1000 SONGS - DAY 103: SONG # 133

Day 133: A song about a nightmare

I call this "a song about a nightmare" with some irony; the "nightmare-theory" seems to be Slavoj Žižek's interpretation of the video to the song. The song is Karma Police by Radiohead. It is from 1997 and when I first heard it, I immediately understood what the fuzz about this band was all about. Simply one of the very great songs of the last decades, methinks.

Here is the video and there are the lyrics:

Karma police, arrest this man
He talks in maths
He buzzes like a fridge
He's like a detuned radio

Karma police, arrest this girl
Her Hitler hairdo is
Making me feel ill
And we have crashed her party

This is what you get
This is what you get
This is what you get when you mess with us

Karma police
I've given all I can
It's not enough
I've given all I can
But we're still on the payroll

This is what you get
This is what you get
This is what you get when you mess with us

And for a minute there, I lost myself, I lost myself
Phew, for a minute there, I lost myself, I lost myself

For for a minute there, I lost myself, I lost myself
Phew, for a minute there, I lost myself, I lost myself

Here is Slavoy Žižek explaining the song, the nightmares and the movies (in less tha 3 minutes)



And finally, here is a live version from Letterman's