Radiohead – Scatterbrain. (As Dead as Leaves.)

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I'm walking out
In a force ten gale
Birds thrown around
Bullets for hail
The roof is pulling off by its fingernails
Your voice is rapping on my window sill

Yesterday's headlines blown by the wind
Yesterday's people end up scatterbrain
Any fool can easy pick a hole (I only wish I could fall in)
A moving target in a firing range

Somewhere I'm not
Scatterbrain
Somewhere I'm not
Scatterbrain
Lightning fuse
Powercut
Scatterbrain

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Lyrics submitted by ruben


Scatterbrain. (As Dead as Leaves.) song meanings
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  • 0
    General Comment:I'd say it's about escapism. The world described is stormy and vicious (birds thrown around, bullets for hail, yesterday's headlines blown by the wind), but something is calling you away- "Your voice is rapping on my windowsill" - could be a person, memory, anything.

    Making your escapist rabbit hole is easy (Any fool can easy pick a hole) but to get there is hard. (I only wish I could fall in.) A scatterbrained person is not fully in the present moment, they're lost in their head somewhere ("somewhere I'm not"). The sorrow is at being unable to get there.

    I always imagined that the voice rapping on the windowsill is the same as the unborn chicken voices in Paranoid Android, so, it represents inspiration itself. The song's about conducting lightning - being a conduit, channeling something powerful from the stormy world around but unable to get to manifest the place in your imagination (elusive, "a moving target in a firing range"). Fuses and powercuts all protect from too much power surging through a system, so, being shocked back to sober reality. Scatterbrain is a person who can't concentrate.

    Here's what Thom said about it:

    "It's a really, really difficult song to describe. My favourite type of weather in the whole wide world is extreme winds. It is a bit dangerous. I have a house in the middle of nowhere and the house next door, the roof blew up and we just watched it and it was exactly like 'The Wizard of Oz'. It was fantastic. And this was a similar incident in the city. But it's kind of a love song as well, in a way."
    Flag whiskieson June 22, 2012   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:I think this song is more about being unaware of what's going on around you more than anything. It's a reflection of todays culture and society. People go about their everyday business not paying attention to the pain of the world, blissfully unaware, yet right in the middle of it.\

    "I'm walking out
    In a force ten gale
    Birds thrown around
    Bullets for hail"

    This section stands makes this question stand out to me: "Why would you walk out in a 10 force gale?"
    This whole song is like that to me. All just about people being the textbook definition of ignorant: choosing to ignore something, choosing to not know.
    Flag Radianton November 23, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:this is 10th grade to me; was my favorite song then.
    still makes the list, all these years later.
    Flag keighleycakeson February 12, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I think this song runs kind of in the vein of 'I will', in that it's kind of talking about taking up arms against foreign oppressors. In 'I will', the parent is taking matters into his own hands, dealing with the oppression. Scatterbrain seems to be through the eyes of a child, innocent sounding. It compares a war-torn village/country to a hurricane. As yesterday's rebels are scatterbrained (either dead or shell-shocked or something) it is time for the child to take up arms, light the fuse, fight the war.
    Flag voice.of.reason?on December 09, 2009   Link
  • -1
    General Comment:"...your voice is rapping on my window sill"-safety rope?When roof is pool out...
    Extremely exciting place...Your turn...
    "yesterday's headlines blown by the wind"-yesterday's stereotypes, yesterday's particular, yesterday's labyrinths-all it was our main life components...suddenly it all disappear
    "yesterday's people end up scatterbrain"-support disappear...Headlines disappear...Where are you now? Who are you now? You there and you here are different things, aren't you? But why? We are the same, with equal goal. Our separation is the illusion. Great Shuffle of Creation and Destruction.A vortex.
    "any fool can easy pick a hole"-like a mad with unexpected actions.A drunk that can do anything irreparable.A stereotype-think-man with vanished stereotypes.
    "any fool can easy pick a hole"-next catatonic birth.Absolutely new life with erased memory and in arbitrary form...Blind human becomes a moving target in a firin' range...
    "lightning fuse powercut.scatterbrain"-when you try to "catch the deluge in the paper cup" it burst...When THIS LOVE makes you cry, you gasp for breath and sink in this tear sea...When THIS PERFECT BEAUTY excite you, you lose your head...When THIS KNOWLEDGE ask you to create, you start to create yourself...to create your own world...You are the self-created world...What world_of_your_dream you can feel in yourself?What illusion you can build in this time?
    How far our final fantasy can come?..

    But...the fuse...That damn fuse...It burns...It always burns...We're trapped in our imperfection...
    Sorry...
    Flag RIverXon June 13, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:i love this song. i suppose for me its about leaving a place, for the last time. like a girlfriends house or whatever, with so much emotion in you because of the heartbreak. beautiful song
    Flag Xeanson April 12, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:i agree with whysogreenandlonely and skatesa207. it's all about lonliness and being mind-fucked by society or a love interest. this song always reminds me of the vulnerability i have felt from having feelings for a lady; especially one u can't be with for whatever reason. scatterbrain is such a good word for this day and age; at least for me.
    Flag orion3424on March 23, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I love the way the music itself is calm and almost dreamy, except it has this underlying uncomfortable feel, and then the Thom sings the lyrics slowly and easily when what they describe is almost horrific...
    Flag Black Sativaon October 23, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:what makes radiohead stand out from every band is how they can combine their lyrics match the melody of the music so well. i think the obvious picture people see is a battle field and the aftermath of it. but i think he may also be talking about vulnerbility like raspler said and letting people into your life and them destroying your state of mind. hence, the scatterbrain.
    Flag skatesa207on September 03, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:what makes radiohead stand out from every band is how they can combine their lyrics match the melody of the music so well. i think the obvious picture people see is a battle field and the aftermath of it. but i think he may also be talking about vulnerbility like raspler said and letting people into your life and them destroying your state of mind. hence, the scatterbrain.
    Flag skatesa207on September 03, 2006   Link

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