Thom Yorke – Skip Divided

"Skip Divided" as written by and Thomas Edward Yorke....
I'm in a skip divided, malfunction
I flap around and dive bomb
Frantically around your lie
Enveloped in a sad distraction
I've got your voice repeating endlessly
Could you guide me in
Could you smother me

I'd swoop around your head
But I never hit
I'm blinded by your daylight
Electric veins passed through me
I thought there was this big connection
I only got my name and I got this situation

I just need a number and location
Without appropriate papers or permissions
I'm no to buy tight situation
And then I head into your french windows
I thought there was this big connection
I only got my name
I only got my situation

I just need my number and location
The wall keeps telling me
Hey Hey, Hey Hey
Hey Hey, The devil may
Hey Hey, Hey Hey, Hey Hey

Yeah, you are a fool, you are a fool
For sticking round, for sticking round

Yeah, you are a fool, you are a fool
For sticking round, for sticking round

I've done every trick in the book
I tried to look at you
Every trick in the book
How come I look?

No more common dress or elliptical caress
Don't look into your eyes cause you're desperately in love, in love, in love

When you walk in a room everything disappears
When you walk in a room it's a terrible mess
When you walk in a room I start to melt
When you walk in a room I follow you 'round
Like a dog I'm a dog, I'm a dog, I'm a dog, I'm a lapdog
I'm your lapdog, yeah

I just got my number and location
I just need my number and location


Lyrics submitted by black_cow_of_death

"Skip Divided" as written by Thomas Edward Yorke

Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.

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Skip Divided song meanings
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47 Comments

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  • +6
    MemoryI find it in no way stalker like.
    A tragic unconditional hopeless love, each word makes sense.
    By far my new favorite on the album
    PeachSheepon February 19, 2009   Link
  • +5
    General CommentExcerpt from an interview with Thom Yorke on XFM, 21 August 2006:
    Kennedy: "Now is that one of the love songs that you referred to earlier on?"
    Thom Yorke: "Yeah... kind of. It's a bit messed up for that. It sounds like it's more of a love song than it really is. It's actually a song... it's more about the dislocation than anything else to me. When I... when I sing it, I always have this image of slick black oil"
    Interviewer: "So that's what you're thinking about when you're performing that?"
    Thom Yorke: "Yeah, that and sex"
    eatenbythewormson October 01, 2006   Link
  • +3
    General Commentmissing lyrics -
    enveloped in a sad distraction
    I'm known to bite in tight situations

    I think this is Thom's own way of describing what goes on in his head when he's involved with women or relationships. There's a notable tension in the heart monitor-like beep throughout the song, as well as the percussive aspects of Thom's breathing/hyperventilating. He feels dread for loving whoever the woman is, beneath her, as he is 'blinded by her light.' I don't think it's stalkerish, as he describes himself as a lapdog, something that would leave the woman in control, not the speaker.
    quercusalbaon June 29, 2006   Link
  • +3
    General Commentah cool! i hadn't noticed the cyber aspect in the song. it makes more sense now. but he has obviously heard her talk and is around her... they just can't move forward. sad...
    eatenbythewormson August 12, 2006   Link
  • +2
    General CommentI agree with quercusalba. It is not a stalker song. It is not about unrequited love either. It's a love song about two people who connected in every way except they couldn't take the last step to connect physically. Their hangups and the fact that the connection was so strong psychologically kept them from approaching each other. I think the mood of the song is because Thom just wanted to make light of these feelings.
    eatenbythewormson July 16, 2006   Link
  • +2
    General CommentI think eatenbyworms has a good idea of the song. It seems maybe like the song is about an online relationship...which would explain the vaguely electronic feel to the ambience. Two people are in love in cyberspace and then when they are to meet in real life, the anxiety they feel is detailed by this song.

    "i got a number and location" (ip address, a representation of the safe disconnect the internet provides)
    "i only got my name, i only got my situation" (the other person can't know anything about you but what you let them know)

    Thinking about it this way, the first verse (and maybe most of the other lyrics) suggest the singer has given up prematurely on the relationship out of fear of this meeting and curses his stupidity: "enveloped in a sad distraction", "i thought there was this big connection". But then near the end he says, "don't look into your eyes cause i'm desperately in love", so the singer may be trapped in some sort of anguish saying "should I or shouldn't I"

    just my disjointed thoughts
    fortheloveon July 26, 2006   Link
  • +2
    General CommentName and location sounds like ASL, nes pas?

    Cyber relation ship: check.
    PECOAEon August 11, 2006   Link
  • +2
    General CommentRaspo, do you even listen to Thom's interviews on the radio? He said it's about sex. Wake up! There are love songs, there are political songs and there are very personal songs in this album. That's what Thom said.
    eatenbythewormson October 06, 2006   Link
  • +2
    General CommentI interpreted the song as being narrated by a guy who's stuck in the "Friend Zone." He's desperately trying to get the attention of a girl who he likes so much, but he's just too inept/shy to get her to notice him as more than just a friend. All the while, he's mentally beating himself up for making such a futile effort ("You are a fool, you are a fool...I'm a lapdog"). I wish this song had been released a little earlier than July...I was in a situation similar to this one last spring, it would've reflected my mood perfectly.
    lostrockon October 08, 2006   Link
  • +2
    General CommentPerhaps the lyrics allow a few different interpretations but for me it's pretty clear. It's about someone (who has some relationship with a girl- not a stalker) who has completely fallen in love, to a point of them needing to see them / follow them everywhere, and the feeling isn't neccesarily reciprocated to the same extent, hence he questions wh heis in the relationship in the first place "you are a fool
    For sticking round," but can't / doesnt want to do anything about it, hence the rather trapped feeling lyrics towards the end.
    john_warner_ukon January 03, 2008   Link

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