Radiohead Redux, This One's Optimistic

[blackwasp]

Electioneering isn't great on its own, but it works to form the totality of OK Computer.

What song should we analyze next?

 

[Arwen Undomiel]

Eh, I guess mine's kinda stupid compared to Nico's and nadroj's. Well, I never was the best at interpretation, I just like the music.

So today I dusted off Amnesiac and gave it a listen. I probably haven't played the thing all the way through for at least 2 years, maybe even 3. And after listening I've gained a new appreciation for a few more songs, particularly "Pyramid Song."

I like the statement on the back of the CD: Store away from direct sunlight; preferably in a dark drawer with your secrets.

ETA: I love "Electioneering." It's a perfect song for us in the US today in light of the debate airing later on. ("I will stop, I will stop at nothing. Say the right things when electioneering. I trust I can rely on your vote.")
I'm not sure what my least favorite song is, there are probably a few so I'll think on that.

 

[Arwen Undomiel]

What song should we analyze next?

Oooh, let's save OKC songs for later - it will keep us interested in the thread.

Since I'm on the Amnesiac kick, I'd like to get everyone's opinion of these lyrics:

Knives Out
I want you to know
He's not coming back
Look into my eyes
I'm not coming back

So knives out
Catch the mouse
Don't look down
Shove it in your mouth

If you'd been a dog
They would have drowned you at birth

Look into my eyes
It's the only way you'll know I'm telling the truth

So knives out
Cook him up
Squash his head
Put him in the pot

I want you to know
He's not coming back
He's bloated and frozen
Still there's no point in letting it go to waste

So knives out
Catch the mouse
Squash his head
Put him in the pot

 

[Arwen Undomiel]

*ahem*

bump?

 

[Nico]

so, not to get random, but what does this "bump" thing mean? i've seen it in various places and really have no clue as to what it means...

anyway, knives out is a little harder. i've been thinking about it and will post later. maybe after the weekend.

 

[Arwen Undomiel]

Bump is just a "bump" up in the list of threads to page 1. So people don't forget about the thread.

 

[theFijian]

Knives Out
I want you to know
He's not coming back
Look into my eyes
I'm not coming back

So knives out
Catch the mouse
Don't look down
Shove it in your mouth

If you'd been a dog
They would have drowned you at birth

Look into my eyes
It's the only way you'll know I'm telling the truth

So knives out
Cook him up
Squash his head
Put him in the pot

I want you to know
He's not coming back
He's bloated and frozen
Still there's no point in letting it go to waste

So knives out
Catch the mouse
Squash his head
Put him in the pot

Man that's pretty cryptic no? I think it could be a song to himself (equally as cryptic )

 

[white_frog914]

I just want to ask something else: What is your least favorite song? I simply can't stand "Electioneering". I wish there could be an "OK Computer" without it!

I'd have to say "Climbing Up the Walls". Song completely freaks the Hell out of me.

 

[theFijian]

I find Treefingers to be a bit of a waste of space personally.

 

[Nico]

 

[Nico]

Knives Out
I want you to know
He's not coming back
Look into my eyes
I'm not coming back

So knives out
Catch the mouse
Don't look down
Shove it in your mouth

If you'd been a dog
They would have drowned you at birth

Look into my eyes
It's the only way you'll know I'm telling the truth

So knives out
Cook him up
Squash his head
Put him in the pot

I want you to know
He's not coming back
He's bloated and frozen
Still there's no point in letting it go to waste

So knives out
Catch the mouse
Squash his head
Put him in the pot


ok. i've been thinking about this one. when i listen to this i get a sense of a loss of innocence or growing up. the games we used to play as children have evolved into what is real life and are actually no longer fun, like playing 3 blind mice, but rather you actually have to start doing things that may have a sense of cruelty or whatnot in them....and you can't go back to that place that you once were at. i'm not sure though.....

 

[Arwen Undomiel]

Yes, that's a good way to look at it, Nico. My take on the song is that it's about an unwanted child. Maybe about a parent who abandons their child ("Look into my eyes. I'm not coming back"). Or it's about a parent who abuses their child ("If you'd been a dog they would have drowned you at birth"). Or a parent who goes even further than that ("So knives out, put him in the pot"). Any way you look at it, I get a dark dark vibe from it, that at first sight it may be about the loss of a relationship, but upon second look it's much more sinister than that.


Okay, Jordan, where's the essay?

 

[Nico]

yeah i get the abandoning relationship thing as well. not sure if it was of the self/innocence or something like parent/child or girlfriend/boyfriend, etc. but something (either esoteric or living) leaving another thing. and the dissappointment that ensues, but, hey, you've gotta take it nonetheless (eating the rat even though it's digusting bloated dead thing)

 

[nadroj1985]

Okay, Jordan, where's the essay?

It's coming... I think maybe I'll put it on later tonight. Aren't you just on pins and needles?

 

[Arwen Undomiel]

Aren't you just on pins and needles?

Why yes. Yes. As a matter of fact I am.

 

[nadroj1985]

OK, here goes... I'm splitting it into two posts.

In many ways, it is the task of tragedy to teach the lessons of life that are the most difficult to swallow, and this is perhaps never made more evident than in Shakespeare’s King Lear. The play is particularly brutal concerning the concept of justice, not only in showing the characters’ flawed interpretations of it (especially the title character’s), but also in questioning its very existence as a prominent force in our world. Despite the intense character interactions and layered emotions contained therein, King Lear manages to maintain a bleak and desolate landscape due almost entirely to the characters’ inability to cope with a world devoid of justice. The problems in the common ideas of justice that are brought to the forefront in Shakespeare’s work are universal in their scope, so it is not altogether surprising that they have been revisited many times in the works of many artists long after the 17th century. Among the most prominent of those artists are the rock musicians Radiohead. Their masterwork OK Computer, and particularly the two songs “Paranoid Android” and “Karma Police,” are the most important examples of this Shakespearean influence. In both lyrical themes and musical imagery, Radiohead’s work on these two pieces mirrors the harsh themes of justice that were presented so long ago in Shakespeare’s King Lear.

One of the play’s most interesting comments on justice is that some humans seem to have a very poor idea of what constitutes justice in the first place. For the most part, Shakespeare chooses to show this lack of a correct sense of justice through the character of Lear, and he wastes no time in developing this theme. The very first scene depicts Lear dividing his kingdom to his daughters and their husbands, and he has decided that the best way to determine their inheritances is to have each of his daughters give a speech about how much they “love” him. While his older daughters, Goneril and Regan, give him the flattering answers he is looking for, Cordelia gives him the only truly loving answer: “Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave / my heart into my mouth. I love your majesty / according to my bond, no more no less” (William Shakespeare, King Lear, Penguin Books, 1.1.91-93). Of course, Lear is displeased with Cordelia’s answer, and his unjust anger is the primary motive force for the rest of the play’s events. Because of this event, Lear disowns the only daughter that loved him, Goneril and Regan conspire together to take Lear’s kingdom away, and Lear is driven away in a storm of his own madness. In this storm, both mental and physical, Lear finds himself reduced from his previously lofty state, and is presented with an opportunity to improve his sense of justice. Indeed, it appears he understands this, as he says, “Take physic, pomp; / expose thyself to feel what wretches feel, / that thou mayst shake the superflux to them / and show the heavens more just” (3.4.35-38). Lear is making steps forward, but one doesn’t have to wait even 50 more lines before Lear shows that he hasn’t learned his own lesson. As Lear, Kent, and the Fool come upon one of the aforementioned poor “wretches” in the person of Edgar (disguised as “poor Tom”), Lear ignores the beggar’s problems, projecting onto him his own difficulties with “filial ingratitude.” Even though Kent tells Lear that Edgar has no daughters, the fallen king still cannot get past his own suffering to see that of others. As Lear slowly finds his way out of the storm, however, he shows some signs that he might be beginning to understand justice, through statements such as this one to the Earl of Gloucester: “See how yond justice / rails upon yond simple thief” (4.6.151-152). The best indication that Lear’s confusion with justice is clearing is his reaction to his reunion with Cordelia – he recognizes the fault in his judgment at the beginning of the play, and displays a real father’s love for a child.

Lear’s trouble with the conception of justice is mirrored quite closely in the lyrics of Radiohead, particularly in “Paranoid Android” and “Karma Police.” In fact, both song titles give a hint to the connections: Lear is in many ways a paranoid man, and his sense of justice is comparably silly to the concept of karma, and “police” that must enforce it. The opening lines of “Karma Police” get right to the (ironic) point: “Karma police, arrest this man he talks in maths, he buzzes like a fridge and he’s like a detuned radio/Karma police, arrest this girl her Hitler hairdo is making me feel ill and we have crashed her party” (Radiohead, OK Computer, Capitol Records, track 6). Lear’s fickle and self-serving sense of justice emerges clearly -- the karma police are not summoned to punish for any real evil acts. They only come for those that the narrator finds displeasing at that particular time, because of “Hitler hairdos” and “talking in maths.” The song ends, however, with the repetition of the lines, “Phew, for a minute there, I lost myself,” seeming to indicate that, like Lear, the narrator is not hopelessly confused (6). “Paranoid Android” echoes this theme, only much more violently. While the lyrics here are less transparent, they still give a vivid image of a sense of justice gone horribly wrong, with phrases like the power-hungry “When I am king you will be first against the wall/With your opinion which is of no consequence at all”(track 2) and especially with the horrific “You don’t remember, you don’t remember, why don’t you remember my name?/Off with his head, man, off with his head,” (2) which is further amplified by sudden, atonal guitar riffs. The two songs ably display not only Lear’s impaired view of what is good and just and what is not, but also show the violent revenge that can result from such a malady. Lear shows us with his hasty, vengeful disowning of the loving Cordelia, who he calls “a wretch whom Nature is ashamed / almost t’ acknowledge hers” at the beginning of the play, that the emotions of the songs are only too fitting (1.1.217-218).

 

[nadroj1985]

While Lear’s lack of a sense of justice is a large theme of the play, it only is an indicator of a much larger and infinitely more depressing idea – that justice, independent of one’s view of it, might not be a force in this world at all. It could be argued that this is the primary concern of many of the characters in King Lear, and two opposing viewpoints emerge as the play unfolds. The Earl of Gloucester delivers one of the most menacing lines of the entire play to show his thoughts on the subject: “As flies to wanton boys are we to th’ gods; / they kill us for their sport” (4.1.37-38). The Duke of Albany is the most convinced of all the characters in the play of the contrary position, that, in the end, justice is done and the gods care about humans and their fates. Upon hearing of the death of the Duke of Cornwall, who had so evilly gouged out the eyes of Gloucester, Albany tells us: “This shows you are above, / you justicers, that these our nether crimes / so speedily can venge” (4.3.79-81). Albany reiterates this sentiment much later in the play, after one of the main forces of evil in the play, Edmund, dies from wounds inflicted by his brother Edgar: “All friends shall taste the wages of their virtue, and all foes / the cup of their deservings” (5.3.309-311). Unfortunately, one cannot help but feel that Albany’s words ring false, as the last lines give us an image of Lear despairing over the death of his loving daughter. Indeed, Cordelia is the only truly loving and good character the play presents to us – even though her father irrationally and unjustly casts her out for her honesty in the beginning scene, she stays faithful to her father and forgives him. According to Albany’s logic, Cordelia should taste the “wages of her virtue,” but instead she is killed mercilessly, and it is not at all clear what she has died for. Lear’s miserable question, “Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, and thou no breath at all?” is left completely unanswered, and when the curtain falls, we are left with no reason to believe that justice is anything but a fanciful idea that man has created because he can’t deal with harsh reality.

This conflict of ideas, between the desire for an active justice in our world and a reality that does not support such a desire, is also evident in “Paranoid Android” and “Karma Police.” “Karma Police” shows this rather ironically, using both its lyrics and its music to convey an unrealistic sense of order. The melodic line and accompaniment have an almost martial tempo, which is strictly ordered and indeed almost provides a sense of inevitability. The words follow suit, as the narrator imagines that justice (albeit his skewed vision of it) exists, and that there are karma police to enforce it. However, in the second verse there is a hint that the narrator’s delusion is crumbling down, when he laments, “Karma police, I’ve given all I can/It’s not enough/I’ve given all I can but we’re still on the payroll” (6). “Paranoid Android” expands this theme. Through the first section of the song, the narrator provides his angry outbursts on life, his overall disappointment with it, and his desire to force his will on others. In a brief respite, the music gets much calmer and even epiphanic, as he begs the gods to “rain down on me/from a great height,” but these sentiments don’t last long (2). While the music remains constant, we hear his real, horrible thoughts, “That’s it sir, you’re leaving/the crackle of pigskin/the dust and the screaming/the yuppies networking/the panic, the vomit/the panic, the vomit” (2). In a last gasp of despair, and in lines dripping with irony, he tells us, “God loves his children/God loves his children, yeah” and the maddening guitars come crashing back in (2). The ending notes of both “Paranoid Android” and “Karma Police” mirror closely the end of King Lear as well – both end as abruptly as possible, in a confusing cloud of effects, making no attempt to answer the huge questions they have raised.

It has been said that art imitates life, but in fact, this happens very rarely. People have become used to stories in which the characters live happily ever after, while in real life many people spend their entire lives alone, with no hope for the happy ending that much art presents us with. That is why the tragedy holds such a distinguished place among the art forms – not necessarily because it provides mindless misery, but because it is willing to present us with stark realities that we would sometimes rather not acknowledge. Through their works, William Shakespeare and Radiohead have shown that they understand this value of tragedy; while both King Lear and OK Computer present rather bleak landscapes that do display harsh reality, they are not completely pessimistic. It is quite conceivable that, if Lear had only seen Cordelia’s love for him at the beginning of the play, or the narrator of “Karma Police” hadn’t “lost himself,” the events of both works would have been drastically different. However, these two tragic works aren’t concerned with a happy ending; they merely present the hard questions (what is justice, and how does it affect us?) and invite us to answer them. In doing so, they show us an important truth: real art does not persist in presenting a happy unreality that we cannot believe in. Rather, it offers reality with all its defects, and teaches us to come to terms with it.

 

[Arwen Undomiel]

Bravo, nadroj!

Very nice juxtaposition between the two, and a good choice of songs to illustrate. I don't completely agree with your assessment of Karma Police, but that's just me. I hope you got a decent grade on it, Professor Arwen gives you an A.

 

[nadroj1985]

Bravo, nadroj!

Very nice juxtaposition between the two, and a good choice of songs to illustrate. I don't completely agree with your assessment of Karma Police, but that's just me. I hope you got a decent grade on it, Professor Arwen gives you an A.

Thanks Dr. Arwen! What didn't you agree with on Karma Police, out of curiosity? I do think that Paranoid Android was a more complete fit than Karma Police, but I thought both worked out fine.

 

[Arwen Undomiel]

What didn't you agree with on Karma Police, out of curiosity?

Let me see if I can adequately convey my interpretation.

I think it's because I don't see Karma Police as literal police to 'be summoned,' and therefore not so much focused on the concept of justice. I hear the lyrics as more of a self-admonishment about not-so-acceptable behavior, and the karma that must remain internally balanced. Although in sitting here thinking about it (exhaustively), maybe it's looking at the same thing you are from another angle.