Trans-Atlantic Drawl Lyrics

Lyric discussion by Nope8369 

Cover art for Trans-Atlantic Drawl lyrics by Radiohead

Amnesiac b-sides have a foundation on uneasiness. Amazing Sounds has the prophesized collapse of the banks, Kinetic is built around a figurative need to run; get kinetic. Worrywort is on regret. Fog is a mix of fearmongering, eternal juvenility, and guilt. Cuttooth rests on war and feeling misinterpreted. Fast Track just as an uncomfortable instrumental and an eerie mantra about insignificance/weakness. Trans-atlantic Drawl covers a figurative claustrophobia, and an uneasiness towards the war developments around the globe happening at the time, considering "the light at the end of the tunnel" came from an Iraqi diplomat.

"I was born for your magazines, I am trapped in the society page" magazines refers to both the written work and ammunition storage. A civilian in the UK and a citizen in Iraq is trapped in one of these definitions. The UK citizen can't do much of anything about what their government does, all they can do is watch the person they thought spoke for them champion wars they don't condone. In Iraq, civilians and soldiers are gunned down in droves, trapped in their country and can't escape. "I don't know what it means" both countries' inhabitants agree that the war doesn't make sense. It's not what they want, they find it purposeless and unnecessarily cruel. "Do you see the light at the end of the tunnel?" is rhetorical, there is no visible light because they aren't the one walking. They are carried and butchered by leaders who see their bodies as bags of money. "These are things that get on my nerves" both sides are outraged, fanning the flames for the war to get hotter. "You better start naming names" is a threat, war is threats on both sides and they sure aren't empty.

The song ends with singing, it's haunting, it feels like you're in a room with everyone around you singing hymns. It's your funeral, and everyone else is singing something that isn't yours. They're alive, you're dead, soul-crushed, or dying. "You better start naming names" marked the transition from victims' voices leading the song, to the warmonger-ers' voices. I Will and Trans Atlantic Drawl are the two Radiohead songs that fight for the title 'Radiohead's Scariest Song'

Negative
Subjective
Fear
Uneasiness
War
Claustrophobia
Helplessness
Oppression