Lyrics for Fitter Happier as interpreted by piesupreme

Fitter Happier Lyrics
Fitter, happier, more productive, comfortable, not drinking too much
Regular exercise at the gym, 3 days a week
Getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries at ease
Eating well, no more microwave dinners and saturated fats
A patient, better driver, a safer car, baby smiling in back seat
Sleeping well, no bad dreams, no paranoia
Careful to all animals, never washing spiders down the plughole
Keep in contact with old friends, enjoy a drink now and then
Will frequently check credit at moral bank, hole in wall
Favors for favors, fond but not in love
Charity standing orders on Sundays ring road supermarket
No killing moths or putting boiling water on the ants
Car wash, also on Sundays, no longer afraid of the dark or mid-day shadows
Nothing so ridiculously teenage and desperate, nothing so childish
At a better pace, slower and more calculated, no chance of escape
Now self-employed, concerned, but powerless
An empowered and informed member of society, pragmatism not idealism
Will not cry in public, less chance of illness, tires that grip in the wet
Shot of baby strapped in back seat, a good memory, still cries at a good film
Still kisses with saliva, no longer empty and frantic like a cat tied to a stick
That's driven into frozen winter shit, the ability to laugh at weakness
Calm fitter, healthier and more productive, a pig in a cage on antibiotics

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Shapeshifter
01-08-2002

Rated 0 
Hmmm the perfect lifesyle of the perfect person. A pig in a cage on antibiotics... that is so powerful.

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gordopolis82
02-11-2002

Rated +1 
This is a good one. This is the prototypical lifestyle-- the ideal. But throughout it is clear something isn't quite right-- clues leak out here and there, and become increasingly desperate as the piece continues. Our speaker is about to burst. There's really too much to say about this one.

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deadeye093
04-24-2002

Rated +1 
Very weird song, but good. Immediately, you notice that speaker is actually a computerized voice, which lets you know that the lifestyle it describes is too scheduled and perfect according to examples set by "experts" and such that it couldn't possibly be real. He goes on, desribing how fit, happy, and productive he is, and how he's kind to all animals, has a very safe car, is a patient and better driver, eats well, etc... As the song goes along, you notice the tone of the music getting more ominous and sad, hinting that there's still something missing in this "ideal" lifestyle. He says "Concerned, but powerless" which reveals that the speaker can do nothing and is, basically, as he proclaims later like "a pig in a cage on antibiotics". Apparently, living the so-called "Ideal" lifestyle is so dehumanizing that it basically rots your soul into an oblivion, and you basically become a shell of a person, not feeling or loving, which is a fate even worse than death. Man...

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spiralwings
05-06-2002

Rated 0 
this song is just awesome. when i first heard it, i was like, what the hell is this? it was just totally weird. to me it is about the ideal life--the life we are expected to live, as happier people. but as the song goes, and in the computerized, monotonous voice of the computer, you can tell that that ideal life is unachievable because it isn't all that it's cracked up to be, that in truth it isn't the ideal lifestyle, it's the lifestyle people want and expect you to live because it leaves you emotionless and therefore not human.

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imthecootie
05-08-2002

Rated -1 
"Will not cry in public, Less chance of illness." "Fond but not in love." WOW!..profound,..and true. Congradulations Radiohead (Thom), you made me smile.

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roger wilco
05-13-2002

Rated 0 
this song(?) depresses me more than any other Radiohead or Eels song combined. truly some hopelessly powerful imagery here.

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debaser2002
06-30-2002

Rated 0 
Far from depressing me this song makes me smile more than any other rhead tune, very very good.

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DammitSteve
07-12-2002

Rated 0 
I also notice a few contradictions in this song as well. This, I'm sure, was done purposely, as to prove that perfection is not fool-proof and the very concept has flaws itself. Great Lyrics; Yorke does it again.

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stardroplet
07-19-2002

Rated 0 
aaaahhhh. sounds very creepy. very thought provoking. eep.

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Fufu
08-03-2002

Rated 0 
I know some of you already nailed the point.. But my first reaction to this song was that Thom Yorke was trying to describe how society was a broken machine, (The computer voice did it for me..) a flawed machine with
good design, that sucks people in and defines perfection, and brainwashes people to think that it's actually acheivable.. And it isn't..

But whatever.. Good song..

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debaser2002
08-16-2002

Rated 0 
I just love the ' fond but not in love ' line, that just says such a lot to me.

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geneticschizophrenic
09-10-2002

Rated 0 
the computer voice is prof hawkings,he who wrote the book a breif history of time/universe.

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KidAmnesiac
10-07-2002

Rated 0 
When radiohead was recording OK Computer. They rented out a house to do it in. They like recorded parts in different rooms and all this crazy shit. For a while, thom was taking clippings from magazines and newspapers and finally one night he got drunk and went on a Mac computer and just put all the clippings he saved in to the computer and that's where fitter happier came from.
(Read in Radiohead: From a great height)

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kid A
03-03-2003

Rated 0 
This is a little strange the final line sum up the home song. What appears to be the perfect life is also one that is shallow and pointless where we have very liitle to do and everything we do do has been pre destined very powerful and good use of metaphors towards the end to show us how the perfect life may indeed be not quite so perfect.
The line, "Calm fitter, healthier and more productive a pig in a cage on antibiotics"
sums this up very well because all though the pig is all of these things mentioned it is also trapped (in society?) its cage and so its quality of life is terrible

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Karmapd
05-06-2003

Rated 0 
modern, western lifestyle...I suppose. Love the Cat tied to a stick that's driven into frozen winter shit. Just brilliant!

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Max_Wayne
06-12-2003

Rated 0 
All missing the point, totally.

The emphasis of this song is on the emotional deadness that comes from striving towards economical and mechanical perfection.

Also, think 1984.

Hail to the Relocater

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edpappas
06-26-2003

Rated 0 
Quite simply, the computer in this song is telling us how to lead our lives and be a model citizen. If we're beaten enough, we reply 'OK Computer'....

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XMorningxStarX21
06-26-2003

Rated 0 
Did anyone know that when you are listening to this song on a portable cd player and you unplug the headphone jack just a little bit, you can hear what the background voices are saying. Something to the effect of.. "Code Red/ Danger/ the Pentagon has been hit."
freaky, but really cool. Radiohead is amazing.

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1 Reply
A-jax
07-05-2003

Rated 0 
jeezus, 1984 makes so many references to radiohead, wait... flip that around.

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high fidelity
04-19-2004

Rated 0 
my girlfriend actually thought the voice was of stephen hawkings. hahaha

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youenjoymyself
04-30-2004

Rated 0 
everyone thank max wayne for a concise clear and exactly exactly correct interpretation, many high fives to max and the incredibly talented radiohead
its such a perfect song
the dry cold computer voice is the perfect thing of society laying out for us the perfect model life in all its lifelessness

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oidimed
04-30-2004

Rated 0 
"A pig in a cage on antibiotics." Sheer Genius. Some of the best songwriting of all time can be found on any radiohead, pixies, or bob dylan album.

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kc accidental
05-25-2004

Rated 0 
This song is really depressing but nevertheless AMAZING because radiohead are brilliant. This is one of the few radiohead songs that I actually understand the meaning of. It's about the "perfect lifestyle" that, really, no one can have, because it's so complicated and as the song goes on, you hear things that arent normal, and i think the person who is trying to maintain a perfect lifestyle is slowly going crazy.

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subterranean_summer
06-30-2004

Rated 0 
The computer voice is telling of a man who changed his life around and became fitter, happier, and more productive. It tells the drawbacks of being perfect, in general (whether a person or a society). Striving for perfection leads to depression.

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radiohead1125
09-17-2004

Rated 0 
1984

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