Reviews for Idioteque Lyrics

i believe this song is more about climate change and the worlds elite letting us believe that things arent as bad as they really are and that there is an ice age coming, global warming is more likely to cause an ice age than to burn the earth up, ice core drilling has shown us there was a huge build up of co2 before previous ice ages. these people (elites-heads of corporation the richest of the rich making up less than 1% of the globes popultation) are continuing to strive for profit organizing wars for resources and having us and the automated factories be the workforce for attaining these resources (mobiles quirking mobiles chirping) as they build bunkers to ensure the survival of their families/bloodlines. (take the money and run). the majority of the world when disaster strikes will be left without the resources or infrastructure to survive it (throw them in the fire)
-this guy has an understanding of this-
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Simple Exclaimation | Reviewer: Jimmeh | 11/24/09
-------------------------------------------------- just andering, wtf does an ice age have to do with titanic, he'd have said iceburg and wouldnt it have been throw them in the sea or the water........and as far as ww2 and the hollacaust wtf does it have to do with them aside from bunkers and mobiles being military related, ppl stop trying to be so artsy interpeting things trying to be creative and see things for what they are this is a very clear message relayed in this song and people are so daft to the real workings of human nature they dont even see it when its put right under their nose. absolute power corrupts absolutely and corporations have more power than governments right now as due to the fact they have more money in a world driven by money, that means money=power and ppl with power do not like to share you tell me of one monarch etc who did things of good will, not it was always driven by greed

I agree with Kristin.

Also the song is ambiguous for a reason, it's all up to interpretation.

By having the lyrics not be extremely explicit in their meaning, he is making the song have universal meaning i.e.)911,holocaust, ww2, nuclear warfare, and even the titanic.
Depending on who's listening to the song, it can call on different events to relate to.

this song is amazing in that it doesn't specifically call to one past, present or imminent event or living hell but speaks to all of them. i don't feel there's a need to pinpoint one specific happening. in beautiful, simple words, the song portrays politics, war, family values, technology, earth, the mind and the overconsumption of all of it and exposes what a creative voice most authentically seeks - truth.

You tools, its not about a specific event. Its about man's self destructive and violent nature and how we are doomed to destroy ourselves. We just take what we want and stuff everyone else, stuff the women and children I want my big house, I want power, I want a giant TV and a swimming pool etc.

War, global warming, poverty. it is all driven by our own greed and desire for more. Then the second part is about how people seem to be oblivious, distracted by mobile phones and technology combined with our own self indulgence.

In no way is this song about the titanic

I for one doubt the song is a prediction for the 00s, even though some of the lyrics may scarily depict events since the song was written. It is alot more likely that it is based on the past, "Whos in a bunker?" Could be a reference to either world wars, most like WW2, with the blitzkrieg and all. "Women and children first" definetly referencing the Titanic.

also, @Prophetic, are you saying theres something wrong with electing a black guy?

This song to me is simply a narration of the movie Titanic mixed with the Artists' own thoughts and blurbs of splendor.

Who's in bunker?- Trouble ahead, taking a head count.

Women and children first- Well now come on. Typical tragedy. Not to mention an direct quote from the movie.

I haven't seen enough, you haven't seen enough- Jack determining whether or not he goes on the cruise.

I laugh until my head comes off. Here I'm allowed, everything all the time.- Jack is having a merry 'ole time aboard ship! He's living the luxury life, if only for a moment.

Ice age coming- Ahem. Ice+ship=epic failure.

Let me hear both sides- Jack sways Rose from her fiance thinger boyfriend, whatevs, and makes her his Goddess. WhatsHisNuts gets pissed and everyone is hostile and enraged.

Throw me in the Fire- Well at this point Jacky Boy's got the verdict of death and they've thrown him in the furnace room to drown. I would like to point out that the juxtaposition between fire and drowning is really brilliant.

We're not scaremongering, this is really happening- Everyone is coming to terms that yes, lives will be lost. -bows head and does sign of the cross-

Mobiles working, mobiles chirping. Take the money and run.- This is the part where all of the life rafts are being utilized and all the rich assholes have managed to shove off first. Captains and greedy crew members are feuding about other matters of life and wealth.

The first of the children.- If anything, this could mean that the first of the children to make it out and survive were the ones to tell the story of the Titanic

So, that's my personal interpretation. A heap of peeps think its about global warming and all that jazz, but this song was released in 2000, years before global warming was even a legit theory. I probs have just sat around wayyyy too long listening to this song and deciphering lyrics, needing a narrative to put them to. But I think its pretty trucking solid, yeah?

The Pitchfork.com rundown of the best songs of the 00s got me thinking about Radiohead's Idioteque. Not to assign any great clairvoyance to Thom Yorke, especially concerning a song written in 2000, but have you actually read those lyrics lately? Could anything have summed up this decade more accurately?

References to bunkers: terrorist attacks, anthrax, Cheney, Sars, Swine flu, etc.
Ice age coming: the age of Bush; the age of truthiness; the realization we'd have to face a new dark ages in our lifetime
Let me hear both sides: the corporate media chatterhouse/clusterfuck.
We're not scare mongering: obvious.
Mobiles chirping: written before most people had cell phones.
Take the money and run: the corporate/wall street culture that brought us to the great recession.

But more than all of those lines, the lines in particular that strike me are: "This is really happening/Happening" That would be such a solid epitaph for the 00s. It sums up the most common emotion I know I felt over and over again over the past decade for various reasons. It calls to mind everything from the horror of watching the towers fall with your own eyes, to the Iraq war taking place against all reason, to Katrina begging to world to believe what was really going on there to not being able to believe we actually elected the black guy.

I think Idioteque not only sums up a lot of the mood of the 00s, but it eerily nails a lot of the details of the decade before they even happened. Imagine being able to go back and time and tell the you of 10 years ago some of the things that were in store for the world. Would you have believed you?

Uhm, I just wanted to say that it's not "here I'm allowed/everything all the time" it's "here I'm alive/ it's a matter of time" at least that's the way I hear it in the song, which changes the whole meaning of the phrase.

The people arguing this song is about the Holocaust, I think more likely it's about a future nuclear war. "Who's in the bunker" I don't normally post on these but that annoyed me a bit. You'll be saying that Creep's about a guy with no legs next.

Mobiles kwirking...we're not scaremongering etc
The artwork with the nuke on America.

I think the reason so many of us are seeing this song as a holocaust reference is that the holocaust is a terrible but well known part of history which everyone is taught about in school. I can't pretend to be inside thom yorke's mind and know what he was thinking when he wrote this song, but i believe this song is broader than the holocaust. Yes, the horror and confusion of the holocaust well fits these lyrics, but we shouldn't allow ourselves to be confined to that one possibility. To me, this is a song about widespread fear of an unstoppable force to which the only end is either death or an attempt to run from said force.

It makes sense to me that the song is about the holocaust and concentration camps. Women and children were the first to go into the gas chambers (ill laugh until my head comes off, ill swallow till i burst) is about the gas chambers. Ice age coming (they've said that the ashes from those chambers would come out from the top and it would look like snow falling on the ground, there's a very good movie i can't remember the name of that references the snow fact) and they lived in bunkers in the camps. now as for the mobiles chirping and quirking? unless he meant to write walkie talkies but couldnt find a rhyme, then that would be the only marker to indicate its not about the concentration camps as there were no cell phones back then. lol But thats what makes sense to me!!

The first thing that popped into my head when I read these lyrics: Holocaust. The first line just gives it away and all of the other ones reinforce it. I could be wrong, but I think this song is pretty straightforward. It's great that an artist as great as Radiohead tackled such a strong subject. I think they executed very well.

to me it seems like the song is just speaking about the panic in our society, but also the hypocrisy surrounding it. All of the women and children first, take the money and run, seem to be suggesting imminent disaster. it seems yorke hops on the environmental topic, but in relation to the use of scaremongering tactics. "let me hear both sides" seems to be a plea for the world to calm down and actually solve their problems. The chorus shows the hypocrisy in our lives, because regardless of how we always talk about going green and saving the world, we still rejoice in excess. "everything all of the time"

Your LYrics Are incorrect, for one. Here, im ALIVE
ITs a Dub Scaffold For a game called THE,
Designed as a rythm mix for Jimy Hendrix's Star spangled Banner Live at woodstock, and The end is Crossreferenced To the Super bowl Shuffle, while the begining requires a patriot missle advertisment, and a coffe from Carly Simons 'YOUR SO VAIN', among other things. When Its Finished It Assimilates Closed Caption Code On Every Movie Ever. Its an A.I. resultant of radioheads access to the useless film database of reccurent event cycles in movies owned by the people who pay them. Its a comment on The Cars 'im in touch with your world'.Its a fake on Van Halen's 'Women and children first' which is acctually a test of MORALITY/Manhood: Put Women and Children first
(unless you think negativly, or it reacts negativly)and Steve Miller, ('money' and 'run' being two pinkfloyd songs with useable sound effects)And The first Girl Had it Right, in fact this position in fight club discusses titanic (you havnt seen it) Play it to the movie and you won't wonder what the name means.

The first time i heard this song, i immediately thought of the movie Titanic. 'Women and children first' because those where the first allowed on the life boats. 'Ice age coming' reminds me of the iceberg. 'Throw them in the fire' reminds me of the workers shoveling the coal into the burners so they could turn the boat away faster. 'Take the money and run' reminds me of when Rose's fiance goes to the safe to get all the money and the necklace..

haha i know its a dumb idea but thats just what i thought :)