Lyrics for 2 + 2 = 5 (The Lukewarm.) as interpreted by SyntaxLies

2 + 2 = 5 (The Lukewarm.) Lyrics
Are you such a dreamer
To put the world to rights?
I stay home forever
Where two and two always makes a five

I'll lay down the tracks
Sandbag and hide
January has April's showers
And two and two always makes a five

It's the devil's way now
There is no way out
You can scream and you can shout
It is too late now

Because
You have not been
Paying attention
Paying attention
Paying attention
Paying attention
Yeah, I'm not feeling it
Paying attention
Paying attention
Paying attention
Paying attention
Yeah, I need it
I needed attention
I needed attention
I needed attention
I needed attention
Yeah, I love it, the attention
Paying attention
Paying attention
Paying attention

I try to sing along
I get it all wrong
Because I知 not
Because I知 not
I swat them like flies
But like flies the buggers
Keep coming back
But I知 not

Oh, hail to the thief
Oh, hail to the thief
But I'm not
But I'm not
But I'm not
But I'm not
Don't question my authority or put me in the dock
Because I'm not
Because I'm not
Oh, go and tell the king that the sky is falling in
But it's not
But it's not
But it's not
Maybe not
Maybe not

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pumkinhed
10-14-2004

Rated 0 
This song is clearly a protest song against George Jr.'s government. At first it's a protester adressing Bush "Are you such a dreamer/to put the world to rights?" As in "you fucked it up for everyone, and you thought you were helping us?!?!?" The part with "you have not been paying attention" is adressing both Bush and whoever else wasn't really paying attention to the whole thing, saying look what this guy is doing. You can't let this happen!" Finally the last part is Bush adressing everyone else "don't question my authority or put me in the dock." i.e "hey don't blame me. it was like this when i came here." "all hail to the thief, all hail to the thief!" Trying to rally assistance in this time of desparation. All in all one of my personal favorite protest songs (if it is one.)

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MarcelDwayne
10-22-2004

Rated 0 
can someone explain to me how they believe this is connected to John Lennon, im only 20 i dont see the connection, but i know that previous songs such as Knives Out ( a tribute to the smiths) do sometimes relate to their influences

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dbaker
10-27-2004

Rated 0 
It's not-it's a cry to an apathetic public. So often the sin of Hubris etc. make it so we don't pay attention. The world's going down the tubes, and it's all because "you've not been payin attention" and soyou should all read 1984-the real source. 2+2=5

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Whiffet
11-05-2004

Rated 0 
will someone explain to me how Bush stole the election? I just don't get it. He had more votes in every recount. And they did like 5 or something. I just don't get it. I mean, how it not counting fucked up ballots and dimpled chads tantamount to stealing??? If you wanted to Gore to win, you should have voted for him, not drool on the ballot. I didn't necessarily want bush to win, but I don't see how he stole the election. Seemed like he won it pretty fair and square.

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bassnsx
11-08-2004

Rated 0 
since im a lazy american who doesnt feel like explaining it all in this teeny tiny box, read the book stupid white men by michael moore. It explains bush's meathods of winning/stealing the election, however you view it.
by the way, politics are never fair and square, whiffet

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duncan_jo
11-17-2004

Rated 0 
Hah! I love all the interpretations here! That's the beauty of music. It's not done once they finish recording in the studio, it still has to be interpreted by the listener.

That said I believe the song is simply a show of a loss of trust in the world. It's defeatist in a way in that the singer just wants to stay home in his own reality as the world outside can no longer be fixed no matter how hard we try. And it got that way because we weren't paying attention.

It does seem to contain allusion to the current US administration and the book 1984 but I think Thom was just trying to capture an emotion here. A sense of despair and frustration and not pointing his pen in any particular direction.

But eh... to each their own...

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duncan_jo
11-17-2004

Rated 0 
Oh and maybe my hearing is off, but some the lyrics listed here seem incorrect.

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shite
11-25-2004

Rated 0 
i think the interpitation about something being wrong seemed good, the song doesnt really go on about things being right so thats how i see it.

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greenandlonely
11-28-2004

Rated 0 
i think everyone is right about the 1984 thing - the song is about the battle between authority and rebelliousness and doubt about one's beliefs. in 1984 in the end winston was overcome and actually belived that 2+2=5.

random: if you listen carefully, at the bery beginning of the song you can hear a dripping faucet.

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Swizz*
12-05-2004

Rated 0 
na wasnt very. goodbye.

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gregface
12-16-2004

Rated 0 
it makes me sad that it took 17 comments for someone to make a connection to the OBVIOUS 1984 allusions. read books, people. 1984 is a classic. a british classic at that. considering radiohead is british, it makes sense that they would write about a classic piece of british literature. also, since they're british, i'd assume that they would be more inclined to write about their own government, than the united states' shitty government. i guess i can see where you can get the bush references from, if you really really really stretch out the meanings. i would hate it if this song was about bush. there's nothing worse than hearing people bitch about the past when they can't change it.

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cobain_canehdian
12-16-2004

Rated 0 
heres how this works. thom york is extremely anti-bush. the title of the cd "hail to theif" is in regards to bush stealing, wether it be votes or other things. the title 2+2=5 is in regards to a miscount in the US election. but hell, its just my opinion.

ps. listen to the rest of the album, its totally anti bush

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Brokenzero
12-17-2004

Rated 0 
cobain knows what he is talking about. Myxomatosis is like that too. Words are edited and misinterpreted.

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Idiotech
12-19-2004

Rated 0 
ToxicFool your so right. Especially page 62 (1984), completely sums up this track. I think RH released this song in such excellent timing as i guess their were relating the same context of 1984 with our society at status quo where majority were manipulated with lies about the whole mass destruction thing just because Bush had a personal vandeta (i so spelt that worng)
Thats my 2 cents worth at least

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gren
12-26-2004

Rated 0 
http://www.cornerstonepromotion.com/brunx/radiorocket.mov

in case you haven't seen it...very cool footage from a rocket sync'd up...

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littlebobbyfischer
12-27-2004

Rated 0 
Gregface: Uh, people read books. Don't worry about that. Not everyone has read 1984, but then again not everyone has read The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, or Grapes of Wraith, you dig? Don't get all uppity cause someone hasn't read a certain book. There are more books in the world to read than there is time to read them, so, yeah, relax.

Now that I got that out of the way, I think you can read into this song many ways. A lot of people say it is anti-bush, but I think it is more a reflection on the modern world at large. The general apathy among people towards what is happening around them, the sense of being unable to make a real change in anything, that kind of expression.
I see the 1984 reference, but it could just be that at one point Thom read that book and years later bits creeped in. I don't think he made it an obvious point to reference it. Could be one of those collective conciousness moments...
Uh, yeah... That's all i got.

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littlebobbyfischer
12-27-2004

Rated 0 
and by wraith i meant wrath, of course... (damn i need to re-read my posts before posting...)

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MaxpowerSupreme
12-28-2004

Rated 0 
It's just a jab at American policy and the way American citizens allow our goverment to dicatate us. We're supposed to be the land of the free, but our goverment has put what you can and cannot do on paper, and made it an official document. The narrator thinks this is incredibly foolish and will live in a world where things aren't so black and white, where all the anomalies of life aren't dictated by law makers. He'll live forever in a world where "2 + 2 = 5"

The citizens of America are so ignorant (and we are), that we can't see what the big-wigs are doing. They run rampant, unchecked, cuz we're not paying attention to what they're doing. A lot of us are just kids listening to whatever the hell MTV tells us, and we don't look at the real issues with our own heads. The narrator feels as though it's too late now, and we've fucked ourselves into oblivion.

"It's the devils way now
There is no way out
You can scream and you can shout
It's too late now
Because you have not been paying attention"

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Painbearer
12-30-2004

Rated 0 
the last 5 lines you mentioned MaxpowerSupreme are reference from Dante's Hell...

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Quoth_Raven
01-14-2005

Rated 0 
precisely my feelings. It's warning that we have been and still are idly standing by while our world is taken away from us and wrecked by leaders to whom the world does not correctly add up.

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PeteyPosey981
01-18-2005

Rated 0 
when i heard the title to this song, i immediately thought of Orwell's 1984, where a large part of the main character's struggle was being forced to believe that sometimes, 2+2 can equal 5. Depending on what "They" tell him. And so, if "they" say 2+2=5, then so it is. Yet, after listening to this song, Radiohead projects it from a different vantage.

I see a remote point

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personblahblah
01-22-2005

Rated 0 
to me it seems more like box then dock

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catisinmybrain
01-23-2005

Rated 0 
very good point, littlebobbyfischer. makes more sense than anything else i've read. this whole song isn't about bush or 1984. yeah, there are moments where it can allude to both, but i don't think radiohead would ever make it a point to discuss something so specific as those two. there must be something more general going on here. thom might be talking about politics in general or people being brainwashed by the government and regretting it later.

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personblahblah
01-28-2005

Rated 0 
the song definately has got to have some reference to 1984, which is also a reference to politics. it can't be just a coincidence that the song has so much in common with the book. maybe radiohead didn't make it an obvious point to reference it but the song is spelling out the same ideas of the book. 1984 IS about politics in general and being brainwashed by the government.

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tragicrock
01-29-2005

Rated 0 
I think Thom Yorke is saying there are rules and morals and ethics that leaders in the world and some others are trying to get us to pay attention to, but some of us methodically disobey these imposed facts of life.

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