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

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high5inmfer
06-28-2006

Rated 0 
I like reidbottorffs interp. Awesome song. Pretty depressing though.

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corduroy_boy
07-05-2006

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The line that always stood out to me was "My fake plastic love". I always thought that was the core of the song.

My interpretation was that he's in a relationship and he so desperately wants to be in love with her. So much so that he's trapped. And all this effort he's putting in and not getting anything back is wearing him out.

I was thinking everything else he mentions in the song as being fake was merely to emphasize how fake it is.

I doubt this is the original intented meaning after doing my research (Canary Wharf) and reading others opinions, more a comment on modern life (I think winkyone said it best "I, for one, still feel, at times, like it's all somehow unreal, a show we all put on and, somehow, manage to unite in")

But as Mwalte2 said the song is just bursting with love.

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Prisoner.I.Was
07-14-2006

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I think this song is about the plastic surgery culture which seems to be exploding lately. This is made obvious by the bit about the polystyrene man doing surgery, but gravity (i.e. physical age) will take over him and the prospect frightens him. The 'fake plastic love' looks and tastes 'like the real thing', I think this means that she looks and feels like a woman but she isn't, she's fake, silicone fodder. The song's speaker could 'blow through the ceiling', he's frustrated with this new trend and wants to escape.

Anyone who goes along with the 'blow up doll' theory is demented, how does that explain the polystyrene man or the watering can?

As for the video, in it, the characters who are not band members are quite fake-looking, suggesting that this superficialness is everywhere, also reflected in the first verse, which speaks of 'fake plastic earth'.

Anyway, great song. Thom's voice is just lovely in it.

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role_model4
07-22-2006

Rated 0 
my favourite radiohead song, its just about how so many dreams rely on people not being who they are, and it wears them out

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Poetic_Mystique
08-06-2006

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I agree about the lingering disappointments and consumer world we all live in. This isn't one of my favorite Radiohead tunes, but good nonetheless. And if it wasn't already mentioned, this song plays in the movie "Clueless".

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Lookalongwithme
08-07-2006

Rated 0 
it means that we're all sort of dissatisfied with life and time, how it changes, and how people try to get ahead of that change, or keep things the same to stay on top. how it's useless to try to use technology to conquer this yearning we all have, because all it does is delay things, and make us fake. he tries to love this girl, but he knows his love is so twisted and its not real, that she's fake, and he's just as bad for giving in to her. beautiful song tho, hope we can all figure out what it means to truly be real. (look up the velveteen rabbit story) thanks. keep listening to radiohead everybody.

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paffy
08-18-2006

Rated 0 
i always thought it was about that certain toy ;)

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DeathCabRamazing
08-25-2006

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the best bit is when the song eplodes into "she looks like the reeeeaalll thing"
it reminds me of Karma Police's "for a minute there, I lost myself"

radiohead are incredible

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DeathCabRamazing
08-27-2006

Rated 0 
i love this song. It feels so hopeless, somewhat like Creep. This song captures beauty, yet juxtaposes it by describing a world full of corruption and social standards that inflict fake beauty to be sold.

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KidArson121
09-02-2006

Rated 0 
anyone ever notice this has the same melody from sleeping pills by suede?

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arrstar
09-11-2006

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This is the closest I have evcer come to crying at a song. I agree with everyone, though I don't really think it has one particular meaning. Powerful song.

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Edinburgh_Iain
09-14-2006

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My 2c:

I think the lyrics are all about imagery, rather than a single character.

I think people are trying to analyse the song a bit too specifically and personally - the characters seem to me to be metaphors for modern Western culture, I don't think the song is really about anyone. So the significance of the "broken man" is the futility of his life's work (Gravity always wins) not that he's married to, or the doctor of, the female character mentioned earlier. Their relationship is kept vague, it's not what the song's about.

You can certainly see how places like Canary Wharf or LA might have inspired this song. The lyrics seem more evocative than narrative to me, they're painting a picture of our world as materialistic and fake. Fake plastic trees of the kind found in hotel lobbies are the main image (you can almost see Thom walking past them in some swish hotel and coming up with the inspiration for the song!) - the metaphor is then extended to other things and people (rubber man, fake plastic love, polystyrene man, rubber plans etc.) to suggest that in some way they're as fake as the plastic plants though they look and taste "like the real thing" - wouldn't surprise me if that's a swipe at Coca-Cola either.

The last part of the song seems pretty self-explanatory, it's clearly a more personal take on it and has been covered adequately above. :)

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Rizon
11-05-2006

Rated 0 
This song is very touching ( as i'm listening to it now ) it just makes me realize why I begin to think too strongly of people, then realize they are something they are not.. The girl has no identity, which is the way I seem to look at alot of people these days.. If this song doesn't touch you in some way, then I suggest you get your head out of your ass..

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heartbeats_xxx
12-18-2006

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The song is about a blow-up doll and how it actually feels real good to hump.

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_ellie
12-26-2006

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if I could be a blow-up doll
all the time
"wail"..

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aldrrian lunsfelt
01-04-2007

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this song is about 2 ppl living together and not really loving each other 4 a long time. but they'd just keep on pretending that its all fine and they have a great love. they reflect a plastic happy family. she watters the plants like a good classic happy woman, and he has a good job as a surgerer, all so perfect but they arent really happy. they know they'd be happier if they leave, but they dont, probably because of they duties as a family, and it wears them out.

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asdfghjklgina
01-16-2007

Rated 0 
this song, is sadly about abortion. listen to it, and read the lyrics, its about abortion.

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Seashelltale*
01-26-2007

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This song to me is about this girl who hes so inlove with but she wants more from him, wich is something he can't give her. Hes, a 'broken' man and can't give her 'real' love when shes so great and real herself. It's about being in a relationship...the Part where it's like. "if I could be who you wanted, all the time...all the time" but he can't and it wears him out trying to satisfy everyone. It's a really powerful song and you can make it whatever you really want it to be about.

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FaLsEhOpE
01-28-2007

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Wonderful song, i was going to do a massive interpretation on the song but it can mean so much to different people! so ill leave the interpretation at that but when i listen to this song, it kinda makes me wana take a really deep breath or something..oh and btw *erasethesun, i totally agree, very soothing song, its kinda like a lullaby to me haha

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FaLsEhOpE
01-28-2007

Rated 0 
Wonderful song, i was going to do a massive interpretation on the song but it can mean so much to different people! so ill leave the interpretation at that but when i listen to this song, it kinda makes me wana take a really deep breath or something..oh and btw *erasethesun, i totally agree, very soothing song, its kinda like a lullaby to me haha

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unexplained28
01-28-2007

Rated 0 
Here's how I interpret this song, its about a man who is desperately in love with a girl, but she can't be with him cause she is already with the so called broken man... and it wears them out... all of em'... dunno... that's how I see it...

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unexplained28
01-28-2007

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Here's how I interpret this song, its about a man who is desperately in love with a girl, but she can't be with him cause she is already with the so called broken man... and it wears them out... all of em'... dunno... that's how I see it...

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f2darkness
02-04-2007

Rated 0 
I think Thom Yorke wrote this song in a vanwhen they were touring in LA, he was amazed at how fake everything and everyone looked there and the video is puuting over how easy it is to look the way you wish or are expected to ( hence the supermarket with body parts etc ).The video was a great way of showing the stark reality.

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Acaeron
02-08-2007

Rated 0 
This song has a double meaning to me, unrequited love and materialism. The figure of the song's story (his fake plastic love) lives a life of knowing only love for material things (her green plastic watering can, her town of rubber plans, etc) and has what the narrator feels is a superficial love, founded on material needs and nothing more (her cracked polystyrene man (who used to do surgery for girls in the '80s :P). Despite her trappings, he is madly in love with her, but could never be with her because he has nothing material to offer to her (if I could be who you wanted all the time) so he has to resign himself to watching her live her life without ever knowing true happiness, because he has no way to reach out to her and tell her how he feels without automatic rejection. Sad :(

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suclid003
02-12-2007

Rated 0 
I really see a connection between this song and Creep. I think both explore the idea that sometimes we value other people's expectations more than our own. We don't have realistic images in our minds.

IN the beginning he talks about "green plastic watering can," maybe showing that synthetics are good for tools and things that improve our lives, but not good to use for fixing problems of self-image.

I think with the "fake plastic love" he's referring to lust, and how sometimes we can't control it, thus the "But I Can't Help The Feeling."

I see this song as questioning humanity's view of reality. It raises questions like, What if we could just manufacture humans, would they be human? What is true love? What's the difference between love and lust? Can we really tell if something's or somebody's real or fake? People wear themselves out by not being true to themselves, and I think this really comes through in the lyrics. Sometimes we just have to accept who we are and trust that we can't satisfy everyone, even the ones we love.

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