Lyrics for Bodysnatchers as interpreted by black_cow_of_death

Bodysnatchers Lyrics
I do not
Understand
What it is
I've done wrong
Full of holes
Check for pulse
Blink your eyes
One for yes
Two for no

I have no idea what I am talking about
I am trapped in this body and can't get out
Oh

You killed the sound
Removed backbone
A pale imitation
With the edges
Sawn off

I have no idea what you are talking about
Your mouth moves only with someone's hand up your ass
Oh

Has the light gone out for you?
Because the light's gone for me
It is the 21st century
It is the 21st century
It can follow you like a dog
It brought me to my knees
They got a skin and they put me in
They got a skin and they put me in
All the lines wrapped around my face
All the lines wrapped around my face
And for anyone else to see
And for anyone else to see

I'm a lie

I've seen it coming
I've seen it coming
I've seen it coming
I've seen it coming

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  • 91 Comments
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tdamcbigity
05-10-2006

Rated 0 
Fantastic. I will be exploded when a studio version grazes my brain. So many interesting vocalizations.

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atomsplitter
05-13-2006

Rated 0 
I think this is my favorite besides Arpeggi of the new tracks that have debuted recently.

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ColdenScence
05-14-2006

Rated 0 
man! just heard it. awesome. can't describe it with words.

AWESOME!
AWESOME!

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Appers66
05-15-2006

Rated 0 
This and Nude are totally making the best of radiohead list when they get recorded.

Any thoughts on what it's about?

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atomsplitter
05-18-2006

Rated 0 
let's see "bodysnatchers"....alien abduction comes to mind...but "They got scared and put me down" seems more like insanity and being put away. being trapped in ones body...not of this world....

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BadPhysh
05-30-2006

Rated 0 
"you gotta close your eyes... and groove out to this one. And think of uhh trying to escape from the Stepford Wives. That's what I think of"
-Thom Yorke

it's just meant to convey a sort of atmosphere of tension and paranoia.
which this band is quite good at doing.

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scarymegalomania
06-10-2006

Rated 0 
exactly, they are quite good at conveying many emotions in their music, it helps set them apart. awesome contrast the way the guitar can't seem to stick on one note too long, but the vocals are held out longer.

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eatenbytheworms
07-14-2006

Rated 0 
I think that Thom's reference to "The Stepford Wives" has to do with escaping the boredom and sterility of conventional marriages and probably has to do with the new album's theme of suburbia. It seems to be about the idea that someone who rejects the status quo is thought a lunatic. And I think it's "I've got lies all over my face" which would mean that he has led a fake life, a 'house of cards' that he wants to escape.

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RadioheadxxSlave
08-04-2006

Rated +1 
MOST KICK ASS GUITAR RIFF EVER.

That's all I can think of right now. My favourite Radiohead song aside from Lozenge of Love.

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Dressed2Depress
08-28-2006

Rated 0 
yep title is a reference to "Invasion of the Bodysnatchers" a 1950's film which can be interpreted as being about the fear of communists in 1950's America. Thom is drawing the comparison between the paranoia that gripped society during the cold war and the fear that permeates society today.

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eatenbytheworms
10-08-2006

Rated 0 
It's about feeling like one's skin doesn't fit, in 'bodysnatchers' there's the realization that this skin doesn't fit because he's been forced to hide his true self i order to fit into the acts he's been playing. It's about the roles we take in life, and finding out that wearing any kind of skin that's not our own is going to rob us of our identity and our soul. it's about being trapped by a role that doesn't fit him and that he doesn't want. He realizes he is playing this role badly and tries to get out. He feels dead inside because he cannot be himself and get out of this artificial role (skin) he's been given. He realizes he was in denial at first, and thought he was fooling everyone, but he can't hide anymore. It is too obvious... there are lines on his skin because it's not his... and it doesn't fit him. So it's about the roles we are forced to play in society... any role, whether it be personal or not.

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lazyoldsun
10-30-2006

Rated 0 
i'd say this is just about understanding the pointlessness of life, losin' yourself and your mind, wondering how or why it has happened to you, and then not being able to relate to others.

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Lucatello
05-12-2007

Rated 0 
the title is probably a reference to a movie made in the 70's called the bodysnatchers, where plant like aliens invade san francisco and take peoples body's over. the movie is made up of several characters trying to get away from the city's population of people who have no choice anymore.

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steinbeckthepearl
05-27-2007

Rated +1 
A real understanding of Radiohead's world view (Weltanschauung) depends on a familiarity with the dualist religious heresy of Gnosticism.

Indeed, in my opinion, Thom is a modern day musical version of the 16th Century artistic genius Hieronymus Bosch: Life is an absurd negotiation between the corrupt physical and the perfect spiritual.

The Gnostics teach that we were born cursed, entrapped as "sparks" of Holy Spirit in an imperfect and cursed physical body and that, in order to free one's Spirit, the individual Soul must struggle against the worldliness of pleasure and the false security of materiality for the sake of cleanliness and spiritual freedom.

If you desire to learn more about Radiohead's perception of the world, I recommend reading up on the 12th century French Cathar heresy and the Bogomils, etc. because - to a great degree - Radiohead represents a modern day dualist theology.

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eatenbytheworms
06-02-2007

Rated 0 
That's very interesting, steinbeckthepearl. I agree with your observations.

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Hurdy Gurdy Man
10-09-2007

Rated 0 
I think this song is portraying mental illness. Or at least, a person under extreme mental/spiritual anguish. Thom has worked in a mental hospital, after all.

"I do not
understand
what it is
i've done wrong"

I read somewhere that feeling intense guilt for reasons that are unknown to you or for things you haven't done is a sign that you are going through some mental/emotional problems.

The narrator's feeling "full of holes" and surreal, but desperately wants to let everyone know that he/she is "alive." Maybe he's trying to tell himself that he is alive so that he will finally feel "alive."

Full of holes
Check for pulse
Blink your eyes
One for yes
Two for no

Then he talks about the "light going out" for him, and how "they got scared and put me in." I think this refers to the mentally ill person's loved ones reacting to his mental state by putting him in a hospital.

Make a sound
Move back home
Get an invitation
With the edges
Sawn off

Maybe the narrator is out of the hospital, moving in with parents. "Get an invitation with the edges sawn off" could mean that he is receiving a fake or non genuine invitation to something. Like they are patronizing him. They don't want to invite him, but they do and he is aware of this.

Who really knows, though? Could mean anything. The song kicks ass, regardless.

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T_Cap
10-10-2007

Rated 0 
That bass riff on this song is hella cool...

One of the best on In Rainbows, that's for sure...

Perhaps Yorke is re-visiting his old lyrical obsession with health.

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liamo
10-11-2007

Rated 0 
it seems that this song is about mentral illness, i have been swayed by these comments above.
'i have no idea what im talking about' is the ill person who cant understand but also a humorous line i think said by thom to the listener, like in the smiths style.
paranoia and mental illness, this is the 21 st century, has the light gone out for you? all convey an image of hopelessness fromthe narator, done better than attempts on hailtothetheif i reckon.

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antennas
10-11-2007

Rated 0 
Best Radiohead song in years.

In Rainbows is certainly the album of the year.

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ghost859
10-12-2007

Rated 0 
This album is making my mind melt. Radiohead are not of this world.
Has the light gone out for you?
The lighthearted tone of this song is extremely misleading, because if i listen to this song, it almost sounds desperate. I love the line, "I've no idea what I am talking about!"
Neither do I, Thom, but please keep talking.

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aldrrian lunsfelt
10-12-2007

Rated 0 
lol, shame on u radiohead :D
the start is exatly like 666 the number of the beast by iron maiden, check it out =).

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T_Cap
10-12-2007

Rated 0 
Something tells me Radiohead weren't influenced by Iron Maiden.

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fuddypants
10-12-2007

Rated 0 
god this song fucking rocks, the tone and lyrics mix together perfectly. I think It's about losing your sanity...

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Elegnaim
10-13-2007

Rated 0 
this reminds me of neutral milk hotel - song against sex. i think it's the fuzzed out guitars.

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aldrrian lunsfelt
10-13-2007

Rated 0 
T_cap, instad of telling me what radiohead were infulenced by, just check it, and than tell me it doesnt sound the same.

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