Well apparently my interpretation of the song is wrong, but I prefer it to Yorke's mental patients gone wild thing. I'm not saying that my view has any merit or is any better btw.
When I listen to 'Climbing Up the Walls', I picture someone trapped in their own mind. Their brain is a padded cell and no amount of beating the walls can free them.
("Either way you turn, I'll be there. Open up your skull - I'll be there." "You know we're friends till we die".)
This person is either insane, depressive or even 'normal' - it could be anyone.
Before I read them on the net, I misheard "that keeps your toys in the basement" as "that keeps you tied in the basement". This fits well with the view that this person is fighting with himself and keeping himself hostage in his own head. But it's wrong.
For me, "keeps your toys in the basement" symbolises a person's inability to confront and know themselves; self-discovery and being 'normal' (like everyone else) are out of reach, locked in the basement. The "toys" could also be memories and past experiences - these are negative and so are kept in a safe place where they can be ignored, like the 'kids' locked in a safe at the end of the song... these 'kids' are our inner child or our primordial nature, neither of which we are able to get back to or deal with.
And if you do manage to delve 'too far inside', you end up in a hall of mirrors. It's just you.
The reflection staring back at you is your worst nightmare, your inseparable friend and enemy. And as you look for something else - an escape, an ultimate truth* or whatever - you just keep running into yourself... another interpretation is that your mind (this could be anyone's mind, but particularly applies to someone with a personality disorder such as a narcissist) is doing this as a defensive mechanism in order to shield you from a truth too disturbing to accept.
Another dimension to this song is the reference to society's thin veneer of normality, underneath which lies chaos - or a reality that we're not equipped to deal with - and below which we lurk, like chained animals ready to break loose at any moment.
"It's always better on the outside" - outside yourself.
"It's always better when the light is off", "It's always best with the covers up" - denial and illusion are better, or easier, than the truth.. they keep you safe and warm.
"I am the pick in the ice" - I see this as the repressed voice in the narrator's mind. The ice covers the 'voices in his head', but the pick (insanity, introspection or the narrator himself) threatens the stability of this hiding place. The pick could crack this fragile veneer and set everything loose.
that's exactly what i think man. all the lyrics seem to point to having an unexplored dark side that you always keep just below the surface out of fear. also the "You know we're friends till we die" part, says to me that this dark side will never really go away, and its like a friend, because you need it, otherwise you'd be completely normal. which no one is. which is what i think thom yorke is saying.
that's exactly what i think man. all the lyrics seem to point to having an unexplored dark side that you always keep just below the surface out of fear. also the "You know we're friends till we die" part, says to me that this dark side will never really go away, and its like a friend, because you need it, otherwise you'd be completely normal. which no one is. which is what i think thom yorke is saying.
Well apparently my interpretation of the song is wrong, but I prefer it to Yorke's mental patients gone wild thing. I'm not saying that my view has any merit or is any better btw.
When I listen to 'Climbing Up the Walls', I picture someone trapped in their own mind. Their brain is a padded cell and no amount of beating the walls can free them.
("Either way you turn, I'll be there. Open up your skull - I'll be there." "You know we're friends till we die".)
This person is either insane, depressive or even 'normal' - it could be anyone. Before I read them on the net, I misheard "that keeps your toys in the basement" as "that keeps you tied in the basement". This fits well with the view that this person is fighting with himself and keeping himself hostage in his own head. But it's wrong.
For me, "keeps your toys in the basement" symbolises a person's inability to confront and know themselves; self-discovery and being 'normal' (like everyone else) are out of reach, locked in the basement. The "toys" could also be memories and past experiences - these are negative and so are kept in a safe place where they can be ignored, like the 'kids' locked in a safe at the end of the song... these 'kids' are our inner child or our primordial nature, neither of which we are able to get back to or deal with.
And if you do manage to delve 'too far inside', you end up in a hall of mirrors. It's just you. The reflection staring back at you is your worst nightmare, your inseparable friend and enemy. And as you look for something else - an escape, an ultimate truth* or whatever - you just keep running into yourself... another interpretation is that your mind (this could be anyone's mind, but particularly applies to someone with a personality disorder such as a narcissist) is doing this as a defensive mechanism in order to shield you from a truth too disturbing to accept.
Another dimension to this song is the reference to society's thin veneer of normality, underneath which lies chaos - or a reality that we're not equipped to deal with - and below which we lurk, like chained animals ready to break loose at any moment.
"It's always better on the outside" - outside yourself. "It's always better when the light is off", "It's always best with the covers up" - denial and illusion are better, or easier, than the truth.. they keep you safe and warm. "I am the pick in the ice" - I see this as the repressed voice in the narrator's mind. The ice covers the 'voices in his head', but the pick (insanity, introspection or the narrator himself) threatens the stability of this hiding place. The pick could crack this fragile veneer and set everything loose.
that's exactly what i think man. all the lyrics seem to point to having an unexplored dark side that you always keep just below the surface out of fear. also the "You know we're friends till we die" part, says to me that this dark side will never really go away, and its like a friend, because you need it, otherwise you'd be completely normal. which no one is. which is what i think thom yorke is saying.
that's exactly what i think man. all the lyrics seem to point to having an unexplored dark side that you always keep just below the surface out of fear. also the "You know we're friends till we die" part, says to me that this dark side will never really go away, and its like a friend, because you need it, otherwise you'd be completely normal. which no one is. which is what i think thom yorke is saying.
@sirsid no interpretation of art is "wrong." That being said, my experience is similar to yours. I feel like it's two sides of one mind
@sirsid no interpretation of art is "wrong." That being said, my experience is similar to yours. I feel like it's two sides of one mind