What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.
What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.
What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.
What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.
What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.
“It’s really a song about my friend Marty and I. We went out one night to watch his dad play, his dad was a Flamenco guitar player who lived in Spain, and he was in San Francisco in the Mission playing with his old Flamenco troupe. And after the gig we all went to this bar called the New Amsterdam in San Francisco on Columbus and we got completely drunk. And Marty and I sat at the bar staring at these two girls, wishing there was some way we could go talk to them, but we were too shy. We kept joking with each other that if we were big rock stars instead of such loser, low-budget musicians, this would be easy. I went home that night and I wrote a song about it”
That is the literal meaning behind it, but the more subtle meaning has to do with dreams and what motivates us to do what we do.
I'm trying to get some rest
From all the unborn chicken voices
In my head Radiohead – Paranoid Android
What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.
Yorke has said that the lyrics are based on an unpleasant experience in a noisy bar. As the subsequent lyrics show, however, that’s just a jumping-off point. As he often does, Yorke has abstracted the experience that he had in the bar and used it as inspiration for a song with more general meaning. In “Paranoid Android” (and much of OK Computer) Yorke describes an emotional landscape of paranoia and confusion created by modern urban life and interactions with strangers.
One interpretation is that the voices represent an internal conflict and the noise around him only seems to exacerbate a preexisting problem. After all, “unborn” is another way of saying not brought into existence; “chicken” is another word for coward; and “voice” is a synonym for opinion or input. Basically, the narrator is asking to take a break from all the words/views he’s too scared to express (maybe fascist-like thoughts of acting like a dictator), so they’re still in his head and he regrets it.
A similar imagery had been used in Street Spirit (Fade Out), which compels many to associate these lines with Thom Yorke’s veganism.
What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.
While it may appear as if Yorke is showing off his trademark cynicism, saying that you’ll die with all your worthless thoughts about worthless things, he’s said that this is the character of the song talking, and reflects the opposite of how he feels:
Again, that’s just a joke. It’s actually the other way around – it’s actually my opinion that is of no consequence at all.”
What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.
What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.
The couple is so infatuated with one another that they don’t need to communicate verbally to feel each other’s love.
Another possibility: Maybe one of them hasn’t confessed the love for the other person. Hence “a silent devotion”: a devotion not shared with the love interest.
What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.
“Tongue-tied lighting” refers to the arguments between couples.
Also, both tongues and lightning can be forked