The Bends

Wow, I amazed that no one figured out what this song is really about.

Its quite simple, hes singing about the pressures of his newfound fame and popularity. Personally, I think when he refers to "the bends" in his song, he literally means his new album, The Bends. But that is up for debate. Anyway, I dont I have the time to disect this song, so Ill just copy and paste the best song meaning from greenplastic.com

This was one written by Kevin Newcombe

"The Bends is literally a serious (and sometimes fatal) medical condition that happens to people when they come up out of the water too fast. I think the The Bends meant as a metaphor for the band instantly becoming rock stars without a chance to adjust to fame. Something in the lines of "My Iron Lung" the Bends is a song that speaks about the instant fame Radiohead acquired when they released Pablo Honey, and the world discovered Creep.

"Where do we go from here?" Imagine all your life you wanted to be a rock star and have fans and tour the world. Once it happens, and you achieve that goal, what else is there to do?

"Alone on an aeroplane / Falling asleep against the window pane" This line is about the exhaustive nature of touring. For a two hours a night it's standing in front of a screaming crowd of tens of thousands of fans, playing rock music, but the rest of the time it's just sitting on tour buses or in airports, or waiting for sound checks etc.

"I need to wash myself again / To hide all the dirt and pain / I'd be scared, that there's nothing underneath." It gives the image of the tortured artist, something Thom was perceived as after Creep hit, writing about their pain to relieve themselves of it.

"I'd be scared that there's nothing underneath" could be taken as meaning that the pain and melancholy is all there is to their songs, and that maybe the artist can't write about being happy and in love, only about being in pain.

"Who are my real friends? / Have the all got the bends?" The author is asking himself, who are the people who like the real him and who are the people that just like him for being a celebrity. The people that are his real friends, are the people who understand what he's going through, who also have "the bends." In other words, his real friends are the other guys in the band.

"My baby's got the bends / We don't have any real friends" Refers back to the previous line, about people wanting to be his friends because he's famous. "I'm just lying in a bar... I wish that something would happen" refers back to the first line, that once you've 'done it all,' traveled the world, performed to massive crowds, etc., going back home and trying to be a regular person again, hanging out at bars, doesn't really have the same feel.

"I want to live / breath / I want to be part of the human race." This line is talking about how being a celebrity is totally different than being a normal person. Being a celebrity means being this 24 hour public relations machine that has to be nice to everyone they meet and never do anything wrong, in case someone's watching them (celebrities are role models after all)"