When I'm at the pearly gates
This will be on my videotape, my videotape
Mephistopheles is just beneath
And he's reaching up to grab me
This is one for the good days
And I have it all here
In red, blue, green
In red, blue, green
You are my center
When I spin away
Out of control on videotape
On videotape
On videotape
On videotape
On videotape
On videotape
On videotape
This is my way of saying goodbye
Because I can't do it face to face
So I'm talking to you before
No matter what happens now
You shouldn't be afraid
Because I know today has been
The most perfect day I've ever seen
This will be on my videotape, my videotape
Mephistopheles is just beneath
And he's reaching up to grab me
This is one for the good days
And I have it all here
In red, blue, green
In red, blue, green
You are my center
When I spin away
Out of control on videotape
On videotape
On videotape
On videotape
On videotape
On videotape
On videotape
This is my way of saying goodbye
Because I can't do it face to face
So I'm talking to you before
No matter what happens now
You shouldn't be afraid
Because I know today has been
The most perfect day I've ever seen
Lyrics submitted by black_cow_of_death, edited by Paymaan
Videotape Lyrics as written by Edward John O'brien Colin Charles Greenwood
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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as a musician they constantly inspire me yet at the same time make me feel like giving up because i will never be able to write anything as brilliant as this. it's so simple yet so wonderful...
please keep writing music like this, i dont know what i would do without it
Saying that though, they have received 14 thumbs up ... so majority rules??
For me though... when I turned 19, my then girlfriend and I used to just lie in bed all day. There were moments were we would just be. I get all these fucked up visualizations of just getting like... transported into the past. Unfortunately that point in time has moved on, and listening to this song transports me to back then. I have a feeling that songs as good as this can only be made with those type of experiences in mind. I don't think I've ever heard a more beautiful song in that way in my entire life.
Mephistopheles is a name given to one of the chief demons of Christian mythology that figure in European literary traditions.
The song is about being judged at the gates of heaven, and the "videotape" is a record of lead singer Thom Yorke's life.
The Mephistopheles reference is simple. A lot of religious people believe that suicide lands you in Hell, and not only that, but the line is symbolic of the personal Hell the subject is going through.
He adds to the power of this theme by calling this act the "most beautiful day I've ever seen". It's a point of the idea of relief that death brings, after the seemingly endless suffering in the person's life.
Now I'm ok, but I like the line "this is my way of saying goodby". Whenever I die. This will be played at my funeral.
The most important bit of the lyrics, I think, is the "when" at the beginning of the first two stanzas. He's not dead, and he's not being judged. But when it's all over, "this" will be on his videotape. "This", I think is "the most perfect day I've ever seen".
Now here's where my notion of it may lead me astray. It seems like "No matter what happens now," and "This is my way of saying goodbye because I can't do it face to face." mean that the person is leaving something(someone) they know and love. Not going into danger, just going away.
Other people in other places have speculated that this song is Radiohead's farewell to their fans.
Now, I don't know exactly from what perspective or perspectives Tom is talking from the lyrics. For me he is comunicating or talking to the memory of a very loved one from the after life he is in now.
Mephistopheles can be an interpretation of the Grim as he describes how he is reaching to "grab" him.
Then he talks how those good old days meant so much for him and how now he has them in "red blue green" as in a motion film. Also how much love he had for that person as he/she was his center.
He then tries or succeed in saying goodbye in some way from his "heaven" but not face to face 'cause he can't (He's dead!). Also, before he goes forever into the neverending memory.
Finally, he's reensuring the person he's talking with that no matter what happens now he/she shouldn't be afraid of (at least I imagine that) how he/she will cope life now without him and/or if he (the narrator) is suffering, sad, angry, or regretful because now he is happy knowing that he will live forever happy in the most perfect day of his life, meaning the eternal memory.
The "Videotape" is a metaphor of the neverending memory he is going to live in now, 'cause just as a videotape does, he will experience the memory and then the videotape will rewind and start again and again.
Maybe Tom didn't mean to write the song about "After Life (Wandafuru Raifu)". It is possible it's just a coincidence but, once you know the argument of the movie it's very easy to connect the dots and make an interpretation of the lyrics. Of course even if the song is inspired or not in the movie, it can be interpretated in a different way by each one who listen and analyze the lyrics.
It's a prayer or meditation that his love will in some way be eternally recorded by and echoed throughout a sympathetic Universe. It is a karmic prayer for forgiveness and understanding.
Who is watching this videotape anyway, in an age of DVD's no less? In essence, we are all memories that fade as generations pass. Yet we all relate to the hope that the positive things we contribute, experience and offer unto Life will somehow reverberate and carry on beyond us.
It's purposefully phrased to make us reflect on our own morbidity and, more importantly, the positive emanations we should strive and hope to leave behind. Yet the song also understands that no matter how great one's hope the destiny of the Universe is determined by a force greater than individual hope... Indeed, it is a construct of collective aspirations and ambitions of which our contribution is only a part.
Love, give and pray. Let's learn.
But the line that gets me
This is my way of saying goodbye I can't do it face to face