The best art tends to have more than one level, to mean more than one thing. And there are many different ways to read a piece of art, whether it be autobiographical or feminist or Marxist or whatever. With that condescending preamble out of the way, I've always been interested in the allegorical aspect of the song.
Mark Lawson on The Late Review interpreted the line "Just 'cause you feel it, doesn't mean it's there" as a comment on Bush's misadventures in Iraq, most likely as a reference to unfound Weapons of Mass Destruction. Clearly, the album itself is a gloomy reflection on our Bushworld but some of the lyrics within the song itself suggest, at the very least, a specific allusion to the invasion and aftermath in Iraq. In this way, Sandor was on to something when he said, "i think the song is about entering foreign territory, leaving your comfort zone."
The first two lines summon up the image of blindly blundering into a place that isn't yours, hindered at every turn by the chaos of the environment. The siren, though usually interpreted as a sexual metaphor, can also stand for any kind of dangerous temptation. (As it happens, I also think paraluman's sexual reading has a lot to recommend it, especially when we consider the first two stanzas and the prevalence of Eros and Thanatos in art)
"There's someone on your shoulder" suggests to me two images. Either it speaks of a paranoid or well-founded fear of being followed or, in my preferred understanding, it invokes the notion of the demon on the shoulder, urging you on to commit bad or unwise acts.
"Why so green and lonely?" is the most intriguing line of the song. Its meaning is unclear until we consider the following line, "Heaven sent you to me". Notoriously, it was reported that Bush had said, in so many words, "God told me to invade Iraq". "Why so green and lonely?" is Bush's question to all of us. Paraphrased, "why are you so naively upset about my invasion and your powerlessness and resultant further disconnection? Iraq is my God given right".
And so, "There There" is what you say to someone to soothe them when you don't know what to say or you don't care. In this interpretation, it becomes mocking - Bush's uninterested and unconcerned shrug of the shoulders. Finally, as has been already noted, George W. Bush is the ultimate accident waiting to happen. For all of us. These final lines suggest an abdication of responsibility.
I always felt the ending of the video, where Yorke initially manages to get away with his theft before becoming permanently rooted in the foreign landscape, reinforced the allegory perfectly. Having said all that, it's clear to me the song's primary goal is on the level of emotional feeling rather than literal meaning. It creates a general air of lonely unease, wistful mistrust of everything - including oneself - and a gloomy fatalism. It's not difficult to see how it could lend itself to many different interpretations.
I totally agree with you. It pretty matches with all these stuff about Irak war. The title seems to me like if the agents were telling Bush they don't find the massive destruction weapons and Bush is like pointing different places at random 'There, there! look there'. Just an excuse to go into war.
I totally agree with you. It pretty matches with all these stuff about Irak war. The title seems to me like if the agents were telling Bush they don't find the massive destruction weapons and Bush is like pointing different places at random 'There, there! look there'. Just an excuse to go into war.
The siren has two meanings for me. On the first verse it refers to a continuous alarm state he wants to mantain in the country, in order to perpetuate in his legislature, like that thing explained in Moore's Farenheit 9/11. He wants american population to believe they're always in danger so they need him. But this alarm turns into that mythological figure in the next verse, because one of this alarms he is creating is finally going to take him to disaster, will turn into a real siren (shipwreck).
Why so green and so lonely? is like a question Bush makes himself about Irak. The green is the rich of the country (fuel), but still it is a deserted place, and so it's wasted. He wants to take to that promised land (sent by God) and prosper.
The band has been asked about this references (not specifically about this song, but about the album), and they admit them but they say they like to think about the lyrics in a more general than allegorical level.
The best art tends to have more than one level, to mean more than one thing. And there are many different ways to read a piece of art, whether it be autobiographical or feminist or Marxist or whatever. With that condescending preamble out of the way, I've always been interested in the allegorical aspect of the song.
Mark Lawson on The Late Review interpreted the line "Just 'cause you feel it, doesn't mean it's there" as a comment on Bush's misadventures in Iraq, most likely as a reference to unfound Weapons of Mass Destruction. Clearly, the album itself is a gloomy reflection on our Bushworld but some of the lyrics within the song itself suggest, at the very least, a specific allusion to the invasion and aftermath in Iraq. In this way, Sandor was on to something when he said, "i think the song is about entering foreign territory, leaving your comfort zone."
The first two lines summon up the image of blindly blundering into a place that isn't yours, hindered at every turn by the chaos of the environment. The siren, though usually interpreted as a sexual metaphor, can also stand for any kind of dangerous temptation. (As it happens, I also think paraluman's sexual reading has a lot to recommend it, especially when we consider the first two stanzas and the prevalence of Eros and Thanatos in art)
"There's someone on your shoulder" suggests to me two images. Either it speaks of a paranoid or well-founded fear of being followed or, in my preferred understanding, it invokes the notion of the demon on the shoulder, urging you on to commit bad or unwise acts.
"Why so green and lonely?" is the most intriguing line of the song. Its meaning is unclear until we consider the following line, "Heaven sent you to me". Notoriously, it was reported that Bush had said, in so many words, "God told me to invade Iraq". "Why so green and lonely?" is Bush's question to all of us. Paraphrased, "why are you so naively upset about my invasion and your powerlessness and resultant further disconnection? Iraq is my God given right".
And so, "There There" is what you say to someone to soothe them when you don't know what to say or you don't care. In this interpretation, it becomes mocking - Bush's uninterested and unconcerned shrug of the shoulders. Finally, as has been already noted, George W. Bush is the ultimate accident waiting to happen. For all of us. These final lines suggest an abdication of responsibility.
I always felt the ending of the video, where Yorke initially manages to get away with his theft before becoming permanently rooted in the foreign landscape, reinforced the allegory perfectly. Having said all that, it's clear to me the song's primary goal is on the level of emotional feeling rather than literal meaning. It creates a general air of lonely unease, wistful mistrust of everything - including oneself - and a gloomy fatalism. It's not difficult to see how it could lend itself to many different interpretations.
I totally agree with you. It pretty matches with all these stuff about Irak war. The title seems to me like if the agents were telling Bush they don't find the massive destruction weapons and Bush is like pointing different places at random 'There, there! look there'. Just an excuse to go into war.
I totally agree with you. It pretty matches with all these stuff about Irak war. The title seems to me like if the agents were telling Bush they don't find the massive destruction weapons and Bush is like pointing different places at random 'There, there! look there'. Just an excuse to go into war.
The siren has two meanings for me. On the first verse it refers to a continuous alarm state he wants to mantain in the country, in order to perpetuate in his legislature, like that thing explained in Moore's Farenheit 9/11. He wants american population to believe they're always in danger so they need him. But this alarm turns into that mythological figure in the next verse, because one of this alarms he is creating is finally going to take him to disaster, will turn into a real siren (shipwreck).
Why so green and so lonely? is like a question Bush makes himself about Irak. The green is the rich of the country (fuel), but still it is a deserted place, and so it's wasted. He wants to take to that promised land (sent by God) and prosper.
The band has been asked about this references (not specifically about this song, but about the album), and they admit them but they say they like to think about the lyrics in a more general than allegorical level.