Can't get the stink off,
He's been hanging around for days
Comes like a comet,
Suckered you but not your friends

One day he'll get to you,
Teach you how to be a holy cow

[Chorus]
You do it to yourself you do
And that's what really hurts is
You do it to yourself just you,
You and no-one else
You do it to yourself
You do it to yourself

Don't get my sympathy hanging out the 15th floor
You've changed the locks 3 times,
He still comes reeling through the door
One day I will get to you
And Teach you how to get to purest hell

[Chorus]

[Chorus]



Lyrics submitted by piesupreme

Track duration: 03:55

"Just" as written by Thomas Edward/o'brien Yorke

Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.

Lyrics powered by LyricFind


Just song meanings
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118 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment:the video ties in with the song

    "you do it to yourself" is like at the end when the subtitles go and everyone wonders what he says. but if you look closely the man says the one who then it lopes

    basically we are making a big deal about nothing
    Flag irishmikeon May 16, 2013   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:i love the video and the mystery - from the expression on the faces of the crowd and the crescendo of the music, it seems to me that they have heard something deeply shocking and are startled by the reveal - something very bad is imminent.

    For me, the man's message is a message from, or warning from god, to surrender, and to capitulate to god, especially from anyone who might fear his judgement of their lives - because - from the lyrics - it "comes like a comet". If you've been a bad boy, you're about to introduced to "purest hell".
    Flagged laffreelyon December 30, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:The song is not about depression but is about how people bring it on themselves,
    'you do it on yourself'
    hes saying that people know if they keep asking questions about the world and life and stuff they will find them, and they probably wont like them, do you really want t know what the guy on the floor said even though you know it will make you depressed and therefore 'lie on the sidewalk' of course you do, and thats what the song is about
    Flag O2012Gon November 14, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:This song was made to do just what it did (no pun intended)- confused everyone who listened to it, and made them take the meaning in as many ways as possible. The video helps this massively.
    Flag Overthunkon November 04, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I got it!
    "Zero-One-Zero-One"

    Fuck, I love the video even more now.
    Flag mussman717on October 31, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:The song is so great because its interpretation is so broad. Thom obviously had a specific reason for it, but I wouldn't say its wrong to think of it in the many ways others do. I completely agree with what dannycrisp said and I love what 3stringovation said about all of their albums
    Flagged mayfieldson June 05, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I think the 'he' and the adjectives used in reference to this 'he' is a personification of depression, but not the kind of clinical depression that should inspire our pity and compassion, it's the kind of depression that is self-inflicted through negative and pessimistic outlooks on life and people and the lack of effort to self improve one's self. In essence, allowing one's self to stagnate and be caught up in self pity and self loathing.

    The song basically says that these people don't deserve sympathy because they also manage to drag others down into the doldrums with their self-pity and depressed nature and that their condition is 'just'

    The video illustrates this point perfectly I believe. The man seemingly has nothing to be depressed and despondent about and the other man gets extremely angry at the man's behaviour and inertia. When the man on the floor conveys what has caused him to be lying on the pavement (basically moaned about his life and the way he feels) he drags the rest of them into his misery and they become like him.


    That's my take anyway.
    Flag dannycrispon February 16, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:@thawhiteshadow - I do think The Bends is exploring broken human relationships. In fact I think Radiohead deliberately and incrementally expanded the scope of their work from album to album (for the first 4 albums at least). To break it down:

    Their first hit was a strictly personal view of one's self ("Creep") and other songs from "Pablo Honey" are similarly self-bound, expressing Thom's personal point of view. On "The Bends" the songs begin to explore human relationships more deeply and the songs become more "second person". By "OK Computer" they are looking at modern society as a whole, and the effects of technology on the human condition. Here is where their work becomes truly "post-modern" in the literary sense. On "Kid A" they begin moving beyond physical society into freethought, philosophy, and anarchism, and the themes get more abstract, more highly symbolic.

    "Hail to the Thief" has been described by Thom as being about the power games people play on each other, from the personal to the political, so it encapsulates all of the preceding levels.

    It's hard to put a theme on "In Rainbows", but having reached a certain pinnacle of literary status and acclaim, Thom now has the ability to reach for his subjects wherever he wishes, and view even older topics in a new light - this is the stage we might call "Post-post-modern".

    And then comes "King of Limbs", which takes us deep into and through the mechanical-glitch-modern-stream-of-consciousness and sails right out of it into some of the most "organic" sounding music the boys have ever put down. To me it signifies the return of nature, like trees and grass growing up between the cracks and around the ruins of civilization.

    And so throughout their discography Radiohead have recapitulated all of human development, from individual to interpersonal to societal to philosophical to political to the collapse of civilization.

    Now the question is... Where do we go next?

    Flag 3stringovationon September 19, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I've wondered lately if the Bends is about what becomes broken in human relationships...alienation and all that Radiohead M.O. It seems that while Radiohead albums are never hermetically-sealed Concept Albums, that they often have a cohesiveness based on the interests of the band at the time of recording.

    This song seems to describe how someone can be so oblivious to the fact that she drives away the people she tries to impress and befriend. Similar to Fyodor Karamazov...only at times, I think he knows exactly what he is doing. Either that, or someone who constantly invites pathological relationships. In either case, the obliviousness of the subject seems key.
    Flag thawhiteshadowon August 27, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Reminds me of someone who feeds off attention, who blames other people for making their own life shitty, when its really them that backed the other person into a corner.
    Flag miralizeon June 28, 2011   Link

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