Right, well, just a word to Farhad. You clearly don't reccognise innovative, sophisticated and ground-breaking music when you see it. the fact you're even comparing Radiohead to Nirvana is proof of that. Some Nirvana songs are good to listen to, yes, depending on your tastes, but it's really very simple music. Just a guitar riff, with bass, drums and vocals. No more than that. Radiohead is waaay beyond that by now. The bends is their least good album (apart from Pablo Honey). It's pretty simple really, and it doesn't have any underlying theme or cohesion as an album. But they've moved on now, joining the ranks of Pink Floyd and the Bealtes, and no one else I can think of, really. You have to understand the difference between music which is good and music you like. I mean, I quite like Chumbawamba and Electric Six, but I agree it's really pretty crap music. Radiohead are somewhere else by now. And it's not just musically. This song, Idioteque, not only holds important messages to us today, but it's full of irony, and it's a vicious dig at meaningless, manufactured dance anthems. What music you like is immaterial, you still ought to reccognise what music is more advanced and sophisticated. There are lots of bands I don't like but I happily agree are very good musicians. Oh, and people will take you more seriously if you spell properly and learn to use punctuation.

The other thing I wanted to talk about was someone mentioning the line "I have seen too much, I haven't seen enough". This has always made perfect sense to me. You know when there's something you really don't want to see, but you can't stop yourself looking anyway? Like, when I first heard about Goatse I though "God, I really don't want to see that", but I just had to look. That's what this line means. He's seen too much death and carnage, and it disgusts him, but he also has a kind of horrrified fascination for it, and in another way he can't get enough of it.

to whapcapn! there are so many difference between simplicity and being worthless! that's your problem!
you think more difficult riffs would make any band greater! while i think it's a fucking bullshit! as you said, most of nirvana songs based on very simple riffs! but it doesnt mean they're worthless too!
and i didnt compare radiohead to nirvana! i just said that they betrayed what nirvana ( and other bands like guns n roses,...) did to us! they changed the face of music and now all of their effors ruined by radiohead.

By the way! there are so many difficult riffs from nirvana:
negative creep, breed, milk it, lounge act, stay away, school,...

"What bunker? I don't see any bunker. This looks like a discoteque to me. I can do whatever I want, whenever I want, in here. This is heaven! I can laugh until my head comes off! Come-on, pass me some more of those pills, oh so good..."
"Come along now, that's right, go inside. Women and children first...it's safe in there, you'll have so much fun..."
"But isn't there an ice age coming? I'd like to hear both side of this..."
"Keep it moving, right along now, that's right, women and children first..."
"No need to fear, we'll take care of you, we're not scaremongering, this is really happening, but keep moving, go right inside, it's loads of fun..."
*Ring*Ring* - My God, no! Not little Johnny, my dear God why, no! *Ring**Ring* What?! It's all gone? You can't be fucking serious! It's all gone? I'm ruined!"
"That's right, keep moving, come along now, into the discoteque, that's right, you can calm down in there. Women and children first..."

I think this about a nuclear war and everyone is in a bunker and the singer of the song is the "king" of the bunker. This is why he/she is allowed everything all of the time.

OR

There is a war going on and a soldier, the narrator/singer, is going crazy. He thinks the war is going to escalate into a nuclear war and the ice age is coming. To escape this world the soldier has created his/her own eutopia inside their mind where they are allowed everything all of the time.

This is just my 2 cents

I agree with mattd23, except with one addition. The second explanation is not necessarily a soldier's view. It could be just an ordinary person being driven mad by the world.

I'm pretty sure it's environmental. "Ice age coming", "women and children first", "this is really happening", "let me hear both sides"...definitely global warming.

The "here I'm allowed everything all of the time" part confuses me though. The only meaning I could come up with was a child-like indifference to the situation, as in "nothing's wrong with my car, I'll do what I want, drive it all the time, etc.".

I actually think this is the telling of the world through the clones point of view of a war. The clone is thinking about how he thought the most shocking thing first was being born and he tells about it then he goes back to talking about the war which then becomes his most shocking moment. Maybe when Thom says "Woman and children first" is probably referring to the cloning cycle, the woman then the child comes. Laughing until his head falls off his when he is introduced to the world and he takes his first breath, like when they smack your behind to let you breath and to him this isn't crying but laughing. After the laughing he takes the swallow, kind of like his first swallow and doesn't know what is happening. The song then jumps back to the war which he relates to the birth with the bunker and he believes his seen enough but in his mind he knows the world is full with more than just war (meaning worst things). He then relates laughing to his head falls off to when he took his first "cry" of being born because right now he is seeing what is going on. He sees that the bunker starts out with woman and children first when war happens, such as the bombings.

Right now, that's all I can figure out, although I think the ending (the first of the children) tells you that this is about the clone.

Yeah, it is like a clone's point of view, when I think about it.

Or someone who feels like a clone...

i heard this song on the radio and had no idea it was radiohead. i dont know what it means, but i love the beat of it. its just so different

it sounds like one crazy acid trip to me! i wouldn't like to have that one! the megalomania of it alll!

...isn't it supposed to be "here im alive"?

what a choon! could listen to this until the cows come home.

At the end it says: The fathers of the children. Not the first of the children. Check with the live version on I Might Be Wrong (which totally rocks)

the best songs i've encountered are never important lyrically. it's the way the music feels to me that decides if i like a song or not. and this song hits me like a load of bricks, plunging me somewhere that i shouldn't be. images of burning buildings and some terrific invasion of an unstoppable monster come to my mind.

it is a positively chilling song, lyrics or not.

This is definitely about global warming.

Hmm I originally had no idea what this song is about,
But I think it is def. a nuclear war or Global warming.

Genius.

I read on the first page where someone had suggested this song is about the growing problem, global warming. I strongly agree with this perception, it really makes sense when you read it all through.

I believe this song is a three-man conversation.

"Women and children first
And the children first
And the children"

First it's an activist speaking out, someone who wants to get everyone off the boat of pollution and of overusing waste-producing facilities. Especially the children because they're the ones who will have to live in this world after their mothers and fathers pass on.

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

Then it's someone speeking with the attitude of the majority of people in the western world, who don't much care for the growing economic threats and dangers. A person who would rather consume till their heart's content, until something bad finally erupts.

"Who's in a bunker?
Who's in a bunker?
I have seen too much "

Once again back to being frustrated and aware of the dangers that are arising.

"I haven't seen enough
You haven't seen enough
I'll laugh until my head comes off"

Back to a selfish consumer's standpoint. Someone who just wants to see/experience more of their luxurious lifestyle.

"Women and children first
And children first
And children"

Back again.

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

Then forth.

"Ice age coming!
Ice age coming!"

And back. Trying to re inforce that this IS a bad thing.

"Let me hear both sides
Let me hear both sides
Let me hear both"

Now Thom's the mediator trying to rationalise the conflict between those who are activists and those who would rather indulge than do anything about the problem.

"Ice age coming
Ice age coming"

Still trying to alert people into action.

"Throw it on the fire
Throw it on the fire
Throw it on the"

This is the attitudes of the business people who are actually profitting from the oil industry and pullution-producing plants. It matches the analogy of 'My face is itchy!' 'Well scratch it' Temporary solution for the ice age, just throw it on the fire.

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

Here comes the realisation of the depth and severity of this hazardous issue! It's really happening!

"Mobiles skwerking
Mobiles chirping"

The idiots who profit from the nuclear plants and oil riggs don't know what to do because it's too late! They haven't prepared at all for the collapse of their businesses and the major health problems/ risks that are attacking their comfortable world. They're on the phone to every mother fucker in town!

"Take the money run
Take the money run
Take the money"

So in the end all that's left for them is their money. All they can do now is run from the problem and hide behind their money.

That's just the way I viewed the song. I believe it could also be all of Thoms opinions on global warming and perhaps he is tossed back and forth from worrying about it, to not worrying about it. It really is a beautiful song. Kid A is incredible.

I wrote all of that in a sleepy haze, trying to sound intelligent when in actual fact it sounds ridiculous. The first bit should be something like 'First it's an activist speaking out, trying to get people on the boat of change and making a difference so that we can help prevent further damage to the eco system' and the rest is just whatever it is. I didn't even care to read the post before mine so i sort of made an ass of myself. hahaha great.

To me, this song is about the Titanic - "Ice Age coming," "take the money, run," "here I'm allowed allowed everything all of the time [the opulence of the doomed passengers' lifestyles], "women & children first," etc. Just my take and probably not Thom's, but what I love about Radiohead is how its possible to interpret each song in a billion ways despite their singularity.

the album KID A is a concept album about the first human clone and his life from birth to death
u see the first song is where he is born into a labarotory (everything in its right place)
then the song KID A is obviously infanthood as you can tell
then u see national anthem also has a very nursery ryhme vocal melody along with weird noises
skip through the clones adolescence and adulthood
and u get to idioteque where he reaches mental collapse the defining lyric is "you have seen to much , i havent seen enough i havent seen it" then the throwing in of loads of problems with the world (war,global warming, technology) it alll becomes too much for him in the end of the song the clone man is sedated this also accurs at the end of how to dissapear.... and treefingersis also a point where he is sedated after idioteque he wakes up happy and sees the irony of life and earth in a smug know-it-all way after this he kills himself in track 10 the short hidden track of harps swelling and beatiful synths is the clone entering heaven

i hear amnesiac is him getting revenge on the people who disquised the world from him (im a reasonable man / get off my case) pulk/pull revolving doors is him in heaven its actually a clone heaven where everything is technilogical then track 4 is where him and his clone mates go to fuck up some evil scientists (we ride tonight) the rest of the album is a blur to me but of kid A i am sure

im fucking certain that its take the morning run not money

i think it`s about searching a shelter for all the bad things in the world, like a imaginary place so you can protect yourself from all the bad vibrations that from the last years we are having

I'm not even going to bother trying to understand exactly what this song is about all I know is I love how layered it is. I love closing my eyes and lying in bed with headphones on and Idioteque on repeat and picking up all the different sounds and beats in it. For some reason it chills me out more than anything and I fall asleep almost effortlessly, which is quite a feat because there have been periods of time where I used to stay awake for days. Someone else said it's the lyrics to a song are less important about how it hits you when you first hear it and I agree completely...whenever I hear this song I feel completely surrounded by it and swept away.

After reading all of the previous comments (yes even the "oh this song is so awesome" and kid rock ones), I will have to agree that this song is another part of the clone theme that continuously shows up in Kid A. Given that, I will also say that each song can have dual purposes, they can both serve the clone theme and address an issue other than cloning, of course that may not always be, in other words, some of the songs are there just for the clone (kid A) and some also address an issue. It should also be noted that the actual music done by the instruments express what is actually going on more than the lyrics themselves, if anything the lyrics express the dialogue and thoughts that happen during Kid A's life. I think yuppie 2 was somewhat correct in how the songs show his progression in life but I think "Everything in its right place" is pre-birth (the preparations are complete and the scientists(s) are excited) and there is dialogue between scientist about whether or not it is right to do clone (there are two colors in my head); Kid A is the actual birth of... well Kid A (imagine when a child is born and the nurses put them in that room with other babies for parents to look at, now replace that room with... say a large tube with an infant floating in there and the parents with scientists) or ,like yuppie2 said, maybe Kid A in his very first years.

National Anthem though could have even more possibilities, the music really plays an important part in how things go down. One could say that it shows how the outside world reacts to the creation of clones, the driving bass symbolizing the information being given out, the facts, speeches being made; the chaos at the end symbolizing the outrage, the protest, and ultimately the fighting and rioting. Funny enough, the bass stops at one point and the chaos continues but more importantly, chaos also stops and a sort of wind sound happens. The other possibilities are that the bass is a pro-clone scientist(s) having dominance in the situation and the chaos may be scientists that want to tell Kid A what he really is, and the chaos finally winning is when the bass dies out and the wind sound is Kid A's reaction; or maybe its both the outside world and the scientists doing their thing; or its the creation of more clones being made and the insanity that it brings. Bottom line, Kid A's realizes who he is.

"How to disappear completely" is pretty simple, Kid A's denial that he's a clone. "Treefingers" serves as a mark of transition, it may be Kid A growing up or him dealing with being clone via silent though for a certain amount of time.
"Optimistic" and on it is where its hard for me to tell what’s going on exactly. Optimistic maybe Kid A out in the "real world" and such or maybe him trying to get out? Not sure. "In limbo" is probably Kid A getting help from someone with power that may have their own slimy reasons for helping. "Idioteque" maybe what he sees or the reaction he gets from people about clones. "Morning bell" I like to think of how Wallamange described it, "the name of a newspaper", it would certainly give dual meanings to "cut the kids in half".
"Motion Picture Soundtrack" is pretty much the end of Kid A's life, telling the other clones that they've been fed lies and they try to tell them that things will change but too late Kid A is dead and the "hidden" track is a new beginning which may show up in Amnesiac.

Of course this is just some ramblings that I decided to type down, the whole Kid A/cline theory could be totally wrong and I'm just making an ass of myself, but thank you for reading.