The Meaning of The Bends by Radiohead

the bands radio head's first good album released in March 13th of 1995 it is the second studio album by radio head and it's considered by fans to be not only one of the best album of the '90s but one of the best albums of all time which is crazy because it's not even the best radio at album of the '90s in this video I'm going to go over every single track in this album the meanings and the beauty behind them and I'm going to talk about what exactly makes this album so good and why everyone loves it so much this album analysis is going to be a series that I'm going to try to continue consistently on this channel so make sure to subscribe because in the future I will talk not only about radio albums but also other albums that I think are perfect I wanted to start this series off with the BS because I'm really emotionally attached to it and also it's the first thing that got me into radio head so this is my best shot at explaining what makes me love this album so much and hopefully I can turn some of you guys into the Benz fans too before we get into the nerd stuff we have to talk about the history of this album and for this we have to go back to 1993 radio had just released this pretty underground song I don't know if you guys ever heard of it it's called creep wish now creep ended up becoming way more popular than the band ever expected and it launched the band into mainstream almost instantly the song has 1.5 billion streams on Spotify by now and it's still the band's biggest song but there are a couple problems with it creep was a massive hit not only in the UK but in the US too and it made possible for Pablo Honey to sell more than 1.5 million copies the thing is that Pablo Honey was not that good of an album and it sure wasn't as critically a claim bled as the band's later work everyone thought that radio head was going to be a one hit wonder the other issue is that Tom York not only didn't like Pablo honey but they also [ __ ] hated creep and with good reason because that song sucks ass and Americans love it for some reason even though Tom York hated creep everyone seemed to love it and it became the only song that everyone knew from the band but do you know who loved the song even more than the fans the label creep became one of the biggest songs of 1993 but after a couple of months it was starting to get played less and less in radio stations they needed a follow up head so they tried to push the band into making songs similar to creep so they could sell more records Tommy Ark and the crew not only needed to prove themselves critically but they also needed a follow up to the giant that creep was the band was under a lot of stress something that you can clearly see affected the album and they needed to deliver badly and deliver they did because the bands ended up selling more than 2 million copies worldwide and it got way better critical Acclaim than Pablo Honey they didn't get to reach with the same numbers as creep but they proved themselves as one of the most important bands of the '90s the album reached number four in UK charts but didn't do so well in us how it's often the case with good music the title of the album is named after an illness also known as decompression sickness which occurs when there is a rapid decrease in the air or water pressure surrounding the body causing Serious injury it describes the immense pressure that the band was feeling after the release of creep and how it completely change the world that surrounded them the album cover came from when Tommy orc and Dan rwood were filming random objects in a hospital they tried to film an iron lung because of the song but they realized that didn't look that great so so they ended up filming a CPR doll and then taking a picture of that from a TV screen the TV part was inspired by David Burns and Brian Eno's album aive in the bush of ghosts this was not the first time that the radio had got inspired by David burn as they literally took their name from a talken head song the album subject as described by Johnny are medical subjects what sort of subject matters then um you know can we expect on on the bands uh medical subjects things going on with the this is this is his interpretation yeah it's my favorite all it's just it's just kind of hospitals and and bodies and bones and illness and iron lungs and stuff like that the album was also produced by the incredible John ly who also produced the ston roses with the help of Nigel cartridge and Jim Warren nonetheless as we all know now the B ended up becoming a vital point for the band and it showed massive improvements both musically and lyrically now let's get into the songs we start off with a great opening song the love of my life Planet talex the original title for the song was meant to be Planet zeros but zeros was copyrighted so they had to change to Tex the song came about from experimenting with a drum l or a version of killer cards which was released on the just single this was the start of radio's experimentation with electronic sounds which would eventually evolve into their fourth studio album Kay to explain this song I once again invited my talken British person Greg from the mli channel who read a Tom York interview from 1995 did you or did you not as the intro to panic T Nick the middle a from Paul mccarney's Live and Let Die what you did didn't you no let's be very clear about where we Nick from we nicked Planet Tex from tago by can so [ __ ] off we're allas oh two Oscars two Oscars two Oscars some people think this is a love song which is not a bad Theory but the song opens with the words you can force it but it will not come you can taste it but it will not form Planet Alex talks about our planet Earth and how Humanity build a seemingly looking but in reality it's deeply flawed the song talks about a feeling that you can't escape you can crush it but it's always here you can crush it but it's always near this feeling can very well be love or sorrow after a heartbreak but looking into Tom's mental state at the time it was probably about and paranoia Tom talks about how everything is broken the world and his mental state are far from perfect he can never Escape these feelings however much he might try further explaining his feelings of depression by the end of the song he's screaming at himself and wondering why he can just forget and break loose from the [Music] Madness right off the bat with the album's first song we can see a huge improvement from Pablo Honey and it only gets better the next song is titled the BS and guess what crazy information here guys is the song that the album was named after as I said earlier the B is a sickness that happens to scuba divers when they get out of the water too fast and the air or water pressure arounds them changes instantly sometimes this sickness can even be fatal now this song SE the theme for the hall album and talks about what the band was feeling while recording it if Planet Alex talks about Tom's mental state then the band explains the situation he's in and why exactly he's feeling like this where do we go from here he's talking about the band not knowing what to do after this sudden success from creep they were never prepared for this the words are coming out all weird where are you now when I need you Tom's feeling uninspired he hates the work he did on Pablo Honey and he knows he needs to make something better despite this he still has no inspiration and the words aren't coming to him alone on an airplane falling asleep in the window plane the constant touring and concerts are just making everything worse I need to wash myself again to hide all the dirt and pain he I'd be scared that there's nothing underneath here is talking about his lyrics the communication and connection he has with his fans and the whole world he wants to be perfect and hide the dirt and pain that he's feeling he's afraid that after falling from the peak of the mountain that cre brought him to he's just going to fall into an empty void with nothing underneath now this is my interpretation of course there's this interview that I can't find right now so I might just be schizophrenic in this interview Tom talks about how in his early years he tried to hide his imperfections later realized that these imperfections are what made his fans connect so much with him they didn't want a perfect Tom they wanted the real him and who are my real friends have they all got the bands am I really sinking this low again the song talks about the band's sudden Fame not knowing who to trust and who their real friends are in the world of Fame nobody's real and especially in not people in the music industry is he really going to sing this low and become like everyone else who surrounded him after his Fame is he going to become what he hates the most and end up a clueless Rockstar with no connection to the real people and the real world the next lyrics further explain these feelings and how Tom just wishes to be happy but near the end he says I want to live breathe I want to be part of the human race maybe the fame isn't actually worth it but it goes deeper than that in a computer there's a song called subaran homean the song talks about how Tom feels emotionally detached from the rest of the world he feels like a spectator or an alien watching everyone live their lives and feeling like he doesn't belong there him talking about wanting to be part of the human race doesn't only talk about his life after radio has Fame but how he has felt his whole life he desperately wants to be normal but it just seems impossible after the bands we have high and dry I car's favorite song I think radio head's great I love high and dry that's my favorite song in this album I swear I'm not one of those people who just hate songs Just because they're popular this song is just all right it was put there to sell records and it did its job because it's now the band's fourth biggest song as I said earlier the band was being pushed hard by the label to make something that would sound they were under intense pressure godage would recall that they had a lot of material a lot of good songs and they were being pushed in a certain direction I think that maybe they didn't want to become the sort of pop band that the label would have them be people from the label would visit and it got very uncomfortable in my opinion high and dry is a good enough song but it just feels kind of uninspired for obvious reasons the song was originally written by Tom in the late ' 80s while he was still in school later in 1993 someone found the demo again and just remix it and put it on the album high and dry was one of the few radio head songs that wasn't recorded by the whole band together but instead each part was recorded separately and then remixed which probably just adds to the whole uninspired feeling Jonny said in an interview in 1995 that he felt like high and dry worked better as a single compared to Fake Plastic Trees see as far as I can remember the original lyrics were about some Looney gowells going out with but eventually they got mixed up with ideas about success and failure wait wait nonetheless the song Dives in deeper into Tom's world and the success of creep and is still an integral part of the album two jumps in a week I bet you think that's pretty clever don't you boy flying on your motorcycle watching all the ground beneath you drop talks about the success of creep and the reaction of the people to that song you'd kill yourself for recognition kill yourself to never ever stop this is what he's been wanting his whole life he' sacrific everything to be able to pursue his passion about music you broke another mirror you're turning into something you are not after after all the success you realize this is not what you wanted at least not like this Tom feels like he's changing who he is just to reach this so wanted Fame don't leave me high don't leave me dry he doesn't want to become the soless singer who caters to the market he doesn't want to end up like that he's talking to his future self and telling him the consequences of going for fame this desperately in a way he's both the people who hate him and Tom himself and both sides are disappointed in the soless record selling Tom it's the best thing you've ever had the best thing you have had is gone away after all of this he's still scared that everything will go wrong and he'll lose this once in a lifetime opportunity ironically the lyrics describe exactly what Tom felt about the song itself now he had to record this song just so he can get more sales hi and ey is what Tom himself is insulting on the lyrics of the song after that the band promised to not cater to the market or the label anymore and thankfully so because from that decision we got both okay computer and KDAY all right now we're getting to the good stuff fake plastic trays I told you I like popular songs Fake Plastic trads is one of the more unique songs in the album and also one of the best songs on it it sounds less grungy and it's calmer and slower paced it uses instruments like a violin a cello and an organ tune to make the sound way more complex than the rest of the album almost working like a hint for future albums like Okay computer and In Rainbows Tom had a really hard time recording the song and basically got angry at everyone during the recording process and after lots and lots of tries without any success him and the band want to see Jeff Buckley Live on tour Tom got really inspired by Jeff's powerful performance and it gave him the inspiration to sing in falsetta something that didn't only influence Fake Plastic Trees but the whole album right after Jeff's show the band went back to the studio and finally finished the song in an interview Johnny Greenwood said Tom played it in three takes then burst into tears afterwards the song talks about love in big quotation marks it doesn't talk about real love but a rather fake version of it this version of Love is more common that we might think it is and it's usually more common than true love itself the song acknowledges this with the very first lines her green plastic watering can for a fake Chinese rubber plant land it's the Fake Plastic Earth it's so hard to find true and genuine love in this earth when we're all surrounded by fake feelings nonetheless this is the exact world that surrounds our protagonist that she bought from a rubber band in a town full of rubber bands to get rid of itself they think they found love and they try their hardest to cling onto it without noticing that they're getting rid of their true selves she's at the most desperate point of her life and all of this is just wearing her out she lives with a broken man a crack full as tyan man who just crumbles and burns this shows us how the girl in the song sees partner a fake poce tyon man a mere copy of the man she once loved she has no feelings for him anymore but she still carries this relationship on because she still thinks she might fix it even if she doesn't it's better than being alone again then the song starts talking about the man in the relationship he used to do surgery for girls in the ' 80s but gravity always wins this part talks about plastic surgeries and other methods we use to hide not only our true physical self but our true Emotional Self as well whatever methods you may use eventually you'll have to face your true self you're just thring the inevitable AKA Gravity the man is also not happy in the relationship and the pretending only wears him out even more she looks like the real thing she tastes like the real thing My Fake Plastic love this is the closest thing he has to love and he doesn't want to let go of it in his head this is close enough he thinks that these feelings of sadness and Desperation will only get worse if he leaves this relationship but I can't help the feeling I could blow through the ceiling if I just turn and run he doesn't want to run even though he's clearly unhappy he just wishes he could be the perfect man for her if I could be who you wanted all the time this song is one of Tom's best work lyrically and it's easily one of the best songs of the album genuinely amazing with this next song we start talking about zon's medical subject bones sends us back to the Grand sound of the band and it fits the gr theme pretty well with Tom's lyrics about Prozac and pain KPS the song obviously talks about depression and the effect it has on him he wants to desperately Escape it but he just can't I don't want to be crippled and cracked crawling on all pors his depression hits him at his core and it completely changes the way of his life when you've got to feel it in your bones his feelings have changed who he is and he knows this he doesn't see the world or himself the same anymore and he's trying his hardest to escape this by using Prozac and painkillers now I can't climb the stairs he can't improve himself AKA climbed the stairs of mental stability the inability to climb the stairs also describes his daily urge to keep going and how it's fading away every day I used to fly like Peter Pan he misses his older self the days were his mental health was better and he actually enjoyed life and felt happiness but now it's too late his has changed everything about his life and who he is deep inside the only thing he can do now is think about the old days after that we get to another underrated song that I personally like a lot nice dream it's a simple song well simpler than some other songs of the band and it talks about the people who care about you in this context Tom is talking about his fans to be more exact the people who started following him after the release of cre they love me like I was a brother they protect me listen to me these people would go to hell and back for him they would follow him everywhere but not really that's just a dream an unachievable reality he's basically saying to himself yeah that's a nice dream but it's not real the song doesn't only talk about his fans but the people who surround him at this point of his life do any of these people actually care about him I call up my friend the good Angel she says she'd love to come help with the seal electrocute as all these perfect friends of his who first seem like Angels aren't there when he needs them the most they make up some ridiculous excuses just to not show up how could he be so stupid and actually believe them this is obviously just a dream and he's feeding into his Illusions after this he tells himself to come home to come back to reality actually look at the people who surround him for who they are yeah that was a nice dream but it's not the real world this song was written pre Pablo Honey days along with high and dry and also the guitar part after he says nice dream is so nice talking about nice guitars we have the next song a fan favorite among the community the one and only just the famous music video of this track along with the amazing guitar and lyrics have made just one of the most iconic songs of the band now there's a lot of interpretations of the lyrics to the song along with a music video I'm going to try to give my own interpretation and explain what this song makes me feel going off the music video and some of the lyrics this song has a lot of religious themes the music video follows this man who after getting baptized goes and lies on the floor and refuses to get up a group of people around him 12 to be exact and want to know what he's doing at the end of the video he says something to them the video doesn't subtitle it but right after that everyone else lies on the floor this is not the only time Thomas talked about religion in his songs in nude he says the words you'll go to hell for what your dirty mind is thinking Tom grew up in England a predominantly Christian country and he sees the religion in an interesting way in my opinion the song talks about the Catholic Church their ideas of Life they try to convert everyone and teach them how to live their lives whatever you do you can't escape them one day he'll get to you and teach you how to be a holy cow the church is going to get to you and teach you what you should and should not do the lyrics also talk about the mistakes you've made in your life and the guilt you feel from them can't get the stink of it's been hanging around for days you do it to yourself you do and that's what really hurts this Guild haunts you and however much you might try you can never Escape it these mistakes tie back to religion and how they teach you about how you can never Escape your sins unless you repent to God don't get my sympathy hanging out the 15 floor you've changed the luck three times I still come reeling through the door one day I'll get to you and teach you how to get to purest hell Christianity or any religion for that matter have no sympathy for you unless you're part of their beliefs they teach you that your sins will chase you and send you to the purest hell they warned you about this hell and because you didn't repent all the bad things that happened in your life are all your fault they did this to yourself yeah yeah you do it to yourself yes yes you these lyrics can also be talken but you taking control of your own life and not listening to religion another interpretation is the theme of De and self-destruction and how you do it all to yourself and that's what hurts the most probably Tom's best work on the whole album lyric wise and the music matches it perfectly with his next song we're back to talking about creep if other songs were talking about their success and their life after creeps release my iron lung talks specifically about creep also the instrumentals of this song were recorded live in the London aoria in May 1994 only Tom's voice was re recorded and put on the song later the song uses this method that they got from the pixes where it builds up tension and then it just explodes something that they use in a lot of songs in this album but it's the clearest here now how is this song about creep well it talks about an iron lung a fake lung which at the end of the day it's still a lung that you can't live without it that's how Tom sees their biggest song Creep the band desperately needs it and it's what kept the band alive they can't get rid of it it at the same time creep is not who they truly are it's a fake version of radio head created to sell records and the band absolutely hates it but they don't have a choice we're too young to fall asleep too cynical to speak we are losing can't you tell creep was released really early in their career and the band did not have the option of not including it in the album because they needed the sales they're too cynical to speak still they make it clear that they absolutely hate it and they're losing their mind because people keep telling them to play it how can they not tell this is a fake version of them an iron lung this this is our new song just like the last one total waste of time my iron lung it is very clear that this difficult position they were in affected this album a lot but even though most of the listeners will probably never be in this position you can still relate and sympathize with Tom we know how it feels to just get thrown in a completely new life and having no idea what you should or should not do after IR L we have one of the more melancholic and darker songs of the album bulletproof I wish I was right from the title the song is pretty self-explanatory it talks about how you feel after a breakup or after you've gotten your heartbroken it goes into detail about the pain he's feeling limp by limb and Toth by tooth steering up inside me every day every hour this pain obviously isn't physical but it could well be at this point he just wishes he didn't hurt this much he wishes he never loved her so much because it would be easier to get over her I wish that I was bulletproof another song that is big on Tik Tok is Black Star the album's 10th song this is another favorite of mine and for some reason I always mix it up with just even though they barely sound alike before we get to the lyrics I want to show you guys this amazing comment I found while searching for the song to all radio head fans next time you listen to that song please notice how the lyrics I keep falling over I keep passing out when I see a face like you are so full of emotion that when they are heard and noticed Tom's voice makes everyone everything else fall away I mean I love radio head but this the Ben CD is is like the one I like the least but I still listen to the song only for when he sings those two sentences I consider to me like a a small orgasm that's what music does to me she's so real for that not going to lie Jokes Aside the song gives a different perspective to mental illness it talks about a guy who's on a relationship with a non-mentally stable girl and how this affect in their relationship 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 then what they do to you what are we coming to what are we going to do you see the relationship from the perspective of both the girl and the boy they want to make this work but it's impossible and sadly there's no one to blame for this you're better off blaming it on the stars and the satellites at the same time it might be coming from the girl in this situation she feels like she's using her depression as a poor and ridiculous excuse this way of thinking only makes everything worse the troubled words of a troubled mind I try to understand what is eating you I try to stay awake but it's 58 hours since that I last slept with you he's trying hard to understand her there's nothing he can do it's been 58 hours since he slept with her and eventually it's going to be forever 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 he's lost her the relationship is over and this heartbreak is ruining him completely he doesn't know what to do or think about when he doesn't have her another interpretation of the song is that he lost his girlfriend to drug or alcohol abuse and how he couldn't stop her unavoidable death nonetheless the lyrics go from what are we coming to to what am I coming to he's alone now and it's killing him he'll do anything to get her back but she's gone forever an emotional roller coaster of a song and it perfectly showcases Tom's wonderful storytelling and how well he can convey his emotions through his lyrics after that we have the song with the least streams on the album sulk funnily enough this was meant to be one of the singles at first but luckily they changed their mind the song was written as a response to the hung for massacre in 1987 the original lyrics were just shoot your gun they were later changed after Kurt cabin's death sulk talks about generational depression and the day-to-day fight with it you bite through the big wall the big wall bites back you sit there and Sul sit there and ball the is this big wall that you constantly try to fight but it's difficult it sucks all your motivation out of you and the only thing you can do is just sit there and cry God Rest Your stall when the loving comes and we've already gone just like your dad you'll never change even when the chance to find love comes to you you're not in the right head space for it and you can't get it it's too late and you're going to become an emotionless shell of a man just like your dad sometimes you sulk sometimes you burn that's all you can do at this point it looks like the de has won you're almost like the captain of a destroyed ship and the only two options are drowning or burning it is over Tom's voice here is pretty different from the other songs on the album and I think the lyrics are well thought out it's a shame neither the fans or the band seem to like it okay the final song of the album is Street spirit Fade Out and what an ending to the whole thing oh my God Street spirit is our purest song but I didn't write it it wrote itself we were just its Messengers it's a biological catalyst its core is a complete mystery to me and you know I would ever try to write something that hopeless all of our SAA songs have somewhere in them at least a glimmer of resolve Street Spirit has no resolve it is the dark tunnel without the light at the end it represents all tragic emotion that is so hurtful that the sound of that Melody is its only definition we all have a way of dealing with that song it's called Detachment especially me I detached my emotional radar from that song Or I couldn't play it I'd crack I'd break down on stage that's why its lyrics are just a bunch of mini stories or visual images as opposed to a cohesive explanation of its meaning I use images set to the music that I thought would convey the emotional entirety of the lyric and music working together that's what's meant by all these things are ment was full a hall I meant the emotional entirety because I didn't have it in me to articulate the emotion I crack our fans are braver than I to let that song penetrate them or maybe they don't realize what they're listening to they don't realize that street spirit is about staring the [ __ ] devil right in the eyes and knowing no matter what the hell you do he'll get the last laugh and it's real and true the devil really will get the last laugh in all cases without exception and if I let myself think about that too long I'd crack I can't believe we have fans that can deal emotionally with that song that's why I'm convinced that they don't know what it's about it's why we play towards the end of our sets it drains me me and it shakes me and hurts like hell every time I play it looking up at thousands of people cheering and smiling oblivious to the tragedy of its meaning like when you're going to have your dog put down and it's whacking its tail on the way there that's what they all look like and it breaks my heart I wish that song hadn't picked us as its Catalyst and so I don't claim it it asks too much I didn't write that song right from the beginning the song sounds nothing like any other song on the album that beautiful piano in the intro that starts slowly combining with Tom's voice and the other instrument it just sounds like it comes from out of this world the song is about life and death battling with the devil while knowing that in the end you're going to lose there is no hope this is the end and it's fitting that this is the end of the album as well Tom's fascination with life and death is something beautiful that gu explored even further on in rainbows for this album there couldn't have been a better way to end it anyways I was going to talk about the influences of this album at the end of this video but um you know I think the most important thing that the bands did is put radio head on the right path for what they're about to create in the future it's truly a great album and sometimes it doesn't get the love it deserves from radio ad fans let me know what you guys think of the album in the comments I'm going to cover other radio head albums in the future so make sure to subscribe also check out my patreon because I need money for camera [ __ ]

Channel: Krysis

Views: 21,350

Keywords: radiohead, the bends, ok computer, creep, in rainbows, kid a, live, 1995, explained, video essay, analysis, thom yorke, planet telex, high and dry, fake plastic trees, meaning, bones, nice dream, just, my iron lung, bullet proof...i wish i was, black star, sulk, street spirit, fade out, tik tok, johnny greenwood, reaction, interview, pablo honey, krysis

Id: rX6m5M4T28g

Length: 26min 44sec (1604 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 30 2024