Lyrics for A Wolf at the Door. (It Girl. Rag Doll.) as interpreted by ruben

A Wolf at the Door. (It Girl. Rag Doll.) Lyrics
Drag him out your window
Dragging out the dead
Singing, "I miss you"
Snakes and ladders
Lift the lid
Out pops the cracker
Smacks you in the head
Knifes you in the neck
Kicks you in the teeth
Steel toe caps
Takes all your credit cards
Get up, get going
Get the eggs
Get the flan in the face
The flan in the face
The flan in the face
Dance, you fucker
Dance, you fucker
Don't you dare
Don't you dare
Don't you flan in the face
Take it with the love is given
Take it with a pinch of salt
Take it to the taxman
Let me back
Let me back
I promise to be good
Don't look in the mirror
At the face you don't recognize
Help me call the doctor
Put me inside
Put me inside
Put me inside
Put me inside
Put me inside

I keep the wolf from the door
But he calls me up
Calls me on the phone
Tells me all the ways that he's going to mess me up
Steal all my children
If I don't pay the ransom
But I'll never see them again
If I squeal to the cops

No, no, no, no, no, no, no . . .

Walking like giant cranes
Ah, with my x-ray eyes I strip you naked
In a tight little world, why are you on the list?
Stepford wives, who are we to complain?
Investments and dealers, investments and dealers
Cold wives and mistresses
Cold wives and Sunday papers.
City boys in first class
Don't know we're born little
Someone else is going to come and clean it up
Born and raised for the job
Someone always does, always pick it up
Get over, get up, get over
Turn the tape off

I keep the wolf from the door
But he calls me up
Calls me on the phone
Tells me all the ways that he’s going to mess me up
Steal all my children
If I don't pay the ransom
But I'll never see them again
If I squeal to the cops
So I’m just going to

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nowunplugged
04-11-2003

Rated 0 
great song

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CreamPuffDiablo
04-15-2003

Rated 0 
i love this song

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letmebe
04-17-2003

Rated 0 
What a privelege I get to post before people start adding their comments . I particularly love it when he says 'singing, I miss you' as if he's just returned from years without singing to start singing and begins to realize how remembered how much he liked it. Other great lines from this are 'investments and dealers' and at the end, which isn't posted 'someone always dies',. It reminds me of somebody who is thinking of the worst case scenario for everything ie 'well someone always dies', getting smashed in the face, etc.

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etfFect
04-18-2003

Rated 0 
this song rules. I'm betting it will be the best song on the new album.

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ReActor
04-18-2003

Rated 0 
I absolutely love this song. I love the way it's sung; Thom sounds very different from his other performances.

It also has what most Radiohead songs don't have: a lot of lyrics. I think this is a welcome inconsistency.

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ruben
04-24-2003

Rated 0 
I have all the songs from the new album
and I have heard the song correctly with all lyrics. I just cant post the 100% correct lyrics. At the very end of the song he doesnt say "well someone always dies"

The last lines in the song go like this "but i'll never see him again
if i squeal to the cops
So I just go"

and also the song is called "A Wolf At The Door"

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ruben
04-25-2003

Rated 0 
wow i suck he does say well someone always dies
but almost at the end hehe

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IdiotequeDance
05-01-2003

Rated 0 
No, it's called 'Wolf At The Door'.

Amazing song - looks primarily about a politician, but it could be about an insane landlord he once had, or something...

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ruben
05-07-2003

Rated 0 
Im pretty sure its called "A Wolf At The Door"

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calcaesar
06-06-2003

Rated 0 
its very bush oriented. osama, saddam, the north koreans, etc. are the wolves. they're gonna come and get your children. the x-ray eyes, giant cranes and lists, all remind me of spy sats, CIA and most wanted lists. maybe i just dont like 'the man'.

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Creep
06-11-2003

Rated 0 
very interesting interperetations, fellas... i hate to ruin it all but i think i have the real thing here. Remember Thom getting beaten up a few years ago? just after the recording of Kid A / Amnesiac, thom got the shiyte kicked out of him...if you look at it this way it makes a lot of sense. "i'll never see him again if i squeal to the cops" "help me call a doctor" it all fits..
anyways, makes sense to me.
and by the way, it is called "A Wolf At The Door"
-Creep

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rrriloKILEY
06-12-2003

Rated 0 
well, the whole cd is basically how pessimistic thom yorke is becoming about the world. how corrupted and impure the world is today. i think this song and the whole cd is like a tribute or something to 1984 by george orwell. 2+2=5 is a large part of that book, where there was a world where if big brother told you that 2+2=5 you must accept it as true. so, to move away from that tangent, i think this song is just about 1984, basically.

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hobart
06-12-2003

Rated 0 
to me, the idea of a wolf seems kind of like a metaphor for america (either that or just the idea of a lone superpower); going around bullying weaker countries, "taking all their credit cards" and then humiliating them

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de_constructivist
06-17-2003

Rated 0 
http://www.asis.com/~bbb/piedigest1.html Second Clare Short (UK cabinet minister) reference on the album. Just Desserts, who are affilliated with the Biotic Baking Brigade threw a special custard pie at her. The first reference to her is obviously "I spoke too soon" in Sail to the Moon for her statements that Tony Blair was "Reckless".

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fatboyinawagon
06-17-2003

Rated +1 
thom really doesnot know what all hisa songs eeven mean. his lyrics are typically used becasue he like the way they sound with the music, which gives them room to be interpereted any one like. that said i believe he is addressing all of his fears and paranioa in this song. He is worried about the violence that he experienced and he is also worried about the responsibilities and dangers that he faces with being a parent, so he tries his best to keep these fears in the form of a wolf away. But in typical Yorkwe fashion he cannot escape his fears cause the call him up on the phone to keep their hold on him anyway, leaving him powerless and trying to convince him self that they do not exist by repeating nonononono to himself.

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deathbear
06-19-2003

Rated 0 
Thom doesn't sing this song.

Ed is actually the cheif singer, I think.

You can hear Thom in the background donig vocals, though....has anybody seen this live?

Because that really doesn't sound like Thom.

Plus, on the record notes, it has "voice" for Ed.

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UnemployedDaysleepe
06-22-2003

Rated 0 
i think its about fear depression opression and conformity like if your not enjoying the world the way it is and having a good time then there's something wrong with you, maybe pretending to be happy so you don't steal your childrens wonder. maybe hes tempted to just end it all, give in to fear and finally kill himself for the future, no matter how stupid that seems. tempted to make millions and millions of dollars to take care of his family, at any cost. as if the only decent incentive people have to create wealth is relief from fear and to stop a family from starving, if he doesnt produce records they'll all die. or leave him and find someone who can, it stops being about love. if you dont love them there's something wrong with you, you have to always love them, you have to remember this, you dont love them (now what?)
you better love them.
or fake it (kill yourself, forget what it means to be yourself, its for all the best reasons. the world will be a better place because of your personal sacrifice. and the rebirth will be so magnificent and freeing.*nervous twitch*)
but that probably has more to do with me than the song

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JUICEbyTAPPY
06-24-2003

Rated 0 
hmm ..well to teh comment about this being about thom getting beat up .no. the real lyrics (as in the special editon lyrics book) are "steal all my children if i dont pay the ransom and ill never see THEM again if i squeal to the cops"..them not him.

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legend339
06-30-2003

Rated 0 
Has anyone else noticed the striking similiarity between the guitar part for this and The Beatles "Because" off of Abbey Road? I like this song much better but it just struck me tonight how close the guitar is on both of them.

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*FelipeVox*
07-05-2003

Rated 0 
I think the "wolf" is the politicians but I´m not sure about it .

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Yaarafenume
04-07-2004

Rated 0 
It sounds even more like the guitar to the start and chorus of "I want you(shes so heavy)" On abbey road.
"steal all my children if I dont pay the ransom" Could have something to do with the pied piper because he stole all of the children when they didnt pay him..but probably not..just a thought

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avdbrm
04-10-2004

Rated 0 
i think its about thinking everything's gonna be fine then all of a sudden being overcome by fear, like going to ask a girl out or something.

like it fills your life, then you realise it shouldnt and you get worried.

thats what i think anyway.

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youenjoymyself
04-30-2004

Rated 0 
maybe this is obvious to all people but i think the chorus especially is something with thoms depression and pessimism, his lack of faith in humanity, that he tried keeping the wolf from the door, but he calls him, like, i didnt do anything the bad shit came to me, maybe not at all, im always afraid to commit to one single meaning to a radiohead lyric because they seem infinetly deep, all i know is hail to the theif is a masterpiece, there best yet, and i hate hearing people bitch about wanting another ok computer or bends
ok computer was incredible but a band needs to evolve, also i happen to love kid a and amnesiac i hate when people want nothing but guitar driven anthems
seems like they have a short musical attention span

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Ceptor
05-10-2004

Rated 0 
A couple things; after several listens, one can clearly tell that the primary singer is Thom. I also have about 12 live recordings, all of which are very clearly Thom. Ed being listed as Voice could probably be attributed to the accompanying vocals ("Ooooooooo... Oooooooo...") beginning with the "No no no, no no no"'s.

I've also read that to Thom, this is just a collection of nightmares. Not 'just', but that's the jist of it. I have no doubts that there's more, but when you approach it like that, you can accept the song as it is more than feeling like you have to come up with a meaning for every part. I also like the interpretation of it just being pure hell because of the way the instrumentals work too; it's not really about a linear progression, but really it's more atmospheric than anything. All the instruments (within the first 20 seconds we are already introduced to 6 instruments, not including Thom) with their hypnotic theme are used more for atmosphere and submersion than linear building.

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WolfTickets
05-16-2004

Rated 0 
One thing that struck me when I heard this and read some interpretations of it was that most people seem to interpret the chorus' last line as "I'll never see him again if I squeal to the cops," as in the Wolf, but I hear it as, "I'll never see 'em again if I squeal to the cops," as in his children, whom the wolf has threatened to steal.

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