Know something about this song or lyrics?
Add it to our wiki.
I was tuning in the shine on the light night dial
Doing anything my radio advised
With every one of those late night stations
Playing songs bringing tears to my eyes
I was seriously thinking about hiding the receiver
When the switch broke 'cause it's old
They're saying things that I can hardly believe
They really think we're getting out of control
Radio is a sound salvation
Radio is cleaning up the nation
They say you better listen to the voice of reason
But they don't give you any choice 'cause they think that it's treason
So you had better do as you are told
You better listen to the radio
I wanna bite the hand that feeds me
I wanna bite that hand so badly
I want to make them wish they'd never seen me
Some of my friends sit around every evening
And they worry about the times ahead
But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference
And the promise of an early bed
You either shut up or get cut up, they don't wanna hear about it
It's only inches on the reel-to-reel
And the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools
Tryin' to anesthetize the way that you feel
Wonderful radio
Marvelous radio
Wonderful radio
Radio, radio
Doing anything my radio advised
With every one of those late night stations
Playing songs bringing tears to my eyes
I was seriously thinking about hiding the receiver
When the switch broke 'cause it's old
They're saying things that I can hardly believe
They really think we're getting out of control
Radio is a sound salvation
Radio is cleaning up the nation
They say you better listen to the voice of reason
But they don't give you any choice 'cause they think that it's treason
So you had better do as you are told
You better listen to the radio
I wanna bite the hand that feeds me
I wanna bite that hand so badly
I want to make them wish they'd never seen me
Some of my friends sit around every evening
And they worry about the times ahead
But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference
And the promise of an early bed
You either shut up or get cut up, they don't wanna hear about it
It's only inches on the reel-to-reel
And the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools
Tryin' to anesthetize the way that you feel
Wonderful radio
Marvelous radio
Wonderful radio
Radio, radio
Lyrics submitted by magicnudiesuit
Track duration: 03:06
"Radio Radio" as written by Elvis Costello
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
I think its about the actual music being played on the radio. People seem to just listen to the latest band because they think there supposed, regardless of whether it is good or not. This seems to make sense with the line "I wanna bite the hand that feeds me". He's criticizing the music on the radio but his own music also gets played on their too.
I think the message in this song is to go out and find the good music that is out there for yourself don't only listen to whats on the radio.
The fact that playing this song itself became contentious, is a beautiful kind of irony.
Now Radio Radio came out in 1979, before CNN and before MTV; when radio played a much larger role. But media censorship still exists from the overt of Red China banning any mention of the Tiananmen Square Massacre to the covert like immediately after 9/11 and the lead up the Iraq War where radio stations and MTV were told not to play anything critical of the US like Rage Against the Machine or blackflag, or Karl Rove meeting with Holywood to create more "patriotic films."
radio, radio
That's why Lorne Michaels was upset. SNL has corporate sponsors too.
It's only inches on the reel-to-reel
And the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools
Tryin' to anaesthetise the way that you feel"
This refers to the old out-dated editing method of cutting out undesirable parts of a song from the tape reel with a razor blade. In other words, nothing was allowed on the air that was remotely challenging. Seems not much has changed over the years.
What gets me about this song is it's relevance today in dealing with talk radio. Guys like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity weren't around when this song was written, yet this part of the song sums them up neatly:
"Radio is a sound salvation
Radio is cleaning up the nation
They say you better listen to the voice of reason
But they don't give you any choice 'cause they think that it's treason
So you had better do as you are told
You better listen to the radio"
This song truly was ahead of it's time.