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Fitter, happier, more productive,
Comfortable,
Not drinking too much,
Regular exercise at the gym
(Three 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 the 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 midday 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.
Comfortable,
Not drinking too much,
Regular exercise at the gym
(Three 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 the 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 midday 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.
Lyrics submitted by piesupreme
Track duration: 01:57
"Fitter Happier" as written by Thomas Yorke, Jonathan Richard Guy Greenwood, Dan Rickwood
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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"No killing moths or putting boiling water on the ants"
"No longer afraid of the dark or midday shadows"
"Slower and more calculated"
and of course... "No longer empty and frantic..."
I think it's these lines that deal with the PAST of this individual that tell the true story. This individual has been medicated somehow, through antidepressants or something, and we are expected to look at their new "calm" lifestyle through the lens of a dark and chaotic past. So from this angle, every positive statement in the poem is really drawing attention to its opposite. I imagine a character who was once unfit, unhappy, drinking too much, not sleeping well, paranoid, etc. And while the medication may have brought them into some state of idealized normalcy, it also took a depressing tax on the person's soul:
"Fond but not in love."
The idea that this is about being medicated is epitomized in the final line. The pig in a cage is a metaphor for a trapped person, who is only surviving through medication, not true freedom. To raise a truly healthy pig, you don't just shoot it up with antibiotics, you give it freedom to graze. I suppose for the person, true freedom would mean a release from the bleak and suppressive expectations of our culture, like settling down, becoming a parent, being responsible and following a routine (all things the song alludes to). But instead this person is medicated and conforms to the prescribed path, driving a safer better car, raising a child in some traditional manner, with only the memory of an "empty and frantic" past.
As other people have mentioned, there is really way too much to say about this song. You could write a whole essay on it. On top of this general analysis there are the interesting contradictions, repetitions and juxtapositions:
"Concerned, but powerless. An empowered and informed member of society."
"Not drinking too much" ... "Enjoy a drink now and then."
"Will not cry in public" ... "Still cries at a good film"
"Fond but not in love" ... "Still kisses with saliva"
I think these are meant to express the bizarre hypocrisies, contradictions and double-standards in what our culture considers normal, acceptable behavior.
It's dark stuff. Given that Thom has spoken about his own experiences with depression (especially around the time of OK Computer), I would imagine these ideas come from deep within his own thoughts and feelings.
Incidentally, the song reminds me lyrically of Nirvana's "Lithium." I think Lithium does not have as much poetic depth or subtlety (I don't blame it considering it's written as a rock song, not a poem over music like "Fitter Happier"), but both songs dwell on the calming effects of medication by making ironic juxtapositions and contradictions. The Nirvana line "I'm so horny, but that's okay my will is good" reminds me of lines in this song like "fond but not in love." Both evoke an emotion but show that it has been blunted into a passive and weaker state, while ironically casting this in a positive, yet unsettling light.
As we get older we laugh at the naivete of youth and favour pragmatism, not idealism. We revile the desperation that comes with our failure to reach our previous ideals. We know we are failures - as we age, we idealize a "sensible" lifestyle and herald the "ability to laugh at weakness" - it's a shared joke among adults. We are all failures. We are so enervated by failure that we don't feel anymore. We just spout common-sense attitudes and lifestyle tips at each other in our old age.
There is a deep dissatisfaction that nobody will talk about as we head into old age and death - like a cat, tied to a stick, that's driven into frozen winter shit. Dying cold and alone and trying not to think about it.
Fitter, happier, more productive, comfortable, not drinking too much=
On the surface these things are self-improving. Remember that we start at the ironic end of the narrative arc in these lyrics. Being healthy (in the context of the whole lyrics) only serves The Machine (since people who suddenly pop it are most inconvenient to economic productivity)
Regular exercise at the gym, 3 days a week=
Treadmill, machine-like functioning of humans, the rat race. Thom's lyrics work by collapsing the boundary between reality and metaphor.
Getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries at ease =
There carefully selects 'associates employees contemporaries' instead of 'friends or family'. The relationships that Thom chooses to mention are arbitrary, uniquely modern and functions of the Marxist cash nexus. This helps emphasise the irony of 'At ease' - how can we feel easy with a constant onslaught of strangers that we need to socially negotiate?
Eating well, no more microwave dinners and saturated fats=
A deep suspicion of informed broadsheet readers. Instant meals are (typically) eaten by the 'lower classes', but what Thom is questioning here is the supposed 'you are what you eat' idiom. The implication is you could eat healthily and still be dehumanised in The Machine.
A patient, better driver, a safer car, baby smiling in back seat=
- see Wisemeister's excellent analysis
Sleeping well, no bad dreams, no paranoia=
Concept of an infinitely deferred ideal state of being. Thom often comes back to it - 'Nice Dream' being the prime example - but later embraces it as his lyrics increasingly draw on dreams - Pyramid Song, Sail to the Moon, Weird Fishes.
Careful to all animals, never washing spiders down the plughole
= Seems genuinely caring and compassionate. But what about the coming mass extinction?
Keep in contact with old friends, enjoy a drink now and then
= keys back to the earlier line about associates and contemporaries. As JIm in Ricky Gervais' The Office says 'you spend more time with these people than you do with your real friends and family.'
Will frequently check credit at moral bank, hole in wall
Great, great lyric. In a world obsessed with numbers, looking at life as a ledger. The implication is that some things cannot be measured so simplistically.
Favors for favors, fond but not in love
Interesting conjunction of these lines, as 'favors for favors' belongs to the workplace - is Thom suggesting that this kind of self-serving attitude has infiltrated personal relationships?
Charity standing orders on Sundays ring road supermarket
= token generosity approved by society. Otherwise, people are selfish habitual consumers.
No killing moths or putting boiling water on the ants=
see 'careful to all animals'
Car wash, also on Sundays, no longer afraid of the dark or mid-day shadows
= I always think of my dickhead Dad washing and waxing his Jag on a Sunday afternoon. What a nob.
Nothing so ridiculously teenage and desperate, nothing so childish
= the pressure to conform to the modern definition of maturity. A very problematic idea.
At a better pace, slower and more calculated, no chance of escape
= Change from irony to direct address. Here the protagonist realises the difficulty of escape from the brainwashing whilst in a 'comfortable' state.
Now self-employed, concerned, but powerless
= identifying the recent phenomenon of self-employment as a bid for freedom after some awakening in The Machine - but the self-employed find themselves powerless against market forces, multinational corporations and the banks.
An empowered and informed member of society, pragmatism not idealism
= the dilution of personal politics. One of the Manic Street Preacher's favourite topics - see their 'Everything Live' video, where James Dean Bradfield shouts (ironically) 'pragmatism, not idealism' at the end of 'Motown Junk.'
Will not cry in public, less chance of illness, tires that grip in the wet
These ideas centre around keeping your grip - the modern deluded idea that You are in control
Shot of baby strapped in back seat, a good memory, still cries at a good film
= our humanity reduced to a cliche, a selling point in an advert, a moment of Brave New World emotion at the movies before getting back to The Machine
Still kisses with saliva, no longer empty and frantic like a cat tied to a stick
= protagonist starts to lose the plot. He/she is waking up in the matrix, realising the awful truth that little moments of reassurance (kissing) can no longer mask what's underneath (fear of being drowned by malevolent forces)
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
= The protagonist sways between two realities, trying to recall the original 'comfortable' reality (fitter happier), but unable to stabilise as the grim reality has now been seen (modern humans are not much more than an drugged up experiment)
It was an old car commercial for brand new expensive tires. The scene was a car climbing a mountain in a torrential downpour. It was cut like an action movie almost, the car weaving, narrowly avoiding danger on account of these hi-tech tires that funnel water out with increased efficiency. Then, the last shot of the advert is a baby, strapped in the back seat, smiling.
I thought, Thom was probably watching tele one day (most likely stoned) and felt something profound and disturbing upon seeing this ad. If I had to guess, it's to do with the emotional manipulation employed by modern advertising--shamelessly guilting parents into springing for better tires, for the sake of their precious children. It's capitalism ruthlessly plucking at our vulnerable heart strings. That commercial, that IMAGE is a microcosmic example of the subtle, encroaching darkness that is enveloping our society. And I believe, that subject is mostly what Fittier Happier, and Ok Computer, and even Radiohead are about.
I've heard Thom say that this song has to do with rather bleak rules for the 90's that were sort of implied by the culture. As in, you must do these things to be a good person. Certainly most of the song is easy enough to fit into that framework (with a few good ol Yorke strangeness tossed in). I think having the expensive tires to protect your children aligns with that pretty well.
I know it's a stretch to think Thom's seen that very commercial, but it's fun to think so anyway... :)
"no more paranoia"
"no longer afraid of mid-day shadows"
"more productive"
"will not cry in public"
"calmer"
"a pig in a cage on antibiotics"
etc etc etc...