Karma police
Arrest this man
He talks in maths
He buzzes like a fridge
He's like a detuned radio
Karma police
Arrest this girl
Her Hitler hairdo
Is making me feel ill
And we have crashed her party
This is what you'll get
This is what you'll get
This is what you'll get
When you mess with us
Karma police
I've given all I can
It's not enough
I've given all I can
But we're still on the payroll
This is what you'll get
This is what you'll get
This is what you'll get
When you mess with us
For a minute there
I lost myself, I lost myself
Phew, for a minute there
I lost myself, I lost myself
For a minute there
I lost myself, I lost myself
Phew, for a minute there
I lost myself, I lost myself
Arrest this man
He talks in maths
He buzzes like a fridge
He's like a detuned radio
Karma police
Arrest this girl
Her Hitler hairdo
Is making me feel ill
And we have crashed her party
This is what you'll get
This is what you'll get
This is what you'll get
When you mess with us
Karma police
I've given all I can
It's not enough
I've given all I can
But we're still on the payroll
This is what you'll get
This is what you'll get
This is what you'll get
When you mess with us
For a minute there
I lost myself, I lost myself
Phew, for a minute there
I lost myself, I lost myself
For a minute there
I lost myself, I lost myself
Phew, for a minute there
I lost myself, I lost myself
Lyrics submitted by piesupreme
Karma Police Lyrics as written by Edward John O'brien Colin Charles Greenwood
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Music India Private Limited, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
When you mess with us". I think they are like demonstrating their power here. When the mentioned society think not just about serving for someone or something but misuse the power of karma police. So it's not like they're only making bad judgements but boasting the power.
The first stanzas, I agree with what you say here. There are hateful persons in a group, or one person who represents a group, but who can't contain their hate and will something bad to happen to people who the narrator is simply annoyed by or jealous of. Their is irony is the paradox that it is the narrator who doesn't understand the uniqueness of those who don't fit in, but he is willing harm to those whom make him feel uncomfortable, but pretending it is karma they deserve. The people don't fit in to the mind of the narrator (but more importantly, it seems, his group - all those who are 'with' him - those who do whatever is required, whenever required, to 'fit in'). The thing here is to wonder if the narrator knows what he is stating is wrong. Is he just vexed and deceiving himself, or are these lines of the song just the usual lines used, his typical tools for his typical achievements?
When you realise he is in a group of like minded beings, you can't really conclude they don't know what it means to think and act how they do. Are they like minded, using the 'us' term simply because they are consistently and honestly people who make genuine mistakes about people and life, people who don't intend to harm? Is it a support group for the thought and act equivalent of tourrettes disease sufferers? No, that's ridiculoua, so it becomes clear this song has a very serious message.
What's more about realising that the opening stanzas are just words - typically deployed tools of hate, of making the world an oppositional place of falseness, a demonic thing - is then to assess what is meant later?
This is the suggestion of ambivalence. The suggestion that someone (in a group of those who hate and fit in together and who call their anti-marshalls against those who don't fit in, lying, pretending that they are wreaking bad karma against themselves) has seen the light and realised his wrongness can be taken. But, if you look at the song as dead words, with soul dead, demonic people who intend to live by whatever demonic 'pleasure' fix takes them, the later stanzas can be seen as exactly the same as the earlier ones - simply words to choose, tools to use as appropriate at any time for a desired effect. Whether these be for to slither out of punishment and avoid a clear, certain kind of recorded, public reputation, or just to speak at certain times to create a false image, trying on the form of the 'honest jacket' for looks and character sustenance, they are simply like meaningless scrabble letters to choose.
The point of the song, then, is to illuminate this context which uses the possibility of ambivalence, in the possibility of honesty. It's a context which the bad man will pick up and use, words to be employes, without doubt, maybe often. It is the context when the bad man of the bad group, the Illuminati president perhaps, or the girl living subtly, unknown, protecting the status and potency of the criminal damage ring - feigns the natural human being.
Perhaps "Karma Police" was intended to also highlight the possibility of eventual redemption, in eventual epiphany, within the ambivalence in the latter part of the song. I think, with a further u turn, it suggests a future where one or any one of the 'us' group, the demonic social controllers, a Mafia who rule really breathes truth in his or her lungs once more, in a distant future.
Sorry for that comment above with grammatical mistakes. I'm brazilian and I'm learning English.
Thanks.
Perhaps Mr Yorke means that what they want is naughty - from the old English word nought - meaning worth nothing, to the person or anyone else, in true, mature, considered terms. Perhaps he means the people seeking what they want, want what is worth nothing, or harma, or corrupts, degrades, cripples or destroys.