Lyrics for Fake Plastic Trees as interpreted by piesupreme

Fake Plastic Trees Lyrics
Her green plastic watering-can
For her fake Chinese rubber plant
In the fake plastic earth that she bought
From a rubber man in a town full of rubber plans
To get rid of itself, it wears her out

She lives with a broken man
A cracked polystyrene man
Who just crumbles and burns
He used to do surgery for girls in the eighties
But gravity always wins and it wears him out

She looks like the real thing
She tastes like the real thing
My fake plastic love

But I can't help the feeling
I could blow through the ceiling
If I just turn and run
And it wears me out

If I could be who you wanted all the time

Interaction
Mail to a friend Send Lyrics to a Friend
Share on Facebook

Stumble It
Add to Del.icio.us Add to Del.icio.us




  • 273 Comments
  • Printer Friendly Lyrics
newest first     Expand All
yesiampengsiyuan
11-20-2009

Rated 0 
Have everyone ever thought about this


That the ‘he’ and ‘i’ was the same person

as the man ‘crumbles and burns’,he just died.and i ‘could blow through the ceiling, if I just turned and ran’ for the reason that ‘i’ was dead and wind could blow my ‘cracked polystyrene body’away through the ceiling if my soul just turned and ran.

Is tha reasonable?



Log in to reply
cs3th1c
11-19-2009

Rated 0 
<3 Radiohead

Log in to reply
muziclover
11-12-2009

Rated 0 
I love the way "it wears her out" like the watering can wears her out instead of her wearing it out. Its like the songs saying the fakeness of conseumerism wears us out before the products wear out, cause we throw them away instead of recycle? "To get rid of itself" again brillant about sustainability and recycling? When he sings "my fake plastic love" im both excited and deeply sad, its poetry :) plastic surgey is obviously refered to and the "if i could be who you wanted all the time" is about body image consumerism etc. BRILLANT :)

Log in to reply
auniqueverbatim
11-09-2009

Rated 0 
being fake wears you out. you cant be someone elses ideal of perfect.

Log in to reply
asulik
10-27-2009

Rated 0 
i think it tells about how fake our so called SOCIAL LIFE has become, everything is fake, even love....

Log in to reply
degree7
10-08-2009

Rated 0 
The song's lyrics are about Canary Wharf (a large business and shopping development in East London) and about the world of mass marketing and mass consumption.

From Wikipedia :P

Log in to reply
Myxomatosisss
09-07-2009

Rated 0 
So she has a watering-can, and yes, it's green... but for her FAKE CHINESE RUBBER PLANT. As in, an artificial plant that was made in China. Emphasis on "made in China".

Rubber = silicone. Get it? :P

So she lives with a broken man (Broken as in, he is depressed, he is stupid, etc. hence "Who just crumbles, and burns")
and he used to do surgery for girls in the EIGHTIES.. which means he is old, and gravity is used to describe him getting wrinkles, and polystyrene as in he got surgery to fix that, but it still didn't work.
----------------------------------------
"She looks like the real thing.. etc"

^^ I'm guessing a girl got surgery done on herself, and she peers into a mirror but doesn't acknowledge it as that girl being her (That line can be interpreted in many ways)

2. A guy got a girl to get surgery done on herself and made sure that she came out the way he wwanted her to, or the other way around, it could be the girl forcing the guy to do so.

3. etc.

----------------------------------------------------------

"If I could be who you wanted, all the time"

^^ Yeah, self-explanatory.

Log in to reply
Myxomatosisss
09-07-2009

Rated 0 
So she has a watering-can, and yes, it's green... but for her FAKE CHINESE RUBBER PLANT. As in, an artificial plant that was made in China. Emphasis on "made in China".

Rubber = silicone. Get it? :P

So she lives with a broken man (Broken as in, he is depressed, he is stupid, etc. hence "Who just crumbles, and burns")
and he used to do surgery for girls in the EIGHTIES.. which means he is old, and gravity is used to describe him getting wrinkles, and polystyrene as in he got surgery to fix that, but it still didn't work.
----------------------------------------
"She looks like the real thing.. etc"

^^ I'm guessing a girl got surgery done on herself, and she peers into a mirror but doesn't acknowledge it as that girl being her (That line can be interpreted in many ways)

2. A guy got a girl to get surgery done on herself and made sure that she came out the way he wwanted her to, or the other way around, it could be the girl forcing the guy to do so.

3. etc.

----------------------------------------------------------

"If I could be who you wanted, all the time"

^^ Yeah, self-explanatory.

Log in to reply
xMyIronLungx
08-31-2009

Rated 0 
based on the video alone i think it's pretty clear that it's about mass consumption and materialism.
i highly doubt it's literal.

She lives with a broken man
A cracked polystyrene man
Who just crumbles and burns
He used to do surgery
For girls in the eighties
But gravity always wins

the broken man represents the corruptness and fakeness in all of us. a fakeness we give into due to the pressures of the society we live in. and 'crumbles and burns' to me is the decline of ones self, the crumbling of our true indentities in a struggle to conform ''all the time''.

people desperately try to conform through surgery(amongst other things) and reach the image society depicts as an image of perfection but no matter what extents one will go to,in the end nature,gravity,does take over. revealing the true person behind the chin,cheek and breast implants.but by that point it already ''wears'' you out. both the person undergoing this self induced procedure for the sake of fitting in as well as the person who encourages,supports and performs it. hence, the ''cracked polystyrene ''. a broken indentity or spirit which has been worn down,cracked.


She looks like the real thing
She tastes like the real thing
My fake plastic love
But I can't help the feeling
I could blow through the ceiling
If I just turn and run


i think this verse refers to the ocassional success of reaching this standard of perfection and conformity that society creates and sets and how it's our love for this fakeness we live through on a daily basis merely for recognition and acceptance. materialism can become an obsession,our plastic love.
although it's clear it's wrong to worship and live by this falsity,if you turn your back on it- turn and run- you know you're risking losing whatever it was that made you give into society's demands.
whether it was for acceptance,recognition,respect,acknowledgement of existence,love,friendship; anything. you know that that position will be blown away.
but so often,so many of us settle for these superficial values which act as stepping stones on a social ladder that too few chose not to climb in today's consumeristic and materialistic society.
if it means they get to be who others want them to be
''all the time''

the fact that the video is set in a supermarket aisle reflects how overwhelming commercialism can be. the man with the handgun could represent those who can't handle this pressure but feel a desperation to live up to it.
one thing i can't really tell is if the woman with the hat is talking to the people in the store and watching them through a screen. if so,she could be echoing the voice of mass production which wrongly guides many through life.

to me this song embodies the compromise of ones self and their beliefs in order to live up to these expecations,though their individuality is sacrificed; but it is done so willingly,with the awareness of the fake plastic love.





Log in to reply
Irishmonk
08-03-2009

Rated 0 
My favourite Radiohead song and 2nd favourite song of all time (Like a Rolling Stone has the top honour). Lyrically I think this is Thom Yorke's strongest effort. Sometimes during live performances he introduces this song as being about Canary Wharf--a large commercial development near central London that contains a number of Britain's tallest buildings. If anything it's known for it's sterility and generally banal corporate architecture that could be located anywhere.

Now, Yorke is notoriously cryptic and sarcastic when discussing anything about his craft but it's quite possible he derived inspiration from the many fake gardens and trees that dot the underground shopping labyrinths of Canary Wharf. Or it could mean a million other things taken from his complex imagination. The classic line "Gravity always wins" could apply equally to the futile battle women wage to keep their breasts perky and upright despite their advancing years, and the fact that those imposing office towers will one day be reduced to rubble. The general sense of this song is that the faith and hope we put into technology to fulfill our growing needs and achieve a sense of self worth is emotionally and spiritually exhausting and doomed to failure.

Log in to reply
muzicmakerman
08-01-2009

Rated 0 
I think this song is sad and true. My opinion is that he gives examples of what he's been trying to do (be something he's not for a girl). It's wearing him out and he's taking a look at the relationship

Log in to reply
sugarrrsmack
07-09-2009

Rated 0 
Every1 check this out...this kinda gives the idea what the song is about.
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=5062

Log in to reply
aerorun
07-02-2009

Rated 0 
i absolute agree with sundaydriving..........

Log in to reply
elouiselove
06-10-2009

Rated 0 
When i first heard this song, i thought it was about a doll - a Barbie doll, and the plastic life around her... o.O
The more i listen to it, the more i think it's about the consumerist society in which we live, and everything is plastic. Every One is fake, including the 'love' refered to in this song...
It's sad. It's also true.
PeaceOut.

Log in to reply
musicaldrugie
06-08-2009

Rated 0 
This song is not about him , or a girl ... it's about US. People- ourlives. Making references to the people is either an example or a metaphor. We live in a socitey where we wear ourselves out daily being someone who WE are not- and why? ... Well that we'll have to figure out on our own.

Log in to reply
loveismeaning100
06-05-2009

Rated 0 
im just going to add onto the plastic doll guy, would it be too much of a stretch to look at greek mythology. more specifically the tale of Pygmalion, who falls so far in love with Aphrodite (goddess of love and beauty) that he sculpts a statue of her. he is only mortal so he cant be with her physically. Aphrodite saddened by Pygmalion’s devotion magically turns the statue to life in the form of Galatea and the two remain lovers till death. but this is not real love as Galatea is just an extended version of the statue, his real love aphrodite is unattainable as he a mere mortal. Alot of the lines relate to this but meh just how i saw it. :D, i just got into radiohead because that's who influenced thrice. The more I listen the more I like.

Log in to reply
sounds_familiar06
06-04-2009

Rated 0 
great song...love it.

Log in to reply
sundaydriving
05-15-2009

Rated +1 
to me, this song is about the depression that comes during those existential crises that everyone has on occasion, often after a painful breakup. you doubt the meaning of all that you do, and all that you have done. you doubt the necessities of all the orders and structures in the world. and probably worst of all, you doubt if you even know what real love is. thom conveys this desperate pain in the way he sings "she looks like the real thing, she tastes like the real thing, my fake plastic love." he so desperately wanted his (ex) girlfriend to be his true love, but their love disappeared, and he is left wondering if any of it was real.

also, the verse about the man who does plastic surgery is about how the attempt to maintain beauty and youth and essentially "defy" what is inevitable--aging, etc.--always fails, thanks to reality or "gravity". this messages segues very poignantly into the following verse--as if a drooping face trying to deny its oldness, the love he had fell apart, succumbed to "gravity."

that's what i get from this song.

Log in to reply
Opium.Doll
04-05-2009

Rated 0 
I think it's got something to do with the modelling industry and how they drop you once you get too old.

Log in to reply
laxstrat05
03-26-2009

Rated 0 
I think this song is more about someone who does everything that she thinks she is supposed to do and its not working out. Shed got the fake plants, and waters them and tries to look like she is living the dream marrying a doctor, but she knows these things arent what MAE love true, they are just all fake, petty things that people think are supposed to make you happier. People spend to much time worrying about others and if we just concentrate on love and what really matters then we will truly be happy.

That's what I get from it at least.

Log in to reply
laxstrat05
03-26-2009

Rated 0 
I think this song is more about someone who does everything that she thinks she is supposed to do and its not working out. Shed got the fake plants, and waters them and tries to look like she is living the dream marrying a doctor, but she knows these things arent what MAE love true, they are just all fake, petty things that people think are supposed to make you happier. People spend to much time worrying about others and if we just concentrate on love and what really matters then we will truly be happy.

That's what I get from it at least.

Log in to reply
sirswishalot4
03-02-2009

Rated -1 
beautiful song and always will be... never thought about the lyrics much
ive been reading these comments and the lyrics back and forth... it sounds to me when he refers to "my fake plastic love" he means a girl who had alot of plastic surgery etc.. hmmmmm

Log in to reply
faithrealm
02-25-2009

Rated +2 
This song is so true for alot of guys. we love a girl we cant have even though they are not real, they are our "fake plastics loves"

Log in to reply
modestmousee
02-24-2009

Rated -1 
powerfuly displays how sometimes we all get worn out
by being fake.

Log in to reply
gyzmonfishball
02-24-2009

Rated 0 
I think this songs talks about how people live in an fake world and how people nowadays tend to love fake things because they give them security, popularity and power. The person also talks about the fake love that he has for the girl in the first "couplet" that will never happen (this is why it's fake) and he wants to change himself to please that girl who tends to love fake things.

I think the whole message is that we can emphasize on outer beauty in all of our choices but it's always inner beauty that counts in the end.

Log in to reply




  • Add Your Comments
What does this song mean to you?

You must be logged in to post your comments.

Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.





Popular
Top:   Lyrics, Artists, Albums
Random:   Lyric, Artist, Album

Your Ad Here