Lyrics for Idioteque as interpreted by piesupreme

Idioteque Lyrics
Who's in a bunker?
Who's in a bunker?
Women and children first
And the children first
And the children
I'll laugh until my head comes off
I'll swallow until I burst
Until I burst
Until I

Who's in a bunker?
Who's in a bunker?
I have seen too much
I haven't seen enough
You haven't seen it
I'll laugh until my head comes off
Women and children first
And children first
And children

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

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

We're not scaremongering
This is really happening
Happening
We're not scaremongering
This is really happening
Happening
Mobiles skwerking
Mobiles chirping
Take the money and run
Take the money and run
Take the money

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

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

The first of the children

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Brokenzero
01-04-2005

Rated 0 
Maybe. The end of the song when he says this is really happening, happening. That part. But maybe its in the documentaries cause of the paranoic sound the song gives and that could correllate with the feeling of having AIDS. The monster.

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Redefine
01-05-2005

Rated 0 
it does make more sense when looked within the context of the whole cd. maybe he wrote the song from the point of view of the world leaders, as if the world was their game board, and they are just playing a game of monopoly, untill disaster strikes, then the leaders declare that they arent scaremongering (for the thousanth time). as expected, all hell breakes loose

in another light this maybe about indulgence
"Happening
Mobiles skwrking
Mobiles chirping
Take the money run
Take the money run
Take the money

Here I'm allowed
Everything all of the time"
could mean everyone squabbling for their fair share in the chaos that is the world, and "here i'm allowed, everything all of the time" suggests people riggously defending their rights, and taking their fair share, no matter what condition everyone else is in

either way, this song represents society

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chemical_Reaction
01-09-2005

Rated 0 
I agree that it makes sense when listening to the whole CD of Kid A...

Not that I think this matters, but in the live version of "Idioteque", Thom says: "the Father of the children" as opposed to the original line: "the First of the children". I don't know if that will make anyone's day better or anything spiffy like that, I just felt like making note of that.

I think Idioteque is amazing... It's hard to understand { then again, Radiohead IS hard to understand } but I think that's what makes it so beautiful.

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warmGun
01-10-2005

Rated 0 
Live Thom says "This one is for the children" Somehow out of that I got anti-abortion?

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Lauraz1
01-11-2005

Rated 0 
alright, cool thanx for everyones comments :)

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nomishood
01-17-2005

Rated 0 
There's no way I can read all that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's the great thing about Radiohead....so many people have so many views on their songs.

This song sounds like the world falling down, and that's what it's about for me, the perils of the information age....more information has led to more ignorance and naivety.

There's an interesting idea I've spotted on this site.....about how Kid A is a concept album about someone's life possibly the Yorker's.

Not sure on that entirely, but with Everything....place (birth, sucking lemons=baby crying etc.), motion picture soundtrack ("the song you hear when you go to heaven") at either end I start to become a little more supportive of that idea. Idioteque could be about a mid-life crisis.....a realisation of existence, i dunno. Any ideas on where this song would fit on the concept album idea?

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Dan_Aus
01-19-2005

Rated 0 
Yeh i kind of thought it was a bit of a cyncial, anti-propaganda song. Like you know he's saying, we're all going to die tommorrow so you better spend up big today, and indulge in commercial toys.

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Reynard Muldrake
02-12-2005

Rated 0 
All I know is that it gave me nightmares.

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carlosm88
02-13-2005

Rated 0 
i heard paul oakenfold plays in this song, is it tru?

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warmGun
02-13-2005

Rated 0 
he did a remix of the song, but he didn't play in the original.

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upthorn
02-25-2005

Rated 0 
If a cinemateque is a place where you can see cinema, an idioteque would be a place where you can see idiots.
Or people who society deems unable to discern fantasy from reality.
It follows that the song takes place in a mental institution.

A cacophony of people who's minds are broken; who are repeating one key phrase to themselves.

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upthorn
02-25-2005

Rated 0 
More specifically, this is what someone is hearing upon being lead into an institution for the criminally insane.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that "First of the children." either describes him, or is what he says upon being put into his cell.

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whapcapn
02-25-2005

Rated 0 
I think a lot of Radiohead wasn't necessarily intended to mean any one thing, and it's up to the listener's interpretation.
Quote: "For a due appreciationg of the above incoprehensible musical combination, much and a little more is dependant on the imagination of the audience."

For me, it's just about pure fear, and disaster, in whatever form, striking. The harsh electronic drumbeat and the urgency of Thom's voice all add to the effect.

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Emberly
03-06-2005

Rated 0 
this song is excecuted perfectly. rarely do you hear something that is this beautiful and glorious, but dosent sound tortured into overproduction.

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Spiritofthestreet
03-13-2005

Rated 0 
The ice age coming is completely true. As global warming increases the ice caps will melt. This will lead to the gulf stream (the warm atlantic current that keeps Britain in a relatively warm climate) being cooled and will stop it flowing. Consequently the whole of northern Europe will freeze.
Also, when Thom sings swallow til i burst, i assume this means we just keep using fossil fuels and polluting the planet until we ruin it completely.

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ghotistix
03-18-2005

Rated 0 
It means nothing. It's intentionally obscure so people can look "with it" by claiming to understand it. Wake up, people.

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whapcapn
04-06-2005

Rated 0 
Ghostistix, I suggest you read my previous post. Radiohead admit that they're songs aren't necessrily meant to mean one particular thing. It's about personal appreciation.

This is probably the scariest song ever written. It just speaks of panic at the disaster, no one knew no one planned, but it's here and it's urgent and it's every man for himself.
I don't see it as being about being any particular kind of disaster, although I see how it can be being interpreted as being about glabal warming, but I see it as being wider than that.
It's interesting how many Radiohead songs can be taken differently depending on whether you listen to them in context of the album or alone.
Alone, it seems to make a lot of sense that this is about global warming, but in the context of the album, as I said, it's just any disaster, after the paranoia, misunderstanding and outright denial of Optimistic and In Limbo.
Similarly, on it's own, Morning Bell appears to be about divorce, but in context, it just seems to represent the aftermath of the disaster. Take a look at my post on Morning Bell if oyu really want.

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Treefinger
04-13-2005

Rated 0 
Basically Thom telling the world that the government is lying and that global warming is a real threat.

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Treefinger
04-28-2005

Rated 0 
When I hear this song, I see stick figures acting out roles. The Koreans and the Russians hide in bunkers while the Americans and the English stuff their faces while having the time of their life. Then a scientist speaks of global warming as a disaster on its way. No one listens, they just keep laughing and eating.

Then it happens. The world is in peril. Cities are flooded, the ice caps have melted. The entire east coast of the U.S. is under water. Eventually it's so bad that less that only a couple thousand humans survive. They die out too, and the human race is gone. Banished from existence because of global warming.

But then evolution restarts. Millions of years later, humanity is itself again. The instrumental part of Idioteque, in between the last chorous and "First of the children", represents the millions of years of evolution. "First of the children" means the first new human after ages of being extinct.

The repetitive nature of the lyrics, the way Yorke repeats almost everything he says, could represent how the cycle of humans screwing up and dying out and then being reborn is one giant circle that will never end.

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TheeAbecedarian
05-06-2005

Rated 0 
Not to suggest that this is the meaning of Idioteque, but does this song bring the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" to anyone else's mind?

I agree with those of you who've said that there is more personal meaning for the listener in the song itself than literal interpretation in the lyrics. For me, this song questions the "progress" made by our technology (the working and squirking mobiles). It is a fear that we have created things that can bring about an ice age, force us into bunkers; things that can destroy us. how will we choose who gets to survive (who's in a bunker?)- the women and children first.

i really don't know. i won't insult radiohead's brilliancy by claiming i do.

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Fake Addict
05-11-2005

Rated 0 
The Whole album "kid a" for me it`s about the come of the come of the anti-christ.
And Idioteque is a person remembering
all the chaos.

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SilentAssassin
05-13-2005

Rated 0 
treefinger, i totally agree with you.

i think you made the point.

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Deathstroke76
05-27-2005

Rated 0 
The first thing I thought of when I heard this song was nuclear war.

"Who's in a bunker?
Who's in a bunker?
Women and children first"
A bunker, hiding from the bomb

"I have seen too much
I haven't seen enough"
To me that would imply that hes already seen enough of the violence/war but its just the begining.

"Here I'm alllowed
Everything all of the time"
Im not really sure about this, maybe in the chaos and panic there isnt really any control over anything.

"Ice age coming
Ice age coming"
Nuclear winter

"Let me hear both sides"
Both sides of the conflict maybe? Not really sure.

"We're not scaremongering
This is really happening "
Hes assuring the people that this isnt just a scary rumor, that its really happening.

"Take the money run
Take the money run"
Just another guess, but maybe there are riots and people are trying to get supplies to live?

Sorry it was so long

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Farhad
05-27-2005

Rated 0 
no offence mean to the radiohead fans but i think radiohead is one of the shittest band ever! i agree that they have some really good stuffs and they have a good album like The bens. but for god's sake what is in ok computer,kid the fucking A,amnesiac and hail to the thief except a damn hole of shit? they really sucks! at least ok computer is better than kid A!but it still sucks. this is my opinion.i think they pissed to kurt cobain's grave by their fucking albums(not the bends).they betrayed him and what he did to us!
nirvana is the most popular band among the persians and no one can deny it that they were really amazing! but i think most of new albums are full of shit! just look at St. fucking anger from metallica.reallyyyyyyyy sucks.they pissed to cliff burton's grave too!

p.s. if i made any fans of radiohead angry that's not what i wanted.i just said what i felt

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CÆT
05-30-2005

Rated 0 
yeah, trying to understand radiohead's lyrics is like trying to understand yourself. hopeless!

this song always makes me think of Hitler.

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