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Once again I'm in trouble with my only friend
She is papering the window panes
She is putting on a smile
Living in a glass house
Once again packed like frozen food and battery hens
Think of all the starving millions
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones
Your royal highness's
Well of course I'd like to sit around and chat
Well of course I'd like to stay and chew the fat
Well of course I'd like to sit around and chat
But someone's listening in
Once again we are hungry for a lynching
That's a strange mistake to make
You should turn the other cheek
Living in a glass house
Well of course I'd like to sit around and chat
Well of course I'd like to stay and chew the fat
Well of course I'd like to sit around and chat
Only only only only only only only only only only...
There's someone listening in
She is papering the window panes
She is putting on a smile
Living in a glass house
Once again packed like frozen food and battery hens
Think of all the starving millions
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones
Your royal highness's
Well of course I'd like to sit around and chat
Well of course I'd like to stay and chew the fat
Well of course I'd like to sit around and chat
But someone's listening in
Once again we are hungry for a lynching
That's a strange mistake to make
You should turn the other cheek
Living in a glass house
Well of course I'd like to sit around and chat
Well of course I'd like to stay and chew the fat
Well of course I'd like to sit around and chat
Only only only only only only only only only only...
There's someone listening in
Lyrics submitted by thewhitepony33, edited by Mellow_Harsher
Track duration: 04:37
"Life In A Glasshouse" as written by Thomas Edward/greenwood Yorke
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Thom once said in an interview that Kid A was like standing at the top of a mountain looking down at a burning town and that Amnesiac was like standing inside that town as it burned.
It's a metaphor for totalitarianism that works almost perfectly.
Imagine the world you live in is a house. Now imagine that house has NO PRIVACY. Sound familiar? now imagine this house has glass walls! Everyone can hear and see everything you do. So you have to be very careful not to offend anyone. Or they might paper up the walls to cut you out, but as much as you want to sit and chew the fat, there's always someone listening in. There's no secrets.
The bit about lynching is the angry invoked by the governing body to occupy their time and frustration so they don't aim it at the people who are always listening in.
But a lynch mob might just end up throwing the wrong stone, and bring everything collapsing down around us.
That's my two bits.
Read 1984. It's obviously a huge influence on Thom's lyrics.
The band's own musical and lyrical content has continued to experiment with, and heavily emphasize, the paranoia of everyday life. Papering the window panes is getting away from the eyes of society--originally about a woman Thom Yorke read about in the newspaper, but easily filtered through the eyes of an increasingly reluctant celebrity.
When they speak of being packed like frozen fish and battery hens, I think of any show I've ever been to, with kids clamoring for the front row, desperate to catch a glimpse of their favorite band. But in the case of Radiohead, the fandom takes an unfortunate turn as their conversation shifts away from life in general into some higher plane, like, for example, the starving millions. The fans are constantly trying to read political or social meanings into a song that this band, most likely, wrote about a relationship and/or perhaps a smaller, more general social issue. Specific, hyper-literate lyrics rarely stand the test of time, and Radiohead realizes this. Their fans, by and large, unfortunately don't. (Don't talk politics, and don't throw stones, your Royal Highnesses.)
It makes it very difficult to just enjoy a body of work when you insist on it making you feel guilty about some problem you have, really, no control over.
If anybody posits an opinion that isn't just trolling the fans, the fans still interpret it as trolling. Once again, they are hungry for a lynching, and meanwhile the band is saying just turn the other cheek. What they make is art, capable of broad and widely divergent interpretation, and it's uncalled for to get so worked up over an opinion different than yours. Like all bands, Radiohead hits and misses over time, and even they acknowledge this.
So the chorus, "Well of course I'd like to sit around and chat, well of course I'd like to stay and chew the fat, only someone's listening in"? By now it should be clear: Radiohead is saying it's perfectly acceptable to just enjoy a song, and that a song about a girl can still be a great song, even an "important" one, but there's always going to be that one buzzkill at the party who insists on making more out of whatever he just saw or heard than what it really was all about. How can you talk about how great the beat is in a song when you're obsessed with finding the specific literary touchstone it's referencing, and then mostly with the intention of regurgitating that knowledge to sound intelligent yourself?
Radiohead is calling out their fans, and their fans don't even realize it, and that's what makes them the best at what they do.
the term "living in a glass house" means blaming people for things they've done is wrong because you yourself have done things wrong
if you try to throw a stone at someone it will smash right through your window MY GOD
it's SO SIMPLE!