Lift (Live, La Cigale '96) - Radiohead

Live @ La Cigale, Paris 1996.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• radiohead
• lift
• thom
• jonny
• ed
• colin
• phil

[victoryrose7]

"Eeeeeeeeeeddddd!"

[pogoleetas]

ed vocals in most of their songs is him saying "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeddddddd"

[turricaned]

@shelbythomas Er, of the five senses, smell is the one that tends to trigger the strongest and most vivid memories, and "a face you barely loved" is a poetic way of saying that genuine help can even come from those you don't know so well. If there's ever a day when 'head fans are saying that there's only One True Meaning to Thom's frequently abstract and opaque lyrics, in the words of Daffy Duck I'll demand that you shoot me now. :)

[shelbythomas]

@turricaned furthermore, "the smell of recognition" doesn't make any sense. Seriously. And "a face you barely loved" also makes no sense. Just trying to help you get to The Next Level, buddy.

[shelbythomas]

@turricaned Not to get involved in a nerdy discussion like this one, but....ruigan is right. It's "air conditioning" and "fish are belly up." I used to think the way you do, turricaned.....but.....that was when I was young and stupid.

[turricaned]

@kwizzeh Of course - what I think could be awesome doesn't mean that I think it's likely to happen, nor does it mean I'd think any less of them if they didn't! :)

[kwizzeh]

@turricaned Radiohead themselves can still sound like the Bends, if they wanted too. But they don't want to. If anything, the 2002 version of Lift would probably be the basis and showed they didn't completely abandoned it (at the time, Ed has mentioned that they recorded a version during HTTT-sessions). Who knows what they would do with it now. Would it get the TKOL-style treatment (Mr Magpie-like) or would it be as straight forward as how Nude was presented on In Rainbows.

[turricaned]

@ruigan Happy to agree to disagree on the precise wording - it's just of the four or five versions I've heard (yes, I was more than a little obsessed with this song in '99-2000!), the "recognition" interpretation sounds closest to me - it'd be a funny world if we were all alike after all!

[ruigan]

@turricaned i agree with your interpretation, but i feel like there's more to it. i've always took the song's lyrics as about being stuck in an elevator as being a metaphor for being stuck in life. and i feel like "the smell of air conditioning" and "the fish are belly up" are just more examples of a feeling of stagnation.

also those lyrics sound more like what he's actually singing imo

[turricaned]

@kwizzeh The problem is that several bands have made careers out of trying to make a sequel to "The Bends" and - in my opinion - not even coming close. Travis, Coldplay, Snow Patrol etc. - I'm looking at you. IMO the only other band to come close to that kind of intensity was the short-lived Texas band "The Gloria Record" on their "A lull in traffic" EP. I think that one day "Lift" in this guise would make an awesome one-off single.

[turricaned]

@ruigan I know it's been a while, but... As I recall, the whole song is about realising that when you shut yourself off, there will always be people who care about you willing to help pull you out of it - sometimes people who you had previously believed were not sincere, sometimes completely unexpectedly - so "A smell (smile?) of recognition, a face you barely loved" makes perfect sense. One of the reasons this song has remained live only is because it is so direct lyrically.