wakey wakey
rise and shine
it's on again off again on again
watch me fall like dominoes
in pretty patterns

fingers in
you're backward, lying
tingling tingling tingling
it's what you feel now
what you ought to what you ought to
reasonable and sensible
can't forget
look up because
i'm stuck stuck stuck
you thought you had a little
but no no no
for no real reason

squeeze the tubes and empty bottles and
take a bow take a bow take a bow
it's what you feel now
what you ought to what you ought to
in a fit
the cinnamon is
tumbling tumbling tumbling
drew up and cut her drew up and cut her
plastic bags and
drew up and cut her drew up and cut

can't forget
look up because
i'm stuck stuck stuck
you thought you had a little
but no no no

tell me when here
is enough is enough
i love you but
enough is enough is enough
and I'm stuck
there's no real reason

in a fit
a fit
you're melting in to butter

really interesting song from Inrainbows..thom sings it very fast like its all a train of thought.. it all comes out very beautiful but its over too soon, though it does go nicely into reckoner :)

this song is amazing. it is now and everything and slurry and stuttery and wow. i'm so happy it exists.

It's sad when people add lyrics just so that they can say they posted them first...even when they don't know the full lyrics. Hopefully this person will come back later and update the lyrics properly.

For some reason this song really annoys me and I've been skipping it every time it comes on. It reminds me a bit of "Lozenge of Love" except...crap.

What? You don't like it? It might be my favorite on the album, but yeah, it's over too soon.

Does anyone know what Faust Arp means?

YOU SKIP THIS???? WHA?????
oh well lol...I absolutely love this track, I wish it was longer, and leads awesomely in to Reckoner.

And yeah, I want to know what Faust Arp means too...

I don't think this song should be longer. Short songs are often the best. Also interestingly this is the first acoustic recording on a full Radiohead album since Thinking About You. (Com Lag is an EP so Gagging Order doesn't count.)

I think its

can't forget
look up because
i'm stuck stuck stuck
you thought you had it in you
but no no no

Faust is a figure in Christian mythology who makes a bet with mephistopheles (the devil). Mephistopheles will give Faust anything he wants but if Faust ever says this is the most perfect moment ever if only time could stop, Mephistopheles will get his soul. The story is about humans always striving for fullfillment, knowledge, and power. Considering the title of the song is Faust ARP the song probably has to do with the theme of the myth. i dont really understand the lyrics though.

1 Reply

yeah, it's interesting that this song refers to faust cuz in videotape (the last song on the same album) he mentions mephistopheles trying to grab him from below. same story. and the themes of dr. faustus (the play that the story originates from) talk about a man selling his soul for money and going to hell.

"i love you, but enough is enough" could be talking about a love for something material but falling out of his own delusion. except then he realizes that he's "stuck" and it's too late.

total speculation on my part.

I really have no idea what goes on in Thom Yorke's head, but the song is absolutely ethereal. As to the title? Well, as others have pointed out, Faust was a character in the Goethe's "Faust" - the name has come to represent someone who is willing to sell his soul to the devil to gain knowledge.
Arp is (this is really out on a limb here) a reference to Jean Arp, the founder of the Dadaist movement. With the stream-of-consciousness style here... maybe?

APR = Address Resolution Protocol

lactose stop getting your "facts" from Pitchfork. The Jean Arp reference is more likely, but who knows.

Also I like this song slightly more than first hearing it but I still think it's the weakest on the album. It reminds me of what Thom Yorke once said about the lyrics to "Fitter Happier"--that if he'd sung them himself it would have sounded like a pile of wank. To me this song is bordering on that.

finallyCLARITY, I think you've struck upon something. Faust's soul is forfeit when he says "this is the most perfect moment" (the "zenith of human happiness" according to wikipedia).

Is it a coincidence that in Videotape, the last line (of the song and the album) is "Whatever happens now, you shouldn't be afraid because I know today has been the most perfect day I've ever seen"

I feel like the sexual innuendo is really evident especially in the second stanza... Faust could be a woman thom is conflicted about?

these lyrics are wrong. real lyrics:

one two three four

wakey wakey
rise and shine
it's on again off again on again
watch me fall
like dominoes
in pretty patterns

fingers in the blackbird pie
I'm tingling tingling tingling
it's what you feel now
what you ought to what you ought to
reasonable and sensible

dead from the neck up
because I'm stuffed, stuffed, stuffed
we thought you had it in you
but no no no
for no real reason

squeeze the tubes and empty bottles and
take a bow take a bow take a bow
it's what you feel now
what you ought to what you ought to
an elephant that's in the room is
tumbling tumbling tumbling
in duplicate and triplicate and
plastic bags and
duplicate and triplicate

dead from the neck up
I guess I'm stuffed stuffed stuffed
we thought you had it in you
but no no no

exactly where do you get off
is enough is enough is enough
I love you but enough is enough, enough
and I'm stuffed
there's no real reason

you'll go to hell for our fathers
you got melted to butter

This song seems to be about being addicted to drugs.

First stanza, continuing drug use
2nd, a friend encouraging the use?
3rd, being numb from the drugs, and perhaps the echoes of disappointed family/better friends/doctors
4th, spiraling out of control
5th, hazing in and out after OD?
6th, arguing, close friend/mate deciding to leave
7th, ?

I think thom yorke said in some interview (probably on pitchfork? Maybe I read that here) that the album was supposed to be about lingering dread or something -- probably the same kind that Flaming Lips - Suddenly Everything Has Changed is about.

the faustian themes really would fit that perfectly though. the idea about finding a perfect moment and being sent to hell for it (but wasn't faust redeemed?)

also, two lines from nude (which is older of course):

"Now that you've found it, it's gone"

"You'll go to hell for what your dirty mind is thinking"

I think I heard that Nude was supposed to be about meaningless sex

maybe 'arp' in the title refers back to 'arpegi' or something. there's some organization whose abbreviation is ARP (i think someone else on this site mentioned that) but it was political in nature and this album doesn't seem that political.

This sounds like Thom Yorke trying to imagine what it is like to be someone who is in a coma or is terminally ill. And his family is trying to decide whether to keep him on life support or let him die since he is technically not alive.

Mephistopheles isnt Christian mythology..Its considered a german legend, and it looks as if its in other mythologies, but definatly not contained in Christianity.

ainrehcn seems to have got the lyrics right (perhaps blackberry rather than blackbird?). I don't really understand the song, but one verse seems to be about feeling unjustly smug about recycling -

squeeze the tubes and empty bottles and
take a bow take a bow take a bow
it's what you feel now
what you ought to what you ought to
an elephant that's in the room is
tumbling tumbling tumbling
in duplicate and triplicate and
plastic bags and
duplicate and triplicate

- basically accusing people who say "I've done my bit" because it's not enough and they're kidding themselves if they think it is (there's an elephant in the room).

To me, this is clearly the best song on the album. It is so short that I just put it on repeat for a while and lose myself in the strings and guitar and melody. I will go out on a limb here but I think the Blackbird lyric might be a reference to Blackbird by The Beatles. This song and arrangement is so "White Album" that I think that it is a good possibility. In fact, this song could not have come into being if there had not been a White Album. I wish the rest of "In Rainbows" was as developed as this song. Arp could be an abbreviation of arpeggio, the notes picked on the guitar.

To echo underbird's comment: by far the most intriguing, beautiful, and depressing song on the album. I'm steering clear of the Faust ARP argument and clarifying the blackbird pie reference. It's from an English children's nursery rhyme....

http://www.rhymes.org.uk/sing_a_song_of_sixpence.htm

I also thought Thoms' pronunciation of "duplicate" sounded suspiciously like "chupacabra" :)

The name Faust Arp is a mash up of Faust, a man who sold his soul to the devil for almost unlimited power, but in the moment he experienced happiness, he had to give the devil his soul. From wiki:

"The second part begins with the spirits of the earth forgiving Faust (and the rest of mankind) and progresses into rich allegorical poetry. Faust and his devil pass through the world of politics and the world of the classical gods, and meet with Helen of Troy (the personification of beauty). Finally, having succeeded in taming the very forces of war and nature Faust experiences a single moment of happiness."


And also Arp, which I believe to be a reference to Hans/Jean Arp, who is a French/German painter/sculptor. One of the famous stories about him can be found on Wikipedia. It's about his reluctance to be dragged into the army:

QUOTE
Arp later told the story of how, when he was notified to report to the German embassy, he avoided being drafted into the army: he took the paperwork he had been given and, in the first blank, wrote the date. He then wrote the date in every other space as well, then drew a line beneath them and carefully added them up. He then took off all his clothes and went to hand in his paperwork. He was told to go home.


Next, the reference to the blackbird pie, which is taken from Sing a Song of Sixpence:

QUOTE
Sing a song of sixpence,
a pocket full of rye.
Four and twenty blackbirds,
baked in a pie.

When the pie was opened,
the birds began to sing.
Now, wasn't that a dainty dish
to set before the king?

The king was in his counting house,
counting out his money.
The queen was in the parlour,
eating bread and honey.


That's where the black bird pie reference comes from. I think metaphorically, its in the song to display bringing the king something, aka, an issue. Meanwhile the king just counts his money and the queen enjoys decadent delicacies.

Add it up...

I take the lyrics of the song to be a reference to Thom's work as an activist. I remember reading in an interview with him in an issue of Paste about the time of the Eraser's release that he was very ambivalent about activism because he was afraid of being blackmailed or used. Here's a bit of it:

QUOTE
“I think what he does for AIDS is amazing,” says Yorke. “No one else seems to have that energy. I think what happened with the Drop the Debt campaign, unfortunately, is that the very people responsible for those debts, the G8—as these things go in high-level politics, if someone chooses to engage with them saying, ‘I want you to help this or change that,’ they want something in return. They don’t give a f— if it’s morally right, they just want the photo op, and that’s where I got off the ride.”

Power brokers attempting to capitalize on the intensity and devotion of Radiohead’s audience is obviously a cunning, deviant method of attracting support for political issues. But, remember, this audience is comprised of musical zealots. A picture of a politician’s arm around Thom Yorke isn’t necessarily going to open up a demographic some interest group is desperately trying to convert. Still, Yorke is acutely aware of the power of his iconology, how it can be abused, and how, in the end, it can actually hurt the greater cause.

“After all the talk, they don’t do shit; they get something out of it and you get nothing in return. They tried to do the bizarre blackmail scheme with me because I’m involved with Friends of the Earth who are trying to get the British Government to reduce carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2050. They were talking about setting up a meeting with me and Tony Blair. I wasn’t particularly happy or wild about meeting the guy who took us into Iraq, and then they started talking about having a few meetings beforehand with us [Yorke lapses into a formal British voice] just to discuss how the day would go, and to make sure I was ‘onsides,’ so that if perhaps after the meeting I said things less than positive about the situation and what Blair was doing… just to remind me that [kind of behavior] may well jeopardize Friends Of The Earth’s access to the Prime Minister in the future. That’s called ‘blackmail,’ and that’s exactly what they used to do with Bono. And I don’t think that’s good enough, and it’s not Bono’s fault. The constant discussion I’ve had with him about it was, ‘I’ll try to work from the inside, and you try and work from the outside,’ which is good. But what I worry about is that you don’t come out of it intact, and it can jeopardize the issue.”



If I had to sum it up, I would say that the singer is somewhere between Faust and Arp. A bit of a split personality on social/political issues. On one hand wanting to control it all (Faust) and on the other hand just wishing to play crazy so that they leave him alone and he doesn't have to fight (Arp).



It's on again, off again, on again


In his heart though, he knows he should be doing something. (Ought to feel.) But, he knows the area of activism is just as shady as anything else. So, this frustrates him. Instead of getting involved with the little groups, he'd prefer to just make art. Bob Dylan does the same thing. He'll do stuff for a cause, but he also saw the way Lennon got used by people like Ruben and Hoffman. Even if people have the best intentions, they still may do things in a shady way. A way that compromises Thom's morals.

What he wants to do is create art, as his activism.

QUOTE
watch me fall
like dominos
in pretty patterns

and

squeeze the tubes and empty bottles now
take a bow, take a bow, take a bow


are both references to him giving all that he can artistically, but it still not being enough. Falling like dominos in pretty patterns to me means writing a song during a very intense emotional breakdown. Pouring your heart into something like a global warming, collapsing mentally from just wanting to help and change things, and the end result is a beautiful painting, poem, song, etc.

I believe this part:

QUOTE
i guess im stuffed, stuffed, stuffed
we thought you had it in you
but no, no, no
exactly where do you get off
is enough, is enough
i love you but enough is enough, enough
a last stop


..is a dialog between him and someone wanting him to give more to a certain cause. Probably a ton of people in anyone famous' life. People are constantly courting you for their cause. Some of those lines sound like what someone may say to someone, being disappointed that they aren't giving more, and some sound like a frustrated response. Again, compare these two:


QUOTE
exactly where do you get off
is enough, is enough
i love you but enough is enough, enough
a last stop

and

They don’t give a f— if it’s morally right, they just want the photo op, and that’s where I got off the ride.

Also, it's "You've a head full of feathers, You got melted to butter."