Lucky

I just have an anecdote about the first time I heard this song. When I first bought this album, I broke out my headphones, laid down on my bed, and closed my eyes. Unfortunately, I hadn't had much sleep the night before, so by the time I got to "Lucky" I was starting to doze off ("No Surprises" sort of has a soporific quality to it, I think, but in a good way). Anyway, my name is Sarah, and when I heard that line half-asleep, it scared the crap out of me and woke me up. I seriously thought for a fraction of a second that Thom Yorke had just spoken to me.

On another note, he should be more careful. There could be a psycho-stalker fan named Sarah out there who'd interpret that literally.

This is from wikipedia: ""Lucky" depicts a man who survives an aeroplane crash in a lake and becomes a "superhero"; the song is thematically linked to "Airbag", and Yorke has described the song in interviews as having "positive", upbeat lyrics.[70] The track is similar to the early-1970s music of Pink Floyd, a major influence on Jonny Greenwood."

i find myself singing this subconsciously sometimes. particularly "i feel my luck could change". it is mesmerizing, positive & hope inspiring. this is about as close to a "happy song" as radiohead can get & it's a beautiful track. it's a shame it never received much airplay, or got very far in the charts, but i guess that's what makes it all the more unique. it was in fact recorded as a b-side & then onto the help album in 1995 for the warchild charity in bosnia. i believe it is about change, making changes & the fact that even something significant or damaging can't stop the stirring feeling that something wonderful is going to happen soon. this seems to apply to the warchild benefit cause. "que sera, sera" has nothing to do with this & yes, sarah is just one of thom's favourite names. obviously my parents too.

This is one of, if not my favorite song of all time. All of OK Computer is about unlikely heroics- sprouting wings and overtaking authority- "in an interstellar burst I'm back to save the universe".

This song is about an underdog standing up in a time of need and showing his true colors- "The head of state has called for me by name, but I don't have time for him"- this line was always the most powerful to me- imagine the president directly demands your help and calls you out- but you're occupied with something else- maybe busy saving "Sarah" while the world goes up in flames.

What brings me nearly to tears is the "It's gonna be a glorious day- I feel my luck could change-" It's as if he knows that things have been terrible- and yet, for no apparent reason, no needed reason, this day will simply be beautiful. It's too simple not to be.

And when he shouts "''Cause I'm your superhero, we are standing on the edge" That last time before it slows down and the heavy solo kicks in, I feel like my chest is going to explode. There's something so damn mystical about this song- all the songs on OK Computer remind me of colors- Airbag is White, Paranoid Android is yellow and Subterranian is Green- This one is bright, burning, explosive, electric sky blue. It makes me feel like I'm falling "from a great height"- that is, diving from a mountaintop- engaging in a feeling so beautifully abysmal that it melts the outside world. I'm overdramatic but I just love this song so much.

To me, it sounds like the eternal optimist who continually gets knocked down but keeps getting back up again. No resentment, no jealousy, just the hope/belief that one day he will be the hero/savior of someone/anything/sarah

Thoughts?

I DON'T believe this is supposed to be an optimistic song at all, or about a love relationship going wrong (or right)...

Here is what THOM YORKE himself said about Lucky back in a 1998 interview:

"Any artist wants to include everything. And then they discover that their best pieces of work are the ones where they haven't said any of the things they thought they were going to say.

'Lucky' was like that - (it) was pages and pages and pages of notes, none of which fitted in at all. It was all bollocks. It was trying to be really political. And in the end it wasn't. It was much better to say, "The head of state has called for me by name/But I don't have time for him." And that was it."

Granted, Thom still doesn't go into detail regarding the song's actual meaning - but IMO this quote gives credence to the view that the lyrics contain a definite political sub-text, even though no specific event or global issue is overtly described.

Personally, I'm guessing that the narrator is some kind of lone maverick, vigilante or political/religious fundamentalist; someone who believes there is glory in dying 'for the cause'.

The song is told from this person's radical POV so that the (supposedly) positive-sounding references to their true situation ("it's gonna be a glorious day" / "my luck could change" / "I'm your superhero") are the result of their own skewed/blinkered mindset.

I always thought it was "I'm on a roll this time"

but thats just me

i am Sarah, by the way. and this song is about taking on each day for what it has to offer, regardless of the pain it may bring. you know, taking chances, and having faith.

i love this song cuz it has my name in it! :) Its so exciting! haha...anyways...

I like all the finger pointing and name calling that goes on in these lists. "It is this!!! It is this!!! It is this!!! OFF WITH THEIR HEAD!!". People are entitled to their own views, even if they are entirely wrong they don't deserve to be kicked. I would imagine all the people kicking were picked on at school - and now from the safety of a keyboard, where no reprisals are apparent, they can type their spite in red, black and white. Grow up and get lost.

This is my favourite Radiohead song, and is very much like an inverse The Smiths song with it sounding quite miserable but being quite happy, instead of Marr/Morrissey happy song, miserable lyrics. It's defiance, and not letting anyone get to them because they are now really really LUCKY. The "Kill Me Sarah" line fits, "Que Sera" doesn't, so lets stop that - or any of the others. I guess if these people had actually bought the album instead of downloading it they'd have the booklet with the printed words in. People do stupid things to the people they SAY they love, and as acts of love. Sarah is the most common female name in the UK, very very common, and I wouldn't be surprised if this was a particularly pointed spike of spite aimed at a particular Sarah.

How does "Pull me out of the aircrash" not make sense? A planes crashed, he's in it - but he's so Lucky he survives, which is an exceptionally lucky thing indeed. He then compares himself to a Superhero, because he can do that.