Radiohead – True Love Waits

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  My Interpretation:I always thought that this song was sorta describing a one-sided relationship. One person is almost obsessed with the other and would do anything to make them happy just so where they won't leave them. The line "I'm not living, I'm just killing time" might mean that they know that this isn't the way that they should be living and doing but they are doing it because they want to anyway.
  
  Such a sad song, but I love it so much.

  Flag thetoasteron March 24, 2013   Link

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  Song Meaning:In fact, TO HAVE YOU BE IN PEACE is correct. This song have a lot of version, but one of them, I think the first one, is considered THE version. This site explain it better greenplastic.com/radiohead-lyrics/b-sides-and-other-non-album-songs/true-love-waits/.
  
  It also explains some parts of the music:
  
  “I’ll dress like your niece,” Thom had this to say: “the difference between young and old when people start to dress sensible and act their age. this person is offering not to do that to keep the other. alles klarr?”
  
  According to Thom, the line “On lollipops and crisps” is from an article he read: “I read an article about a child who was between 5-8 yrs old who was left on his/her own for a week in a house when his parents left on hoilday and he lived on lollipops on crisps. True”

  Flag thiagojdon January 28, 2013   Link

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  General Comment:It's a song about leaving. Sometimes it's not the person suspected of leaving that actually leaves. Sometimes people just never arrive and never will arrive. BPD and the Fear of Intimacy, August 3, 2010 is an excellent article. One of my relatives is prefect in every way with the exception of a "gift" his parents unknowingly bestowed on him. He can't shake it; is willing to live with it; and is willing to lose people due to it. But, it's his choice and I guess there must be some payout or he'd not wish to stay on the same path. Ah, all ya can do is love 'em and wish them well 'cause they won't ever arrive, no matter how often they tell themselves they will. Just can't be done.

  Flag pocketfullofposieson December 27, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:The second line in the song is "to have your babies" NOT "to have you in peace". Lol! you are obviously not a RH fan.

  Flagged Mikhailxoon November 29, 2012   Link

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  Song Meaning:its about someone who was in a perfect relationship in the wrong moment... for some reason they broke apart... and he knows they are meant to be... he´ll do anything to be with that person again... but its waiting for the right moment... he is very willing to do so... and begs the other person to do the same...

  Flagged blanegraon July 11, 2012   Link

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  My Interpretation:Does no one else get the impression that - on the whole - this song might be about someone who's in a relationship with someone who is very ill (maybe terminally ill)? The sadness described and the offers of care-taking and sacrifice - anything to make that person stay (and not leave this earth) seem to imply the pain and desperation associated the profound loss of one's true love - but it's also tinged with the awareness that if it's true love, it persists and crosses even the boundaries of human existence. Just what went through my head when I listened to the lyrics.

  Flag aradia12on June 07, 2012   Link

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• +3
  My Interpretation:First off, I'd like to say that, for as much freedom of interpretation is allowed for the listener, I still believe that any good artist/singer-songwriter can effectively manage to convey a lucid argument, as well as affecting emotions, through well-written composition. While I acknowledge that no analysis of lyrics, or art in general, can be purely objective it still bugs me when I see interpretations of songs that stretch beyond any indications found within the lyrics themselves. In my opinion, most good songs have concrete meanings, and while the listener often must be flexible in formulating her or his understanding of the song, this is simply the listener's attempt at relating with the artist. What the artist wrote, on the other hand, is not so flexible.
  
  My spiel aside, Thom Yorke has presented us with some rather keenly distressing metaphors, but nonetheless they can be analyzed with greater objectivity than what I've seen so far on this page. Starting with the aching refrain, "Just don't leave," we can assume that the poetic voice of the song is already with someone as opposed to waiting for someone. Moving back to the first verse we gather from the personal sacrifice ("sacrifice my beliefs), commitment ("have your babies") and humiliation ("dress like your niece") she or he is willing to endure that the poetic voice has strong feelings of attachment to this particular person.
  
  Attachment, and more specifically the loss of one's identity, dignity and autonomy out of fear of ending a relationship, in my opinion are the key themes of this song. Thom reminds us when he writes "I'm not living, I'm just killing time" that when we stay with someone solely because we're too afraid of not having her or him in our lives, we sacrifice our hopes and dreams, which couldn't be any more true once you have someone's children and act as their foot-washing servant. And what would anyone do all of this for? For the true love that we dream of as kids sucking on lollipops? You can't make true love happen with everyone as Thom suggests pessimistically in his ironical and sobering statement, "True love waits in haunted attics." Sometimes we just need to end the relationship and move on, lest we should spend the rest of our lives in haunted attics waking up next to someone with a "crazy kitten" smile.

  Flagged rthmjohnon May 14, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:I agree: "I am here. This is happening." And it waits for another month or so and then it rides into the sunset alone...an incredibly sad ride I'm sure, but necessary.

  Flagged IllToast2Thaton April 09, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:I am here. This is happening....

  Flag MephistophelesFauston February 12, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:thom yorke.radiohead.
  a few among whom i want see alive.
  

  Flag IshanXecutionon November 07, 2011   Link

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