Radiohead – Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box

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  My Interpretation:Imo, this song is about someone who was going along with the flow of life not questioning much. A person who believes everything politics and the media sells him, and then one day realizes that he has yet to ever experience any of the joy and happiness seemingly promised to him, and after years of just going along with things waiting for fulfillment, he feels empty. His life flashes before his eyes, and he can't figure out why he hasn't succeeded in making himself happy. He can't come to any reasonable solution because he has been so successfully manipulated, and thus (because of his skewed beliefs) tries to fight it off as just simple depression and attempts to convince himself that he is a reasonable man, and that he should be feeling better. I think the song title alludes to this idea considering the interpretation revolves around the concept of conformity, and that conformity is perpetuated by the packed, uniformed, and claustrophobia world that brings many people to this state of complete inability to reason oneself to actual reason, even after your original reason has done you no good. It's too hard to escape, we are all packt like sardines in a crushed tin box.

  Flag OptimisticKidAon May 21, 2013   Link

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  General Comment:It sounds like this song is describing someone who has finally realized that they don't need to have that feeling of being indebted to others: a predisposition which can manifest itself in unhelpful relationships. Perhaps it is now time for this someone to appreciate reading Nietzsche. A time where this someone can now live forcefully and beautifully.

  Flag johnnyjlon May 13, 2013   Link

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  General Comment:The album title is called "amnesiac"...He or she had a traffic jam in London, regained consciousness after a while and cant remember a single thing about his or her past because he or she has been diagnosed with amnesia.
  
  That would explain the lines "After years of waiting nothing came" and "And you realize you're looking, looking in the wrong place".
  
  As life goes on he or she realizes that the search of the past must stop because otherwise the present and future will become a waste. --> carpe diem!
  
  "Get off my case, I'm a reasonable man."
  
  That's the best i could come up with.

  Flag Timo bi Kismeton February 04, 2013   Link

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    Oh and the letters are missing because the album title is called "amnesiac". And I think the missing letters make up the hidden word "tee" which stands for traffic jam.
    
    T <---- one way is missing: The past.

    Flag Timo bi Kismeton February 04, 2013  
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  General Comment:Er...why is the letter "e" missing twice both in "Packt" and "Crushd"? And why does the word "Packed" end with the letter "t"?
  
  tee?

  Flag Timo bi Kismeton February 04, 2013   Link

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  General Comment:this song describes weakness for me. I look at the cover of the album and mirror the image into this song more intensely than the others. It's very personal obviously. The grand interpretative take for me on this one... Is coming to see a whole new side of your life never before explored. Also, the past was a waste of time searching for something which in turn you finally found.

  Flag Ahourstoryon December 01, 2012   Link

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    with new realizations, life changes. I'm a reasonable man, which means is a self respect stance on this new life while the old things that don't change still try to but in. intense.

    Flag Ahourstoryon December 01, 2012  
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  My Interpretation:I think this song is about brooding over all bad things you've done in your past and coming to the realization that you aren't a bad person because of it.
  
  "After years of waiting nothing came
  As your life flashed before your eyes"
  
  I feel these lines are about how you can't stop thinking of your dark secrets, the shitty things that you have done in life, and thinking about how your life would change if people knew about your hidden past.
  
  "After years of waiting
  After years of waiting nothing came
  And you realize you're looking,
  Looking in the wrong place"
  
  Then you realize you are concentrating on the wrong things in life. How nothing is really going to happen, and you are simply tearing yourself apart about stuff that you can't change; looking in the wrong place.
  
  "I'm a reasonable man
  Get off my case (x2)
  I'm a reasonable man
  Get off my case (x2)
  I'm a reasonable man
  Get off my case (x3)"
  
  And realizing that you are not a bad person at heart, even though society would make you out to be one if they knew about some of the things you have done.
  
  Just a theory, like anything else on this site, but given the themes of Amnesiac, that's what I would guess this song is about.

  Flag Calam1touson June 25, 2012   Link

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  My Interpretation:I've always thought this song was about procrastination, laziness, and that moment where you suddenly realize that you've invested all your time in nothing. It's like if you go out and buy jogging shoes and a gym membership and then don't use it, then a year later say to yourself, "if I had just committed myself a year ago, it would still be today but I would actually have something to show for it." To that end, it is also about complacency, about sitting back and waiting for what you want rather than aggressively pursuing it, then one day realizing that things don't just fall into your lap.

  Flag ajb3313on May 04, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:I think it's about a man who has waited all his life for something exciting, but nothing came, and now he's older and he's had a hard life, and when people ask about his life he just gets mad at them and says that he's a reasonable man, get off his case. Also I think the title "Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box" refers to how business executives see their employees nowadays, not as people but as a workforce, and that they treat them like they were sardines in a crushed tin box.
  
  Also the beat is great.

  Flag TheUniversalSighon March 19, 2012   Link

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  My Interpretation:“After years of waiting nothing came. As your life flashed before your eyes you realize I'm a reasonable man.” I think this is about a normal, reasonable man being judged by someone who is insane and, thus, unreasonable. The insane person waited for years for the reasonable man to become “reasonable” in their eyes, yet “nothing came”, nothing could change the reasonable man’s behavior. (And why should it? No reasonable man would sway to the whims of the insane.) Finally, the insane person realized they were “looking in the wrong place”; they realize that the man was truly reasonable all along and they were the one who needed to change. They needed to get off the reasonable man’s case and start fixing THEMSELVES. After this, the insane person finally becomes a reasonable man as well. I think this song is the cry of a normal, logical person frustrated by the constant hounding of someone who does not see them as such; a man with a normal view of the world being treated like a crazy person by a person who is actually crazy, frustrated that the judgmental, crazy person is ignorant not only of their own insanity, but also of the sanity of the reasonable man.

  Flag OBGHSSBWon December 10, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:To me it sounded like it was about a man on parole.

  Flag alterEgoon October 28, 2011   Link

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