TSR Radiohead Society : Fake plastic thread
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(Original post by Phonicsdude)
Black Star
i get home from work and you're still standing in your dressing gown
well what am i to do?
i know all the things around your head and what they do to you.
what are we coming to?
what are we gonna do?
blame it on the black star
blame it on the falling sky
blame it on the satellite that beams me home.
the troubled words of a troubled mind i try to understand what is eating you.
i try to stay awake but its 58hours since that i last slept with you.
what are we coming to?
i just don't know anymore.
i get on the train and i just stand about now that i don't think of you.
i keep falling over i keep passing out when i see a face like you.
what am i coming to?
i'm gonna melt down
Why? This is killing me
Why? This is killing me
My interpretation (Verse by verse)
Woman at home all day with "things around her head": sounds like depression or drugs. Thom's partner has some sort of problem anyway which needs treatment. The last two lines show that the relationship is failing but Thom doesn't know how to fix it.
The chorus is the most difficult bit - help needed. I will not hide away from the challenge! The black star is something big but invisible - the cause of the breakdown? The falling sky sounds apocalyptic. why is he blaming it though? Is the the sattelite that revolves around this woman? Blame it, therefore, on his blind love for you: perhaps he feels he is stupid for standing by her. If that is correct, why would the sattelite beam him home? There is a general theme of 'the heavens' and extra terrestrial things: "sattelite", "black star", "sky". Perhaps this signals a lack of control over the situation.
In the second verse he is trying to make an effort to find out "what's eating you", and answer the question posed at the end of the first verse. Perhaps Thom's touring with radiohead is part of the problem: "It's 58 hrs since that I last slept with you." He is still desperate to find out what the future holds for them: he is clueless as to what the future holds.
The third verse is the most sentimental. The relationship has ended. It is the most simple part of the song. It is not longer "we", but "What am I coming to?" He is "gonna melt down". He wishes he was stillwith her, even though he realises the situation is untenable.
If anyone can clarify bits I didnt understand (chorus), thinks I got it wrong or would like to add anything, feel free to do so.
Once discussion on this has died down, then someone else can do another song of your choice, saying ANYTHING about it: explanation of lyrics, background of song etc.
Oh, and Ed is the sexiest!
OK, OK, I've promised myself that I wasn't coming on again today, but I've just been listening to this song and it got my mind thinking.
Right, well, I think the verses are pretty much self-explanatory. Martial/relationship issues. The writer has no idea what it is that's "eating" her - or more specifically their relationship - and is suffering angst as a result. Although, I may just be being pendantic here, but in the first verse he says he "knows" all the things around his partners head and what they do to her - which indicates that he does know whats wrong. Maybe he just doesn't know how to fix it? Or maybe what he "knows" is something merely more general, as in that she/they have issues. It's probably the latter in my opinion.
It is the chorus that is the killer - becuase on first glance it doesn't seem to make much sense. It could just mean "For God's sake, blame it on anything, lets just fix our problems". However, as Phonicsdude says, the references are all of a extra-terrestrial nature - which is obviously intentional and leads me to think that the imagery has a slightly deeper meaning than just "blame it on something - I don't care what". My own rather brief, taking-a-break-from-revision interpretation relies on the fact that everything he references in the chorus are actually things that don't exist - but in the same breath they are things that have a psuedo-existence outside of reality (for want of a better phrase) attached to them. For example, black stars do not exist. However, black stars are often reference in sci-fi movies and literature for an array of reasons. Secondly, the skies falling is a very apocalyptic, biblical notion which I am sure has been referenced as a possibility of actually happening in some religious material - but once again it obviously can't actually happen. Thirdly there's the sattellite to beam the writer up. Of course its psuedo-existence is in sci-fi litereture again ("beam me up Scotty", et al) - but once again it has no real existence (at the moment
).
So therefore I'd say that the writer is saying that he's so anxious about the problems they're having that he is quite willing to not really tackle the problems head on - he's willing to lay the blame on things which may or may not have happened; thing's that neither of them understand. And what is there that man knows less about than the skies and beyond (OK, so we supposedly know less about our oceans than space, but "blame it on the Giant Squid" doesnt quite have the same ring to it)?! I think the importance in the final line of the chorus, the idea of the writer being "beamed home" is simply a way of making the reconcilliation seem a bit closer, more of a reality - the idea that he will be brought closer to his troubled partner.
Fin. -
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(Original post by Phonicsdude)
Brilliant *in awe smily*
"this thread is guaranteed coolness now [Kingslaw] is here!"
I'm sure some English student is gonna come in here and tell me I'm an idiot
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I didn't just spend my years of GCSE English bullying the fat kid y'know...
...oh wait, I was the fat kid
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I saw a photo of you on some random thread and you looked both surprisingly normal and not fat. Hmm...
I study Eng lit for A-level. Im not very good. I enjoy discussing it, but cant do the exams for s***. That is my one big worry about law...similar skills needed?! Ah!
"True poetry communicates before it is understood!" T.S.Eliot
Which brings us back to Black Star...! -
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Oh, I was a fat child. Don't worry about that. That's the source of all my bitterness and sarcasm. I'm biting back at the world that treated me so cruelly(Original post by Phonicsdude)
I saw a photo of you on some random thread and you looked both surprisingly normal and not fat. Hmm...
I study Eng lit for A-level. Im not very good. I enjoy discussing it, but cant do the exams for s***. That is my one big worry about law...similar skills needed?! Ah!
"True poetry communicates before it is understood!" T.S.Eliot
Which brings us back to Black Star...!.
Errmmm...I don't think you need similar skills for Law and Eng Lit. I never actualy did Eng Lit at A-level (one of my biggest regrets, mind you), nor was I any good at English GCSE and I've done alright so far. The only thing that may be helpful is the ability to read large amounts of text and understand them quickly. -
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No to be honest I looked a little bit like this when I read it:
I wouldn't have thought of that (the reasons behind the extra-terrestrial references). To be honest unless you go and ring up Thom himself you'll never know EXACTLY why he used those images but your interpretation was pretty damn good I thought. Definitely if you think of those weird things you get a good insight into how his mind might have felt at the problems he was having. -
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In response to your signature: Are we really sinking...this low_?
Also, for the last verse, when he is alone as they have separated, the music is empathetic to the lyrics. This is something Radiohead do brilliantly, and I have yet to hear a band come close to achieveing such synchronicity (is that even a word?).
Thom is alone and empty, and there is no guitar. Just sentimental voice, bass and drum. The contrast is amazing, and the deep instruments echo has feelings of emptiness. -
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http://www.audioscrobbler.com/user/elpollodiablo/
Woo! Evidently my favourites too. -
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Hey, was wondering if any of you had or have head this.
It's basically some of Radiohead's most awesome songs being done by a concert pianist who's a big fan. If you haven't heard it (or if you have) what do you think of the idea? Would be interesting I think. -
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i havn't heard it, but have you heard those crazy country covers that they always seem to play at the start of gigs.(Original post by englishstudent)
Hey, was wondering if any of you had or have head this.
It's basically some of Radiohead's most awesome songs being done by a concert pianist who's a big fan. If you haven't heard it (or if you have) what do you think of the idea? Would be interesting I think.
i really want to get hold of it as it cracks me up every time i hear karma police.
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I've never heard those. I have heard a ew Radiohead tracks by a jazz pianist called Brad Meldau. Although not as good as the radiohead songs they are interesting to listen to if you are a fan! Have a search for them!
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Don't think I've listened to anything but Radiohead today.
That's bad. Oh well.
If you could only listen to one Radiohead song ever again it would be....?
For me Black Star or Talk Show Host or Karma Police or ... omg
Ok, one and it'd probably be Black Star. But you know why? Kingslaw's interpretation has made me listen to it more than ever today and it's just so ****ing awesome. But if anyone made me only listen to one I'd not be a happy bunnito. -
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That was next on my list of erm.. one song. But I thought if I wrote too many it would look stupid! But yeah... that's amazing too (obviously).(Original post by 2 + 2 = 5)
And not Paranoid Android? Geez...
"From all the unborn chicken voices in my head..."
Explain that, why dont'cha?
).
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