mark Hollis). This song is very close to perfection!

radiohead, thom in particular, is against globalism and the central banks, the IMF, the WTO, and other organizations that are moving us towards a one world government. And he should be, just like every one of us should be. The agendas of these people are not in the interest of the people, the people are their dollars and cents. It seems to me, like a lot of people I know, that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.