Lyrics for Cuttooth as interpreted by shut

Cuttooth Lyrics
I will live a wallpaper lie
Or run away to the foreign legion
I want to be in the wallpaper
Or run away to the foreign legion

And as the tanks roll into town
As the tanks roll into town
A little bit of knowledge will destroy you
A little bit of knowledge will destroy you

As the tanks roll into town
As the tanks roll into town
A little bit of knowledge will destroy you
A little bit of knowledge will destroy you

I don't know why I feel so tongue-tied
I don't know why I feel so skinned alive

Run until your lungs are sore
Until you cannot feel it any more
Run until your lungs are sore
Until you find an open door

I built you up to pull you down
Tie you to your feet, and watch you drown
A little bit of knowledge will destroy you
A little bit of knowledge will destroy you
I built you up to pull you down
Tie you to the stake and watch you burn in hell

I don't know why I feel so tongue-tied
I don't know why I feel so skinned alive
I'll find another skin to wear
I'll find another skin to wear

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  • 18 Comments
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thom yorke
05-03-2002

Rated 0 
Don't you wish you knew the real lyrics to this masterpiece?

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deadeye093
05-04-2002

Rated 0 
I'd have to say this as the correction to the lyrics:

I will lead a wallpaper life
Or run away to the foreign legion
I will lead a wallpaper life
Or run away to the foreign legion

And as the tanks roll into town
As the tanks roll into town
A little bit of knowledge will destroy you
A little bit of knowledge will destroy you

As the tanks roll into town
As the tanks roll into town
A little bit of knowledge will destroy you
A little bit of knowledge will destroy you

I dont know why I feel so tongue-tied
I dont know why I feel so skinned alive

Run until your lungs are sore
Until you cannot feel it any more
Run until your lungs are sore
Until you find an open door

I build you up to pull you down
Tie you to your feet, and watch you drown
A little bit of knowledge will destroy you
A little bit of knowledge will destroy you
I build you up to pull you down
Tie you to the stake and watch you burn in hell

I dont know why I feel so tongue-tied
I dont know why I feel so skinned alive

I'll find another skin to wear
I'll find another skin to wear

I'm gonna have to say that I cannot stop listening to this song. It ... ahhh, the indescribable harmonies and melodies...just awesome...

I just wish I knew what the heck it is supposed to be about.

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thebiddler
05-10-2003

Rated 0 
This is a love song. A wallpaper life is metophoric to leading a dull and simplistic life. The tanks and war are metophoric to building someone up (as they run away from you) towards a greater appreciation. "I build you up to pull you down/tie you to your feet, and watch you drown." In a sense both parties are building eachother up, one by running away and one by hurting the other for running away. "A little bit of knowledge will destroy you." The knowledge is knowing that someone loves you that much and having to live with it.

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Jondude11
06-23-2003

Rated 0 
what does this song have to do with myxomatosis?

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periwinklebyday
04-08-2004

Rated 0 
In response, Thom stole his own lyrics from this and put it in Myxamatosis. "I dont know why I feel so tongue tied....alive."
I love how he keeps saying "A little bit of knowledge will destroy you." It hurts.

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smallwonderrobot
04-14-2005

Rated 0 
Agreed that the above lyrics by deadeye are correct(er). Why are all the RH websites so wrong on this song? Anyways. It's a brilliant song. BRILLIANT. About wanting to be invisible (blending into the wallpaper), escaping yourself and your thoughts/worries (joining the foreign legion; running away; finding another "skin to wear"). A most amazing song.

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varicose_veins
07-11-2005

Rated 0 
"In response, Thom stole his own lyrics from this and put it in Myxamatosis."

but wait...was myxomatosis written before cuttooth then? or is myxomatosis stolen from cuttooth?

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Wallamanage
09-15-2005

Rated 0 
hee hoo ha hey.


Why is there no Amnesiac B-Side EP. I want this song, but the cheapest I can find Knives out Single is £2.90 from amazon. Anyone seen it cheaper elsewhere?

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Swish
10-14-2005

Rated 0 
Download Knives Out Single from MSN Music for £2. Cheapest I've found

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Homicidal Suicidal
03-23-2007

Rated 0 
£3 is good seeing it will be quite rare in 5 or so years

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skinnedalive
08-27-2007

Rated 0 
As I just posted on the 'Life In A Glass House' page, this song along with the rest of the 'Knives Out' single is an aversion and fear of people, of communication, of connecting with strangers or friends.

Leading the wallpaper life is watching life pass you by as you do nothing, because of your insecurities. Your insecurities eventually overwhelm you and you run away.

The tanks are you, destroying yourself and those around you because you cannot just get over your insecurities. A little bit of NOISE will destroy you, if you would just make an effort to speak and communicate you could get past all of this.

The chorus is stating the problem, you feel skinned alive because of all the damage you cause yourself from just constantly having these insecurities and not overcoming them.

Run away until you get tired of running and your ready to face your fears, or you find a way.

The build you up to pull you down is playing games with people, starting something with them, engaging them and then just ignoring them, throwing them away. Its a shitty place to be, to put yourself out there and receive nothing from the other person because they are so insecure.

You find another skin to where when you get tired of indulging in your fears and playing these games. Knives Out is essentially saying you have to sever all of this shit from yourself because it will get you nowhere, you have to forget your past and move on.

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nashornikov
09-18-2007

Rated 0 
Just about the only solid interpretation I've come up with is for "skinned-alive-tonguetied": those are cat-related idioms. What on earth does that mean? Well, Myxomatosis had other cat imagery, and in that song, it made a certain amount of sense -- at least, it wasn't hard to tell myself I understood something. I could at least feel there was profundity in going from gruesome and infamous to "cliched". This song cannibalizes another song. Is that what's called postmodernism? Is there any link to "cat tied to a stick driven into frozen winter shit"? I'm afraid to compound my guesses and venture further from the material, but I think it's safe to say "getting packaged and stripped of originality" is a theme to always run in context of a Radiohead song, looking out for striking instances of it.

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nashornikov
09-19-2007

Rated 0 
As far as lyrics corrections are concerned: with Thom Yorke, it's healthy to think of it in terms of "if it doesn't make sense to you, it didn't make sense to the artist." He could make it "live" 100%, but instead it landed somewhere between "live" and "leave", and the same goes for "knowledge" and "noise", and this is without taking into account that different recordings have different lyrics. Also, does anyone else think it's actually more exciting to look for meaning between "knowledge" and "noise" as opposed to definitely one or the other?

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samhall555
05-01-2008

Rated 0 
a friend of mine, is running away from this wallpaper life to join the foreign legion

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mlucky9
06-11-2008

Rated 0 
I've been a Radiohead fanatic for years and years and for whatever reason I never read these lyrics till now and it is such a gift to experience Radiohead as new again.

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chaitanyakumar
01-15-2009

Rated -1 
Lets face it, the man just hates himself. loathing and self deprecating and with a load of contempt for the world around him. this song has masterpiece written all over it and only a man like thom could have done it!

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westing202
09-21-2009

Rated 0 
On close listen I hear "skinned alive," but before that I'd always always heard "I don't know why I feel so tongue-tied / I don't know why I feel so scandalized." Not bad, right?

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degree7
11-08-2009

Rated 0 
I always thought h was singing

"I don't know why I feel to torn tight, I don't know why I feel so skinned alive"

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