Radiohead: Idioteque, 2+2=5, Electioneering, Fake Plastic Trees and Planet Telex

Christopher Waugh on 18th September 2019

Fake Plastic Trees:

A green plastic watering can
For a fake Chinese rubber plant
In the fake plastic earth
That she bought from a rubber man
In a town full of rubber plans
To get rid of itself
 
It wears her out
It wears her out
It wears her out
It wears her out
 
She lives with a broken man
A cracked polystyrene man
Who just crumbles and burns
He used to do surgery
For girls in the eighties
But gravity always wins
 
And it wears him out
It wears him out
It wears him out
Wears him out
 
She looks like the real thing
She tastes like the real thing
My fake plastic love
But I can’t help the feeling
I could blow through the ceiling
If I just turn and run
 
And it wears me out
It wears me out
It wears me out
It wears me out
 
And if I could be who you wanted
If I could be who you wanted
All the time
All the time
 
 
Idioteque:
 
Who’s in bunker, who’s in bunker?
Women and children first
Women and children first
Women and children
I’ll laugh until my head comes off
I swallow till I burst
Until I burst
Until I..Who’s in bunker, who’s in bunker
I’ve seen too much
I haven’t seen enough
You haven’t seen enough
I’ll laugh until my head comes off
Women and children first
And children first
And children..Here I’m allowed, everything all of the time
Here I’m allowed, everything all of the timeIce age coming, ice age coming
Let me hear both sides
Let me hear both sides
Let me hear both..Ice age coming, ice age coming
Throw me in the fire
Throw me in the fire
Throw me in the..We’re not scaremongering
This is really happening, happening
We’re not scaremongering
This is really happening, happening

 

Mobiles working
Mobiles chirping
Take the money and run
Take the money and run
Take the money..

Here I’m allowed, everything all of the time
Background:
The first of the children

 

2 + 2 = 5
 
Are you such a dreamer
To put the world to rights?
I’ll stay home forever
Where two and two always makes up five
I’ll lay down the tracks
Sandbag and hide
January has April’s showers
And two and two always makes up five
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
Payin’ attention
Payin’ attention
Payin’ attention
Payin’ attention
You have not been
Payin’ attention
Payin’ attention
Payin’ attention
Payin’ attention
You have not been
Payin’ attention
Payin’ attention
Payin’ attention
Payin’ attention
You have not been
Payin’ attention
Payin’ attention
Payin’ attention
Payin’ attentionOhI try to sing along
I get it all wrong
‘Cause I’m not
‘Cause I’m not
I swat em like flies
But like flies the buggers keep coming back
But I’m not
Oh hail to the thief
Oh hail to the thief
But I’m not
But I’m not
But I’m not
But I’m not

 

Don’t question my authority or put me in the dock
‘Cause I’m not
‘Cause I’m not
Oh, go and tell the king that the sky is falling in
When it’s not
When it’s not
When it’s not
Maybe not
Maybe not

 

Electioneering

I will stop
I will stop at nothing
Say the right things
When electioneering
I trust I can rely on your vote
When I go forwards you go backwards and somewhere we will meet
Riot shields
Voodoo economics
It’s just business
Cattle prods and the IMF
I trust I can rely on your vote
When I go forwards you go backwards and somewhere we will meetPlanet Telex

 

You can force it but it will not come
You can taste it but it will not form
You can crush it but it’s always here
You can crush it but it’s always near
Chasing you home saying
Everything is broken
Everyone is brokenYou can force it but it will stay stung
You can crush it as dry as a bone
You can walk it home straight from school
You can kiss it, you can break all the rules
But still…
Everything is broken
Everyone is brokenEveryone is, everyone is broken
Everyone is, everything is brokenWhy can’t you forget?
Why can’t you forget?
Why can’t you forget?

Planet Telex

[Verse 1]
You can force it but it will not come
You can taste it but it will not form
You can crush it but it’s always here
You can crush it but it’s always near
Chasing you home
Saying

[Chorus]
Everything is broken
Everyone is broken

[Verse 2]
You can force it but it will stay stung
You can crush it as dry as a bone
You can walk it home straight from school
You can kiss it, you can break all the rules
All of the rules
But still

[Chorus]
Everything is broken
Everyone is broken
Everyone is, everyone is broken
Everyone is, everything is broken

[Outro]
Why can’t you forget?
Why can’t we forget?
Why can’t you forget?

Posted by Christopher Waugh

“Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth.” (Katherine Mansfield)

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