Radiohead - Hail to the Thief ('03)

I always thought that albums or artists with profound and thought-provoking lyrics latent with some call for a mass civil disobedience were not billboard chart-toppers or were purposely not given much exposure to the mainstream masses. Isn't it uncommon for the media to feed people anything that's going to spark any query that might threaten the status quo? But then how do I explain mainstream musicians such as Tool, Rage Against the Machine, Pink Floyd and Neil Young who have written rebellious songs? What am I complaining about? I didn't come to this realization until listening to Radiohead's album, Hail to the Thief, which came at #3 in the billboards.

The title of the album is what caught my attention along with the album cover. Hail to the Thief is, what I'm assuming, a reference to Bush "stealing" the elections. The lyrics are awesome in creatively talking about the bullshitness of society, or at least that's the way I've interpretated them. The lyrics are simple but not blatant. But aside from the lyrics, I think the way some of the songs have been instrumentally arranged and composed is brilliant. I like how songs like "2+2=5" and "Sit Down. Stand Up" build up in pace or tempo, so you hear the song start off slowly and then the sounds smoothly transition into something heavy. That build-up has a lot to do with the message behind the lyrics at the moment, it catches your attention at what's being sung while the pace changes. Another thing I've noticed about the lyrics is how certain phrases or words are consecutively repeated. Some of the lyrics are better understood when hearing the way it's sung and musically composed. Some of the lyrics are vague, but being the sociology-nerd I am I can't help but to interpret them from a sociological standpoint. That's the beauty of vagueness, your left to your imagination and to the best of your knowledge.


"I desperately tried not to write anything political, anything expressing the deep, profound terror I'm living with day to day. But it's just fucking there, and eventually you have to give it up and let it happen."
-Thom Yorke

Track one, "2+2 = 5", reflects George Orwell's 1984 book, which I haven't read but now am more eager to so I can understand the lyrics better. Could the repetitive chant of "paying attention" be any more emphasized?
...It's the devil's way now
There is no way out
You can scream and you can shout
It is too late now ...
...Because
You have not been
Paying attention...(repeat 3x)
Yeah, I'm not feeling it
Paying attention (repeat 3x)
Yeah, I need it
I needed attention (repeat 3x)
Yeah, I love it, the attention
Paying attention (repeat 3x)

Oh, hail to the thief
But I'm not

Don't question my authority or put me in the dock
Because I'm not
Oh, go and tell the king the sky if falling in
But it's not (x2)
Maybe not (x2) ...


The second track, "Sit Down. Stand Up", is another one with lyrics that speak from a power figures perspective:
Sit down, stand up
Sit down, stand up
Walk (sit down) into the jaws of hell ...
We can wipe you out anytime
We can wipe you out
Anytime
Anytime
Stand up
Sit down
Oh
The rain drops (repeat 47x)


The third track, "Sail to the Moon", is beautiful and what makes it so much more precious to hear is that Yorke wrote it for his son. Muscially, "Backdrifts" doesn't hit a spot for me but lyrically it's another critical message that depicts a poor condition of society. Are we moving forward or are we backdrifting?
We're rotten fruit
We're damaged goods
What the hell we've got nothing more to lose
One gust and we will probably crumble
We're backdrifters ...
...You fell into our arms
You fell into our arms
We tried hard but there was nothing we could do
Nothing we could do

All evidence has been buried
All tapes have been erased
But your footsteps give you away
So you're backdrifting

"Go to Sleep" lacks the same musical impact as "Backdrifter" does but the lyrics hit another spot for me:
Something for the rag and bone man
"Over my dead body"
Something big is going to happen
"Over my dead body"

Someone's son or someone's daughter
"Over my dead body"
This is how I end up getting sucked in
"Over my dead body"

I'm going to go to sleep
Let this wash all over me

We don't want to wake the monster
"Tip-toe around, tie him down"
We don't want the loonies taking over
"Tip-toe around, tie them down"

May pretty horses
Come to you as you sleep
I'm not going to sleep
Let this wash all over me

To sleep means to be unconscious, to be unaware of what's going on around you because your mind is off to some other dimension. Someone's son or someone's daughter is going to be impacted by the unconscious public of America today. Yorke said that he's concerned about the fate of his children judging by the conditions of society today. It could get worse. The monsters he mentions could be any of the power elites. Whether it's the president or multi-national corporations investing in the war. These folks are the loonies and the monsters taking over. As for the "rag and bone man"? The rag and bone folks are the poor who get "sucked into" joining the Navy, the Marines, the Army or the Air Forces through their presentations in showing the perks of being part of the service. And what does the average person do in the face of a messed up society? Turn the other cheek and a deaf ear. They escape by "going to sleep" in hopes that all the chaos will have been washed away.

"Where I End You Begin" is another one of my favorite tracks. It's dark and haunting with lyrics laying another creative attack on, or singing from the perspective of, some oppressive force of power. This time this powerful figure might be God:
There's a gap in between
There' s a gap where we meet
Where I end and you begin

And I'm sorry for us
The dinosaurs roam the earth
The sky turns green
Where I end and you begin

I'm up in the clouds
I'm up in the clouds
and I can't come down

I can watch and not take part
Where I end and where you start
Where you, you left me alone
You left me alone

X'll mark the place
Like the parting of the waves
Like a house falling in the sea
In the sea

I will eat you alive (3x)
And there'll be no more lies (3x)

Yeah, definitely has a religious tone to it. Where Jesus ended, man began and the crucification, or X, marks his spot. And Moses parted the waves of the Red Sea. Yet there's a gap between man and God. God doesn't intervene, He simply watches from the sky. The fate of all mankind has already been laid out, right? I don't know.

"We Suck Young Blood" is another haunting goody! Incredible! The sounds of the piano combined with the lyrics give it that haunting effect, it makes you think about how bleak truth and reality are. This song scares me, because I think it's talking about everyone! It speaks to me, it questions me. It makes me feel like a slave reading this. We definitely get sucked when we're young and this is what Yorke had to say about it: "We did this thing, I think we’ve had it in London here now as well, where we’re putting up these ads ‘Hungry? Sick? Begging for a break? Ring this number’. Someone I heard on the radio completely missed the point, or sort of did… or maybe they didn’t… where they kind of thought we were running some Radiohead talent show. Which is just genius - that would have been perfect. Sadly not. It’s a good idea, though.
I think it’s called ‘Your Time Is Up’ simply to take the piss out of the fact that we’re basically old gits now and that we need to suck young blood to keep young! It’s all very tied up with Hollywood as well and, you know, the constant desire to stay young and… fleece people, suck their energy. Corporations… Corporate media groups love to do that…blah, blah, blah. It’s not really about the music business as such, definitely much more about the glamorous world of Hollywood."
Are you hungry?
Are you sick?
Are you begging for a break?
Are you sweet?
Are you fresh?
Are you strung up by the wrists?
We want young blood.

Are you fracturing?
Are you torn at the seams?
Would you do anything?
Fleabitten motheaten?
We suck young blood.

Won't let the creeping ivy
Won't let the nervous bury me
Our veins are thin
Our rivers poisoned
We want the sweet meat
We want the young blood


"The Gloaming" is not that attractive musically, but, once again, the lyrics are. Yorke takes it a step further when saying "murderers, you're murderers/we are not the same as you" and where it says "When the walls bend/with your breathing" I picture the big black wolf from The Three Little Pigs fairy tale huffing and puffing at one of the pig's house, demolishing their niche. Much like the lives and homes of third world victims of wars by America have been, and are being, demolished.

I love Yorke's voice in "I Will (No Man's Land)" along with the lyrics. He's very concerned about what his children, and all other children, will grow up being exposed to in a war-driven culture:
I will
Lay me down
In a bunker
Underground
I won't let this happen to my children
meet the real world coming out of your shell
with white elephants
sitting ducks
i will
rise up
Little baby's eyes eyes eyes eyes (3x)

And here's Yorke's story behind "Myxomatosis" (Myxomatosis is a virus that kills rabbits):
"I remember my parents pointing out all these dead rabbits on the road when I was a kid," Yorke says. "I didn't know that much about the virus, or even how to spell it. But I loved the word. I loved the way it sounded. The song is actually about mind control. I'm sure you've experienced situations where you've had your ideas edited or rewritten when they didn't conveniently fit into somebody else's agenda. And then--when someone asks you about those ideas later--you can't even argue with them, because now your idea exists in that edited form.

"It's hard to remember how things actually happen anymore, because there's so much mind control and so many media agendas," he continues. "There's a line in that song that goes, 'My thoughts are misguided and a little naive.' That's the snarly look you get from an expert when they accuse you of being a conspiracy theorist. In America, they still use the 'conspiracy theorist' accusation as the ultimate condemnation. I've been reading this Gore Vidal book [Dreaming War], and I know Vidal is always accused of being a conspiracy theorist. But the evidence he uses is very similar to the evidence used by a lot of well-respected British historians. Yet they still call him crazy. To me, that's part of what 'Myxomatosis' is about--it's about wishing that all the people who tell you that you're crazy were actually right. That would make life so much easier."


"Scatterbrain" :
...Yesterday's headlines blown by the wind
Yesterday's people end up scatterbrain
Any fool can easily pick a hole (I only wish I could fall in)