Radiohead – Motion Picture Soundtrack

• 0
  My Interpretation:It seems the verses are sung alternately by two people - a broken couple. One of them (the man, presumably) is in a deep suicidal depression because of the breakup. The other (the woman) is rebuffing his pleas to be back with her.
  
  "Red wine and sleeping pills
  Help me get back to your arms
  Cheap sex and sad films
  Help me get where I belong"
  
  ^ The man is alone and empty without her company - perhaps an alcoholic and pill-popper to boot.
  
  "Stop sending letters
  Letters always get burned
  It's not like the movies
  They fed us on little white lies"
  
  ^ The woman is treating his romantic outreaches with pessimistic denial.
  
  "I will see you in the next life"
  
  ^ The man is committing suicide, or at least assuring himself that they may meet after death.
  
  "Beautiful angel
  Pulled apart at birth
  Limbless and helpless
  I can't even recognize you"
  
  ^ The man is saddened by his partner's change in character. Perhaps some life event - adolescence maybe ("birth" in this verse) - pushed her into cynicism, hopelessness, and austerity. The man doesn't even know her anymore.
  
  "I think you're crazy, maybe
  I think you're crazy, maybe"
  
  ^ This one took me the longest to figure out, but I think this interpretation works: The woman is rebuking the man's romanticism, or maybe becoming downright disgusted with this creepy ex-boyfriend that keeps hounding after her. The "maybe" could just be an afterthought of the woman, but I like to think of it as the man admitting the futility of his actions. The way it is sung, the man seems to be replying, "Yes, maybe I AM crazy for pursuing this. Maybe I AM crazy for still wanting you."
  
  Of course, I may be reading too deep into it or even misreading it entirely. This is just what makes the most sense to me.

  Flag Kempsonon April 04, 2013   Link

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• 0
  General Comment:The thing with Radiohead is that people usually take the lyrics too literally or they are looking too deep. Sometimes they are just lyrics. However, in this song, its neither. This song is loaded with metaphors about, as someone stated earlier, struggling to face the harsh reality of life. Further, it is about the loss of innocence in a violent way. This is apparent to me in lyrics, "Beautiful angel, pulled apart at birth, limbless and helpless." What could be more innocent than an infant? The violent tearing apart of this innocence is the journey of life - growing, succeeding, failing. And Thom shows us ithat he is human like the rest of us in the last line of the song, "I will see you in the next life." This shows that Thom thinks in black and white like the rest of us - that suicide may be the only way out. Most of us employ, at one time or another, black and white thinking when under stress. Also, its the last song on the album. So what he really could be saying is that I'll see you on Amnesiac.

  Flag President55on November 28, 2012   Link

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• 0
  General Comment:So I read today that Jimi Hendrix took 9 sleeping pills and drank red wine before he asphyxiated on his vomit in his sleep. Probably doesn't help interpret the song, but it's an interesting similarity.

  Flag zchdyeron May 16, 2012   Link

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• 0
  General Comment:fuck you gorb

  Flag hadriaenszon November 13, 2011   Link

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• 0
  General Comment:This song in all of its beauty drains every last ounce of happiness from me.

  Flag Willboeon April 10, 2010   Link

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• +4
  My Interpretation:People keep saying it's about relationships, or love, and so on... but I really don't think so. The beauty of Radiohead is that Thom doesn't write about girls or love, he writes about life, and this song is the quintessential example of that, to me.
  
  To me, this song is about realizing that all the things you were taught about life as a child, everything you learned from Disney and TV and movies, was a lie ("it's not like the movies/they fed us on little white lies"). It's about realizing that life is a difficult, sometimes terrible, always complex experience, not the simple, happy fantasy world you were taught. It's about trying to escape from that harsh reality, through alcohol (red wine), (cheap) sex, and (sad) films, but failing, and ultimately deciding you're crazy for trying and giving up (I will see you in the next life...).
  
  That's what this song is about to me. Trying to come to terms with reality, and failing.

  Flag caramelpoliceon March 28, 2010   Link

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• -3
  General Comment:"Beautiful angel
  Pulled apart at birth
  Limbless and helpless
  I can't even recognize you
  I think you're crazy, maybe"
  
  I simply can't see how this ISN'T about an abortion?

  Flag meeno112on February 16, 2010   Link

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• 0
  Song Meaning:Radiohead has the uncanny ability to marry the music and lyrics to create an absolute perfect delivery of an emotion. He sounds so defeated in this song, which by the lyrics, he is. I never thought the song about suicide.. I assumed the line see you in the next life was a reference to the fact he felt like this lover he was karmicly related to - a soul mate perhaps - and he was saying goodbye for now knowing he would be with her again in the next life. Red wine and sleeping pills get me back to your arms - a self induced sleep where he can be with her again in his dreams. Cheap sex and movies get me back where I belong - he returns to his old life without her where life is a bag of meaningless relationships and depressing times and sadly, that's where he feels he belongs. I love this band. They are unbelievable.
  

  Flag VEDOSUNon September 24, 2009   Link

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• 0
  General Comment:This song is so sad, it's pretty simple. My favorite radiohead song for sure. At the end with the long silence and then all those sounds; seems like death to me. I don't know what to say, really. Someone sad about someone dieing, as many people before me have interpreted. The crazy thing is said to himself, and the red wine and pills are his escape.
  
  "It's not like the movies"

  Flag DJgifon July 01, 2009   Link

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• 0
  General Comment:I'm not one to immediately jump to every song being about suicide, but it seems to me this one is. Not of the narrator, but of someone close to them. I think the song is the process of dealing with the grief and questions surrounding an act of suicide. I think the chorus fits with this, almost as if with the 'maybe' part he's asking if it's really that crazy for someone to take their own life. Dunno though, everyone has pretty good interpretations

  Flag shirvson July 01, 2009   Link

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