Couple of quotes Thom Yorke said which I think highlights what the song means.
1."I grew up under Thatcher. I grew up believing that I was fundamentally powerless. Then gradually over the years it occurred to me that this was actually a very convenient myth for the state."
"The sad thing is, if an issue is laughed at and patronised by mainstream media, then it's up against it big-time. I read some journalist recently lecturing the anti-globalisation lobby, saying, 'This is the way capitalism works, all capitalism is exploitation and to make it try and do something else, it's never gonna happen.' And it's like, yeah, but where does that leave us? This is somehow God's will? All this? It's God's will that we sit in traffic? It's God's will that millions of people are gonna die this year because of some outmoded economic policies? No, it's not! It's like some deranged sacrificial altar, the high priests of the global economy holding up these millions of children each year, like (Arms aloft) 'We wish to please you! Oh Gods of free trade!' It's like... give us all a fucking break! If there is a Devil at work, then he rests in institutions and not in individuals. Because the beauty of institutions is that any individual can abdicate responsibility. The assumption that we're all utterly powerless, that's the Devil at work."
These lyrics are the powers that be talking. That's what the institutions stuff into your heads, that you can't change the world around you. That message is one you've gotta fight.
Thats how I see it anyway. The song still drives me to tears.
i've never thought about the lyrics being from that viewpoint but it makes perfect sense, and yes it is so emotional that the first time i heard this song i sobbed uncontrollably
i've never thought about the lyrics being from that viewpoint but it makes perfect sense, and yes it is so emotional that the first time i heard this song i sobbed uncontrollably
@WillAndWind I now this is ~12 years later, but I think this interpretation for me is by far the strongest, I think there is so much anguish and resistance in the last line it's like he doesn't want himself to be heard, I think this song has many meanings though. Identity is for sure one of them.
@WillAndWind I now this is ~12 years later, but I think this interpretation for me is by far the strongest, I think there is so much anguish and resistance in the last line it's like he doesn't want himself to be heard, I think this song has many meanings though. Identity is for sure one of them.
Couple of quotes Thom Yorke said which I think highlights what the song means.
1."I grew up under Thatcher. I grew up believing that I was fundamentally powerless. Then gradually over the years it occurred to me that this was actually a very convenient myth for the state."
These lyrics are the powers that be talking. That's what the institutions stuff into your heads, that you can't change the world around you. That message is one you've gotta fight. Thats how I see it anyway. The song still drives me to tears.
i've never thought about the lyrics being from that viewpoint but it makes perfect sense, and yes it is so emotional that the first time i heard this song i sobbed uncontrollably
i've never thought about the lyrics being from that viewpoint but it makes perfect sense, and yes it is so emotional that the first time i heard this song i sobbed uncontrollably
@WillAndWind I now this is ~12 years later, but I think this interpretation for me is by far the strongest, I think there is so much anguish and resistance in the last line it's like he doesn't want himself to be heard, I think this song has many meanings though. Identity is for sure one of them.
@WillAndWind I now this is ~12 years later, but I think this interpretation for me is by far the strongest, I think there is so much anguish and resistance in the last line it's like he doesn't want himself to be heard, I think this song has many meanings though. Identity is for sure one of them.