Here's how I interpret the song: Kid A has become this major public figure, and there is some sort of international crisis breaking out. He has to be an example for the citizens -- telling them to evacuate, but don't panic, remember chivalry (Who's in a bunker?/Women and children first). He has to put on a facade for the media spotlight, and stifle his true feelings (I'll laugh until my head comes off, swallow till I burst). The line "here I'm allowed everything all of the time" is his sarcastic lament -- he is very rich and priveleged, but imprisoned in fame.

To me, it sounds as if Thom is projecting his own feelings towards stardom onto Kid A, not just in this song but throughout the whole album.

As reserved to writing meaningful material as radiohead is, I also think Thom Yorke puts an emphasis on painting a visual for the listener and creating an atmosphere. There's alot of texture in Kid A, Hail, and Rainbows; I think sometimes it not so much about the words but the way the music colors our mood.

Such a haunting, memorable, and disturbing song.
I don't have interpretive insights to add here, but would recommend a novel with similar thematic concerns, one that impacted me in a comparable way: _White Noise_ by Don DeLillo.

I always thought it was about how in some countries they live in fear of bombing. They have to choose you will get a place in the bunker because of limited room. Like who will live and who will die.
Yet in other countries we don't have to live in fear of bombing and we take that for granted.

the shits of the world
ppl are dying ppl r starving and i keep "them belly full" i keep with my run after life

"I'll laugh until my head comes off
I'll swallow until I burst "

"Mobiles skwerking
Mobiles chirping
Take the money and run
Take the money and run "

just get out of ur telly and your numbness cause this shit isnt a pic from a movie

"We're not scaremongering
This is really happening
Happening "

this song may well be open to interpretation but to me, the first two verses refer quite simply to an impending nuclear holocaust, while the second two go some way towards acknowledging the true extent of the damage that the human race are causing the world we live in. the narrator pretty much admits defeat in that verse with the lines about the mobile phones and running with the money demonstrating how as long as a majority people are comfortable for the short-term in their own lives then those of us that actually do care may as well be preaching to a brick wall. the chorus itself seems to blame a consumerist society for these issues, implying that our ability to have absolutely anything whenever we want it is effectively what has caused us to become so greedy and careless. at the end of the day though, we've only fucked ourselves over with it.

I'm pretty sure it's -

"This one is for the children"

I really think it's about global warming/climate change.

Always thought it was -

"Here I'm alive", but

"Here I'm allowed"
"Everything all of the time" seems to make more sense...sounds like alive to me though.

And we're the idiots are we?

Global Warming? You mean "climate change?"

You people are idiots... it's clearly about MANBEARPIG.

This song speaks to me on many levels. Perhaps this is because I have listened to it so much.

The first level for me is about how we deal with life. A bunker is a place where you are safe, a haven ("Everything all of the time" - I can have what I want/my way). The song is talking about getting the women and children into the bunker, to be safe. Meanwhile, it is asking "who's in a bunker?", which among other things, shows contempt at how we are hiding from the truth in the hope that someone else will fix it. "This is really happening"

Then, global warming. "We're not scaremongering, this is really happening." - It is a real thing, it must be dealt with. "Women and children first" helps to convey the seriousness of the situation we are facing. "Throw it on the fire" just makes me think about global warming. And finally, although probably not relevant, heating of the earth actually CAN lead to an ice age. Build up of water vapour from melting ice caps and evaporating seas can make clouds, which reflect heat back into space and cause a drastic cooling of the earth's surface.

Then, (closely tied to my first point), is a reflection of human nature. Thom is scorning those who hide while other's can't. "Women and children first" shows how drastic some peoples need and situations are, meanwhile "Laugh until my head comes off, Swallow until I burst" and "Everything all of the time", is showing how some people enjoy great pleasures and security while others are in horrible situations, and the rich will just ignore this.
"Take the money and run", "Mobiles skwerking, Mobiles chirping" are telling of how modern companies (mainly oil?) are (tied to previous point) taking advantage of and harming the poor, and not caring that their wealth and pleasures are coming from the suffering of thosebeneath them.

Also, "ice age coming", "let me hear both sides", "throw it on the fire", are showing that he should be entitled to his own opinion, and that people sometimes just want to get rid of their problems and obstacles ("throw it in the fire"), but can't, because an "ice age coming, will make it too cold. "I'll laugh until my head comes off, I'll swallow until I burst" refers to the nature humans have of instinctively making light of a situation, to try and convince ourselves that the danger is lower than it really is. "Ice age coming", a serious problem, "we're not scaremongering, this is really happening" is telling that we should not hide from our problems, they are real and must be faced. "I have see too much, I haven't seen enough" talks of the horrors that some people face, and their capabilities of meeting them, and also of how human beings feel fear, and yet need to see more in order to understand, and from that, our ineScapable thirst for knowledge. The short phrase, "Losing focus", is to me a huge part of the song. It signifies how governments and huge orginisations block us from knowing things, (forced ignorance), and how we instinctively lose focus of the small, but extremely serious issues we are faced with. And most of all, how most of the world's problems, and why they aren't being fixed, is because of selective ignorance. People do not try to find out the problems and how to help, they don't help. They don't find out the problems with living lavishely, they don't stop.

Now, nuclear war. To me, this also speaks about the threat of nuclear war. "Ice age coming" could be refering to a nuclear winter, which would enndanger human society, and "Women and children first", and all the speak about bunkers tells of the potential seriousness. "Let me hear both sides", indicates that the populations does not know much about the causes of the war, (media blackout, etc.), which is the way many wars are nowadays, and about the evils of forced (and in other parts of the song, selected) ignorance. "I'll laugh until my head comes off, I'll swallow until I burst", "losing focus", could be refering to radiation sickness, and "first of the children" could be talking about the first child born with serious defects, second hand radiation sickness (?).

Finally, cloning. "First of the children" can be linked to the first human clone, "Everything all of the time", may refer to the isation the child would be kept in, and therefor linking to the controversiallity of cloning and genetic modification. "Everything all of the time also tells of the resurecting of extinct species and animals, and how this would not be a good thing for the world in the current time, or indeed, anytime.



P.S. - I love Radioh_ead!

This one speaks to me about the "idiotic" trivialities of human nature. And I definitely agree that a major theme is of nuclear war/global warming/world issues.

"I'll laugh until my head comes off
I'll swallow until I burst"

I think this particular quote is about our tendency to joke about serious topics, to "make light of the situation". I specifically think of world hunger and am reminded of this horrible joke about starving Ethiopians. It's basically saying to me, "I'll joke until I'm the one dying. I'll consume wastefully until I die, knowing full well that it will be my downfall." Only an idiot would do such a thing, and we're all guilty of it.

"Here I'm allowed
Everything all of the time"

People choose to ignore these world issues so they can continue living their carefree lives. Here, in their happy place, their allowed to continue doing everything they normally do. In the case of global warming, people continue driving their Hummers; they don't want to think what they're doing is wrong.

"Take the money and run"

Someone said in an earlier post that this is a reference to oil companies scamming people. I definitely agree with that. We have the technology to become less-dependent on gasoline, look up hydrogen fuel on Wikipedia. However, money is the primary focus of our society, and the bigwigs make more money doing what they're doing.

This one can also relate to what we all do with our money. We spend it compulsively in trivial and selfish ways. We could donate it to charity or do something noble with it, but we wouldn't give that a second thought. Take the money, do what you will with it, and run.


I'd also like to say, as a musician, I love the countermelodies in this song and how the line "Women and children first" transforms into "The first of the children" by the end of the song.

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Thom said that when he was going through a period of writers block, he would write songs and such that he didn't particularly like so he would cut up the lyrics and put them into a top hat and draw phrases out and repiece them together so that the feelings he was experiencing were in the music without dwelling on them. Idioteque was just one of quite a few songs off of Kid A that were made that way

i HATE Radiohead but then theres this song.

i HATE Radiohead but then theres this song.

i HATE Radiohead but then theres this song.

i HATE Radiohead but then theres this song.

This song has had two meanings to me. One, a warning about the environment as stated above. The other more subtle- about the nature of the world and how we deal with it (or hide from it).

A bunker is a safe haven of immutable protection. Inside you are allowed to be yourself- or "everything all of the time". If you listen to the music during this lyric- it's almost soothing compared to the panicked vocals of the rest of the song. Outside, all hell is breaking lose while the machinery of capitalism drums loudly on. The sense of disbelief, something that Yorke echoed in other songs on this and others (How to Disappear Completely) comes through in the line, "this is really happening".

This could be about the world ending or a marriage breaking up. It could simply be about a man not able to handle the condition of the world- Yorke as an artist goes from very quiet Oxford suburbia to these insane concert tour schedules- I imagine that the "bunker" is his home. He has always had unique descriptions of houses and homes in his lyrics (menacing "blue hands touching me", protective "sand bag and hide" or places of secrets "Houses move and houses speak").

I know the feeling very well. Houses have a life to them- they are our bunkers from the mess outside. The fact that he repeats the "everything" lyric over and over again means that we all feel better, hiding from the truth about the condition of the world, our relationships and ourselves.

i think this song is about how confusing life can be in a negative way when it could have been avoided if people werent so lazy and proud.

about swine flu maybe?

Maybe it's a sort of nuclear disarmament song?
Sort of saying that with all the mad people that have nuclear weapons (Kim Jong Il for starters) a nuclear war would end up taking place.

Although I quite liked someones idea that he doesn't care about anyone and would destroy the world and laugh.

And for all people wondering, scaremongering is putting out false information to create panic (sort of like the 45 minute dossier was scaremongering or if the Sun printed on the front page that a nuclear war has started)

So when it says 'we're not scaremongering, this is really happening' it's just like saying 'we're not making this up, it's actually happening'

Ice age coming
Ice age coming
Let me hear both sides
Let me hear both sides
Let me hear both
Ice age coming
Ice age coming
Throw it on the fire
Throw it on the fire
Throw it on the

I don't think it's meaningless. Thom took lines he'd already written and pulled them out of a hat for inspiration. I seriously doubt that someone as perfectionistic as Thom Yorke wouldn't edit the results of this hat-lyric experiment. and even if he didn't, I think this song is amazingly apt.

if it had no meaning/made no sense at all, he wouldn't sing it with such passion.

This song makes absolutely no sense at all. It's not supposed to. Thom wrote half-songs, ripped them up, put them in a hat and pulled out random lyrics to form this song. Go look up 'Reflections on Kid A' on Youtube.

To me, the song is about the New World Order. There's a small group of people at the top who constantly make the others scared through the media about terrorism, global warming etc.

Most of the song is written from the point of view of the rulers. They make people scared of nuclear war etc and the women and children go to the bunkers. Then they laugh at the situation and live greedy life styles eg. swallow till i burst.

The ice age part is about the global warming theory. Seeing as there is no definite evidence, it is only a theory but it is taken as definite truth. The line "let me hear both sides" is one person thinking for themselves and asking for evidence.

Now to me, it sounds as though Yorke says "thrown HIM on the fire" rather than IT. The first two times in the verse anyway. This would be similar to the witch hunts where people were accused of being witches for not going with the flow. This is due to the media induced fear convincing people its definitely true.

I know Thom Yorke however does believe in global warming but I think the song is more about thinking for yourself rather than being an idiot.

This song, when I first heard it, just struck me as cool. That was it. Most Radiohead stuff is carefully crafted and woven together, but Idioteque is, while still quality, just a "screw it, we're awesome" song for me. It always makes me happy when I hear it. And the fact that it's Uryu Ishida's song (from Bleach) makes it even more awesome.