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Message 359: Talking Machines

In R.E.M.’s World Leader Pretend, Stipe sings:

Reach out for me and hold me tight
Hold that memory, let my machine talk to me
Let my machine talk to me

In The Axe, Yorke sings:

Goddamned machinery
Why don’t you speak to me?
One day I am gonna take an axe to you

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Message 337: I Froze Up

[unclear / out of order]

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Message 358: You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry

The title of Thom Yorke’s 2014 song, Youwouldn’tlikemewhenI’mangry (also stylized as YouWouldn’tLikeMeWhenI’mAngry) is a phrase often said by the Hulk in The Incredible Hulk TV series. Wikipedia claims that the series introduced the catchphrase and it did not originate in the comics.

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Message 357: Anapodoton

In His Rope, Thom Yorke sings:

Here’s the tiny piece of you I save
Just enough rope

https://genius.com/Burial-four-tet-and-thom-yorke-his-rope-lyrics

The phrase, “just enough rope” is a shortening of, “give him/her just enough rope to hang himself/herself.” Giving a person, “just enough rope” in this way means setting them up for failure. In the song, the person being setup for failure

In rhetoric, truncating a commonly known phrase in this manner is called anapodoton.

And using common phrases in this way is something Yorke has a history of doing, as I’ve tried to document.

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Message 356: Seasonal Greetings

Earlier today, Radiohead released seasonal greetings cards via the Radiohead Public Library.

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Uncategorized

Message 355: Boxing Gloves

In the video for “A Brain In A Bottle,” Thom Yorke appears wearing boxing gloves:

Screen Shot 2014-09-26 at 7.33.10 PM

From a 1995 Rolling Stone article entitled Radiohead Transform Emotional Turmoil Into Kinetic Pop:

His father sold chemical-engineering equipment and was a champion university boxer. “One of the first things he ever bought me was a pair of boxing gloves,” says Yorke. “He used to try to teach me to box, but whenever he hit me, I’d fall flat on my ass.” When Yorke was 8, his family moved to Oxford. At 10 he formed his first band, and two years later he wound up at a boys boarding school near Abingdon, England, where he spent several of his most unhappy years. He had few friends, fought frequently and, despite his formative training, usually lost boxing matches.

Colin Greenwood, in an interview with The Word magazine (now defunct, article mirrored here), said Thom Yorke’s “bobbly head thing” while dancing is “a hangover from the days when Thom’s father taught him how to box. ‘Thom’s got really broad shoulders,’ says Colin. ‘When you see them go down, boxer-style, that means he’s really enjoying it.'”

[edit Jan 2, 2021 to correct link to citizeninsane.eu]

Categories
pettifogging

Message 354: We Haven’t Forgotten About You

Categories
pettifogging

Message 353: Embed Amok

Categories
lyrics

Message 352: Atoms for Peace “Default”

It slipped my mind.
And for a time.
I felt completely free.

Oh what a troubled silent poor boy.
A pawn into a queen.

I laugh now.
But later’s not so easy.
I’ve got to stop.
The will is strong.
But the flesh is weak.
Guess that’s it.
I’ve made my bed.
And lie in it.

I’m still hanging on.
Bird upon the wire.
I fall between the waves.
I avoid your gaze.
I turn out of phase.
A pawn into a queen.

I laugh now.
But later’s not so easy.
I’ve got to stop.
The will is strong.
But the flesh is weak.
Guess that’s it.
I’ve made my bed,
And lie in it.

But it’s eating me up.
It’s eating me up.
It’s eating me up. (If I could free/feel … )
It’s eating me up. (If I could free/feel … )
It’s eating me up. (If I could free/feel … )

Categories
lyrics

Message 351: Staircase

Walk down the staircase,
Magnetic pull.
Back to the other place.
Where I cannot go.
Sending a chopper.
To steal you away.
My pot is full.
Let me take control.
Let me take control.
My pot is full.
With secrets to be told.
Secrets to be told.
I am always.
And always will.
My pot is full.
Let me take control.
Let me take control.
My pot is full.
With secrets to be told.
Secrets to be told.