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Maquiladora Lyrics
Here it comes, here it comes
I can feel the hills exploding
Exploding gracefully
Burning up the freeway
Here it comes
Grass is green at the edge of the bubble
Beautiful kids into beautiful trouble
Well it seems to fall out of the sky and come down on you
Oh baby, burn
Fast Toyota, burns rubber
Useless rockers from England
Good times had by all
Just swallow your guilt and your conscience
Blue and white birds stepping hard on the pedal
Interstate 5 runs straight down the middle
And it seems to fall out of the sky and come down on you
Oh baby, burn
dude this is like one of Radiohead's best B-sides.....2 comments only? OK THAR yea, this song's about how screwed up the world is
I completely agree with periwinklebyday's interpretation; and I really doubt that seeing how screwed up the world is, Radiohead's going to title a song that speaks of record companies and the music industry 'Maquiladora'. When you get rich by entertaining people (in the way a musician/artist/actor/whatever does) there has to be a moment when you feel terribly bad about yourself and what you're doing about the afore-mentioned screwed up world we live in.
And Street Spirit, yeah, life's full of low-profile –no-profile– everyday heroes we don't even notice because we're so busy getting filthy rich and/or just being comfortable.
Now... done with the ranting :).
I don't care what the actual meaning of this song is, I love the feeling that it invokes. I want to let go of all my worries and just indulge in life's guilty little pleasures. The lyrics to me paint a picture of a bunch of young people having fun, not really knowing where they're going or what they're doing in life but trying to outrun what they know will inevitably come in the future - the 9-5 jobs, the day-in, day-out lifestyle, possibly they're also outrunning all the things they know are messed up with the world but don't feel they can or should help to fix.
If you look at the lyrics, it fits pretty well, I don't think it needs much explaining although some of the lines bring out more abstract feelings.
Interestingly, this is very similar to an early Radiohead song (back when they were 'On A Friday') called 'Shindig'. Most of it is the same, except that 'Shindig' is a little quicker, lacks Jonny's great solo and has an extra chorus thingy that actually sounds pretty good. If they re-recorded 'Shindig' in a higher quality, I would like it more than 'Maquiladora'.
I think its talking about how being a musician is so stupid when things like Maquiladoras exist in Mexico. The world has so many social, environmental, and political problems, and to waste onself listening to silly english music...well...that's just stupid, and you'll burn in hell for it.
I think this song is about LA and record executives/companies. The "swallow your guilt..." line implies that something is being sacrificed. This is probably in reference to when Radiohead signed with Capitol (hq'ed in Hollywood) for US distribution. In "Meeting People Is Easy" you really get a sense of how soulless and fake these people really are and how upset the band members, especially Thom, are in having to play their games and deal with them. I would imagine that Thom heard the term Maquiladora while in CA and thought it was a good word that typified the SoCal lifestyle. Supposedly, the original title to this was "Interstate 5."
The first verse makes me think... people dying in a glamorous way and becoming 'heros' for it. This actually gives me amazing inspiration for a song. Yay.
ive got this song off the live dvd and im in love with it, so damn good, what can i say its radiohead
Sounds like "blue-eyed birds" to me.
Sounds like "blue-eyed birds" to me.