Lyrics for A Punchup at a Wedding. (No No No No No ... as interpreted by ruben

A Punchup at a Wedding. (No No No No No ... Lyrics
No, no, no, no, no, no
No, no, no, no, no, no
No, no, no, no, no, no
No, no, no, no, no, no
No, no, no, no, no, no
No, no, no, no, no, no
No, no, no, no, no, no

I don't know why you bother
Nothing's ever good enough for you
(By the way) I was there
It wasn't like that
You've come here just to start a fight
You had to piss on our parade
You had to shred our big day
You had to ruin it for all concerned
In a drunken punch-up at a wedding, yeah

Hypocrite opportunist
Don't infect me with your poison
A bully in a china shop
When I turn around, you stay frozen to the spot
You had the pointless snide remarks
Of hammerheaded sharks
The pot will call the kettle black
It's a drunken punchup at a wedding, yeah

Oh, no, no

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ruben
09-02-2002

Rated 0 
On Thom's lyric sheet he used for one of the concerts, the following "verse" was added at the end of the song but was never sung:

go ahead the stage is yours.
if you think you can do better
you used to be alright, what-happened?
keep moving or you r dead. keep moving or you r dead.
how i wish you’d stay out of my face.
there’s always someone spoils the party
just you wait till your chained down
worried and unhinged
you have really gone and done it now
just a trick to make you stupid
all these sad heroics
let me tell you how it really is
we are here to spoil your party
empty vessels make the most noise
survival of the fittest
wading through the marshes
hypocrits, opportunists,
userers flatterers and thiefs.
im sick of all your bullshit.
im sick of all these fucking mindgames.
who invited you anyway?

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SnapHappyActivist
06-11-2003

Rated 0 
You know when you have one of those days and you can't stop beating yourself up inside? Kind of like the angel and devil on either shoulder, but more like internal and external. The way your mind mocks your actions because its not afraid to think them but you are afraid to do them.
I think the 'No, No, No....' is one of two things. Either the internal (the mind) is mocking the way the external handled a situation prior to the beginning of the song, or is shouting it while he's fumbling and falling in the situation. That or he's walking away saying 'no no no no...' in despair.
What follows seems to me to be a conversation between the two sides of the mind. the one that thinks and the one that makes decisions, and this is where the two voices seprate and becomes two feuding sides of the same internal voice.

'I dont know why you bother' states the cynical side, to which the other replies 'nothing's ever good enough for you' like a bickering couple. It's like, ok you can think all you want but im the only one making decisions round here!
I'm pissed that they arent releasing this, as the video woudl be great, thom walkign around talkign to himself. (mind you i dont know if anyone agrees).

This continues with 'I WAS there' you know ' and it wasnt like that'
to which the decision making part replies 'you've come here just to start a fight'

and so this continues

I'm guesing the parade, the wedding, the big day is all about feeling great, high human emotion and all that shit and it being ruined by your 'hypocritical' inner voice, reminding of you of your regrets and your mistakes as if questioning: what right do you have to enjoy anything, you've screwed up so much, why should you have fun, experience love and other such feelings?

i think from the 'piss on our parade' bit is the decision part again, arguing that all you do is spoil my mood.

there are a number of things i picked out in the additional lyrics where the external come back into it
'im sick of all your bullshit.
im sick of all these fucking mindgames' and takes over, telling the voices to stop beating him up.

with the beautifully sardonic remark 'who invited you anyway?' questions why are you in my head, and surely i would be better off without you.

look over this, this is just pretentious bull-shit and im sure radiohead had no intention of remarking on the human mind and such issues as regret.

anyway, please tel me if you think i'm just being foolish, and comment on anything...
thank you

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Skillet
06-11-2003

Rated 0 
Awesome song. Just got the new CD and its amazing. A must own and one of Radiohead's best. This is one of the better songs on the CD.

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NeverBeSummer
06-15-2003

Rated 0 
not their best though...I really loved OK Computer and The Bends the most...this is still an excellent CD worth buying if you're a self respecting Radiohead fan.

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second guesser
06-19-2003

Rated 0 
To me this song seems like an attack on the critics that dismissed Kid A and Amnesiac with the stupid complaint that it doesn't sound like OK Computer or the Bends. Nothing's ever good enough for the critics whose pointless snide remarks pissed on their parade... or something like that. I also think that "when I turn around you stay frozen to the spot" suggests that when Radiohead moved into the new territory of Kid A, the critics where still stuck in 1997 whining that they hadn't produced another OK Computer.

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colabottle
06-20-2003

Rated 0 
SnapHappyActivist, that was more or less how I interpreted the song, though more like a sub-schizophrenia than two relatively voluntary minds. Your suggestion would have made a brilliant video *sigh*.

Second_Guesser - I had never thought of it like that! And yet it makes so much sense!

'The pointless snide remarks of hammerheaded sharks' - did anyone interpret this as labelling the other person/subconscious as a hypocrite? (Or maybe I need to take my medication again)

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colabottle
06-20-2003

Rated 0 
Just read SnapHappy's post again - missed the part about the hypocritical inner voice... totally agree! Back to the medication to improve my attention span... (why do I write such pointless things? No!
It's the voices again!)

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SnapHappyActivist
06-21-2003

Rated 0 
lol, thanks, but i like second quesser's interpretation... i like the hammerheaded sharks thing though, cos sometimes a hammer-head looks like it has two heads almost, or two sides to its head at least, which all ties in with everything. glorious.

i just got hail to the thief...................its.......its just radiohead beign amazing again.

BUY IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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SnapHappyActivist
06-22-2003

Rated 0 
oh, and did anyone notice this on the album? 'I Will' ends on the same (musical) note as 'A Punch-up...' and is linked by a beat that sounds like its the same song until you look at the track number and the remember the bass intro...and then, the way the end of this song and the start of 'myxomatosis' is timed, it sounds like a break in the music before it takes a heavier turn.

so very deceptively, you can listen to these songs as one track.

Its kind of interesting, as I Will seems to be about determination, before the whole hypocritical response (which fits second guesser's interpretation too, i think)...and myxomatosis kind of starts with a confident 'mongrel cat' (i.e product of two different breeds/ or an idea bred of two different voices) before he becomes ill and weak with myxomatosis, despite it being a rabbit disease...

i'm probably o/d'd on the album in this one actually, it stinks a bit of bull shit, but it sounds vaguely interesting...

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vanillaskydiver
07-03-2003

Rated 0 
Second Guesser has an interesting idea, but I have to go with something alittle more along the line of SnapHappy's first post..but a bit different... Thom Yorke obviously suffers from an affective disorder of one sort or another..probably bi-polar.. Lord knows he's made enough references to his disorder and Prozac, etc etc I think the song has to do with the daemons of Depression and Mania wrestling for his soul.. with his rational self caught in between them.

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letmebe
04-16-2004

Rated 0 
The pot will call the kettle black....its a drunken PUNCH UP at a wedding! Ohh

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capriciouspoet
05-24-2004

Rated 0 
vanillaskydiver i think you are right on.

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dando
06-24-2004

Rated 0 
ok, has anyone taken into account the title of the album when considering this song? 'Hail to the Thief' was (i thought, a pretty well known) reference to the "stolen" election by George W. Bush in 2001. not all of radiohead's songs (especially recently) are a continuation of the angst ridden, inner turmoil ilk of bends/ok days. the last two albums have seen a strong political preoccupation. Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box from Amnesiac and its reference to Tony Blair (radiohead seemed to have bought into the optimism that characterised his election campaign) is an example of the political scepticism that has been cropping up a lot lately. Hail to the Thief seems to take this preoccupation and express it more overtly, the title suggests this as do the orwellian references in 2 + 2 = 5. A Drunken Punch Up at a Wedding just screams out "Fuck George Bush and fuck this war" to me. Of course if you happen to be a radiohead fan and a Bush supporter (god forbid) i don't expect you'll buy that.

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KresentPhresh
07-03-2004

Rated 0 
I was thinking the same thing as Dando. Certain lines kind of gave me that impression. "Punch Up at a Wedding" kind of made me think of the US suddenly occupying Iraq. "You came here just to start a fight," kind of promotes that idea as well...

The line that stood out the most to me was, "I was there. It wasn't like that." Does anyone know if Thom's ever been to Iraq? After seeing that interview on TV between Saddam and...I forgot who it was, I got the impression that Iraq wasn't as hostile towards Americans coming into the country as believed, or as they are now due to our occupation of their country...

I dunno, that was just my idea.

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KresentPhresh
07-03-2004

Rated 0 
Correction; "I got the impression that Iraq wasn't as hostile towards Americans coming into the country as believed" should be "foreigners". Yes, I know, Thom is British.

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radiohead1125
09-19-2004

Rated 0 
Thom's british? Are your serious?




lol

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cshah
10-10-2004

Rated 0 
I think this song is about the annoyed feeling you have against really stupid ignorant people.

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KresentPhresh
11-10-2004

Rated 0 
No, I'm not.

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JoeBaldwin
11-10-2004

Rated 0 
I think it's about the whole time after 9/11. There was this wedding, everyone coming together in a show of unity for the US, but then they started making wars and so began the punchup.

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pumkinhed
12-15-2004

Rated 0 
i think, sorry if someone already said this, that the song's about someone wrestling with himself. the narrator is the little voice in everyone mocking their every move. sorta sadistic, but neato at the same time

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Quoth_Raven
01-14-2005

Rated 0 
I agree with snaphappy activist on this. I think its about the vicious cycle of self-guilt and regret when you try to rationalise your reasons for doing something you truly regret and can't forgive yourself for it.
Stanza 1 is self anger at screwing up. Stanza 2 is an attack on the voice of forgiveness inside that tries to pander away all the regret hypocritically after its crushing remarks.

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just_another_brick
02-23-2005

Rated 0 
**Removed**

Edited by Matty on March 30 2005, at 04:00AM



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jek21
04-04-2005

Rated 0 
This song has a really sick groove. Fucking sweet.

Oh uhhh..the songs about some guys..er..wrestling with his emotions and shit. (cough). Sure.

Did i mention the cool groove?

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pollyethylene
04-23-2005

Rated 0 
WOW... everyone has much more eomplex and impressive answers that what i came up with...

... i always thought it was a perfect description of a narcissist or some other type of manipulating jerk. (because of the wedding reference i always pictured it as one of his girlfriend\'s relatives but really it doesn\'t matter lol)...

especially the parts about the person \"stay[ing] frozen to the spot\" and \"the pot will call the kettle black\"... just reminds me so well of a mean-spirited but ultimately cowardly person.. like a \"bully\", as thom says.. once you really stand up to them they don\'t know what to do.

just my interpretation though, i like everyone else\'s as well

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pollyethylene
04-23-2005

Rated 0 
umm... \"eomplex\" = complex... it\'s 2:30 am here, i appear to be losing some typing skills..

awir3oprasd}:p

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