Lyrics for Videotape as interpreted by black_cow_of_death

Videotape Lyrics
When I'm at the pearly gates
This'll be on my videotape
My videotape
My videotape

Mephistopheles is just beneath
And he's reaching up to grab me

This is one for the good days
And I have it all here in
Red, blue, green
Red, blue, green

You are my centre when I spin away
Out of control on videotape
On videotape
On videotape
On videotape

This is my way of saying goodbye
Because I can't do it fact to face
So I'm talking to you before
No matter what happens now
I won't be afraid
Because I know
Today has been the most perfect day I have ever seen

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thanos1981
12-03-2007

Rated -1 
I believe it is a very sad cry of a song, he is speaking of a day where he feels perfect and like he can make it to heaven but on the contrary he knows that his life on the whole is messed up and will not get him into heaven, that the devil will get him, but at least he has this one good day on videotape for God. He says goodbye because he knows after this day he will go back to being who he really is and he doesn't think there be another perfect day like this, he is talking to God before it is too late because he knows he will not be talking to him for a while, perhaps, until his dying day, he can't talk to God face to face because of course He is invisible so it is in a way, a final prayer.

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aortiz
12-10-2007

Rated 0 
This isn't about a suicide note or judgment in Heaven. It's a goodbye song to someone he just had the greatest day of his life with. It's a moment in which someone realizes he or she is going to die, but they're never going to be able to say goodbye to this someone before it happens. So instead, they make a videotape about all the greatest moments of their life to leave as their message to them.

It's like a love song, twinged with death. Very Thom Yorke. Very beautiful. If Thom Yorke started a religion, I would have to join it.

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redwine
12-11-2007

Rated 0 
To me the message is clear.

When I was a kid a show called Childrens ward was on tv, and I'll never forget this episode where a kid found out he had a brain tumour and only had a day to live can you imagine that. But he made a list of everything he's always wnated to do such as score a goal at Anfield, snog a girl, go in a hot air ballooon and so on....


SO to me thsi song stand out as what would you do if you had one day to live. The last line just touches me so deeply.......No matter what happens now I WONT BE AFRAID because I know today has been the most perfect day I've ever seen.

The song to me is just that, spending your last day on Earth with the people you love and doing everything you've ever dreamed of, so you will not be afraid of dying because the day was so perfect.

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imperiusblack
12-18-2007

Rated 0 
I've always thought of this song as a kind of "greatest hits" of his life. In the beginning, as he is standing at the pearly gates, he remembers great moments in his life which are put on his "videotape" which could just easily be a metaphor for memories. This videotape includes his last moment with the person he loves before he knows that he will die. So by living out the last day of his life with this person, he is okay and says that it is the "most perfect day". He is too scared/afraid to tell the person what he feels or that he actually may be dying, so he uses the memory as a kind of remembrance of him.

i dont think that this was suicide. i do think that he knew he was dying, but that there is no reason necessarily. he just knew, and he was okay with that, and so he had this last moment with this person.

just my two cents.

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chinua000
12-21-2007

Rated 0 
a wonderful wonderful song that somehow uplifts you by being troubled and sad and familiar. no one gets this close and this deep into our nature. i am usually quite shaken after listening to this song, the music is already all the way inside me at the first bar and then gets closer. it is very hard to explain (except that you've felt it too).

i think it's a revisiting of the deeply human theme from pyramid song that somehow captures our otherworldly and extremely vulnerable feelings about all that we have done in our lives and how we will make peace with God and ourselves and those we loved.

who could say goodbye after an entire life? the tape is enough. the flood of peace and release is powerful, safe in the knowledge that he wants this passing away to happen, and that someone will be watching he tape when he is gone, and that person will not judge or condemn him. that one act of giving the tape, releasing his story, is the most perfect thing he could ever do.

there is an unmistakable mixture of absolutely unearthly beauty and chasm-deep tragedy that is in no way hopeless, it simply does not hope in happy things. as usual there is a sweet beauty in melancholy and no one redeems better than radiohead. amazing amazing perfect song.

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john_warner_uk
12-29-2007

Rated 0 
Perhaps this song is also a hint that this is radiohead's last album? Until recently the tracks on In Rainbows were never intended for album release and said they were unsure whether another album release would be on the cards.

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y2penni
01-01-2008

Rated 0 
everytime i read those last few lines
i start to blubber like a baby

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ässä
01-04-2008

Rated -1 
I think this song can not be interpreted just one way and I disagree that it is (just) a suicide note - I do not think Thom would write about something as usual as a suicide. Usual in depressing song lyrics that is (certainly I do not mean usual in real life). Heavy metal and indie pop has dealt with that particular issue so much that there really is not much you can say about it that would be fresh.

The first thing that I thought about this song is that it is a critique of the today's Youtube culture: Everything has to be filmed for it to be important.

"When I'm at the pearly gates / This'll be on my videotape"

The song starts with this line which I think is meant to be funny in an absurd way and the crucial word on this line is "videotape", not "pearly gates". In my opinion the emphasis of this song is on the medium - videotape which is the song title - not on the story. I think this supports my view that this is a song about the modern age, a melancholy poem about how people forget to live when they are too busy filming and broadcasting.

It is very hard to voice an opinion on anything political in pop song lyrics without sounding hypocritical, but I think Thom succeeded here brilliantly. Videotape is my favorite song on the album.

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Meddler
01-05-2008

Rated -1 
I didn't see it that way before, but after reading your post, ässä, it now makes sense. He's critiquing the overuse of videotape to store memories. I was especially convinced when I reread the lyrics and noted that the last line doesn't say "today has been the most perfect day I've ever had"; it says "today has been the most perfect day I've ever SEEN."

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azby
01-13-2008

Rated -1 
Meddler I dont think its a critiscism just an observation. Its putting technology in its proper context. This is why we record these moments, says Thom, as something of ourselves to leave behind to prove we here, meant something to other people and were happy even if for just one day.

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azby
01-13-2008

Rated -1 
^^ I take it back, it is a criticism. You are right about the word 'seen'. lol

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shbrunn
01-14-2008

Rated 0 
This is for sure about a dying person's last thoughts....after the first verse, listen to the drum beat.. it sounds like a heart beat and Thom sounds like he is gasping for breath in the back round.

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BeneathTheSkin
02-03-2008

Rated 0 
Okay, I’ve been studying biology all day and my mind is depleted. Forgive an inadequate, poorly-formulated interpretation.
First off, I’d like to note the melancholy, rickety, monotonous tone of the song, as if to suggest that every day passes into the next, without significant change. The days roll on in an apathetic, disillusioned, meaningless blur. The rickety effect is similar to that of an old film reel clicking with each rotation. However, this one moment he recently experienced has made his life all worthwhile.
“When I’m at the pearly gates, this will be on my videotape. When Mephistopheles is just beneath, and he’s reaching up to grab me.”
According to Christian theology, he will be presented with the two potential fates of any individual, and due to his sins and refusal to repent, he will be going to hell. However, it doesn’t matter to him, because relatively speaking, eternal damnation is of little consequence to the event he will be dying for, which remains ambiguous. However, we can conclude that it was experienced with his lover. All that matters is that he’ll be allowed to re-examine this moment during his life review.
“This is one for the good days, and I have it all here in red, blue, green.”
The event was recorded in Heaven. Metaphorically, the colors symbolize the feelings of the experience, and though the exact details may be lost, he recalls the metaphysics, the contrasting, pleasant universe of emotions that the experience provided him.
“You are my center when I spin away, out of control on videotape.”
His lover is his stabilizing force when he loses direction or logic, when his mind is clouded by irrational emotions. His world revolves around his lover, yet he is deviating from his course, this concentric pattern around her, because he has been assured that this ambiguous experience was the meaning of his life.
“This is why I’m saying goodbye. I can’t do it face to face, so I’m talking to you before it’s too late.”
Assured of the meaning of life, though perhaps illusory, he has decided to commit suicide, just as martyrs such as Jesus died for the illusions that gave their lives meaning, or martyrs like Socrates died for reason. He is dying due to the ambiguous event that gave his life meaning; all has been consummated for him. He knows that no other day will compare to what he has experienced, and sees no point in perpetuating a life that has already been fulfilled. He has never been so keen on anything as he is on this one point.
“No matter what happens now I shouldn’t be afraid, because I know today has been the most perfect day I’ve ever seen.”
Even if he goes to Hell, it is inconsequential. He shouldn’t be afraid, because this event has instilled his life with a greater purpose.

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BeneathTheSkin
02-04-2008

Rated 0 
My God. What a shitty, pretentious interpretation that was. I apologize.

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BeneathTheSkin
02-06-2008

Rated 0 
K, I read some of the other interpretations, listened to the song again, and I get it. Forgive the prior, scatter-brained interpretation. Mephistopheles is a demon through which a man made a pact that he would never experience one day of true happiness, and if he did he would willingly submit his soul to the devil. Here, the man has recorded the experience of perfect happiness on videotape, and can refer to it whenever he desires. It will also be on his life review at the gates of Heaven. He is saying goodbye to his lover before he dies, who facilitated the happiest day of his life and is his very heart. However, she shouldn't be afraid, because in his eyes, the perfect day has justified eternal damnation. This is a farewell, from Radiohead to its fans.

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vulcancuber
02-07-2008

Rated 0 
this song is amazing. it makes me want to cry. it is so emotional, like many radiohead songs.

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mommy3
02-18-2008

Rated 0 
if someone puts this on their PAGE should others worry?

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mommy3
02-18-2008

Rated 0 
i found this on my ******'s PAGE. it gave me chills. two weeks later he OD'd.

and beneathTheSkin, a matyr is someone who is killed. they go to heaven. if you commit suicide you go to hell. BIG diff.

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BeneathTheSkin
02-18-2008

Rated 0 
Actually, a martyr is anyone who renounces his own life for a principle. It isn't stipulated that he be killed by others. The song is about going to hell, anyway.

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Georgeknowsbest
02-28-2008

Rated 0 
Definitely the best song on In Rainbows, the best album of 2007, a great way to close a classic album

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JeremyLeremy
03-08-2008

Rated 0 
The song is about a guy make a videotape instead of a suicide note when he kills him self, Hell of a good song

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JeremyLeremy
03-08-2008

Rated 0 
The song is about a guy make a videotape instead of a suicide note when he kills him self, Hell of a good song

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chris-jericho
03-12-2008

Rated 0 
My idea for this is that Thom has this romantic idea that when you die, you get given a videotape of any moment in your life you wish, to watch over and over whether you are sent to heaven or hell.

The song is written just after his most perfect day, and he's saying that this would be on his videotape. He'd "have it all there in red, blue green". And he feels that "no matter what happens now..", whether sent to heaven or hell, he won't be scared because all he needs is the videotape.

Happyhighland_coo said:
"In the movie, when you die, you are taken to a place between heaven and earth and you have a week to chose your favourite memory. At the end of the week, the "staff" members in this place videotape it for you. When you move on to heaven your memories are all erased, except for your one favourite memory."

yeah that's what i was thinking.

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nightbirdflyingx
03-23-2008

Rated 0 
ässä, i could not agree with your comment more.

this song gives me chills every single time i listen to it. i can't get enough of it. radiohead never ceases to amaze me, nor will any other artist write such compelling, deep lyrics.

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decidophobia
03-24-2008

Rated 0 
ok...so in the middle he talks about the center then says "on videotape on videotape on videotape..." but does he ever say "my videotaper" i thought i heard something and that changed the whole meaning for me. because to me, it's more than a song abotu a day, it's a song about his entire life and the time it took to work up towards the "perfect day". either way though, he's not videotaping his own story, he's acting it out in the everydays.

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