Songs
Radiohead - Let Down
From the album OK Computer, released on 16 June 1997
Transport, motorways and tramlines,
starting and then stopping,
taking off and landing,
the emptiest of feelings,
disappointed people, clinging on to bottles,
and when it comes it's so, so, disappointing.
Let down and hanging around,
crushed like a bug in the ground.
Let down and hanging around.
Shell smashed, juices flowing
wings twitch, legs are going,
don't get sentimental,
it always ends up drivel.
One day, I am gonna grow wings,
a chemical reaction,
hysterical and useless
hysterical and
let down and hanging around,
crushed like a bug in the ground.
Let down and hanging around.
Let down, again,
Let down, again,
Let down.
You know, you know where you are with,
you know where you are with,
floor collapsing, falling, bouncing back
and one day, I am gonna grow wings,
a chemical reaction, [You know where you are,]
hysterical and useless [you know where you are,]
hysterical and [you know where you are,]
let down and hanging around,
crushed like a bug in the ground.
Let down and hanging around.
More about the song:
It was intended to be the first single off of the album, but "Paranoid Android" was chosen instead, which, along with "Karma Police", solidified the band's popularity. The track was ultimately not released as a single because the band was unsatisfied with the video they had produced, and ended up losing money.
The song is about the alienation and emptiness of life in modern society, and is often considered one of the most melancholy songs on the album. The song is also considered one of their finest. Thom Yorke apparently was inspired to write the song while sitting in a pub, noting the customers "clinging on to bottles" and sensing in them the "emptiest of feelings," a sense of disappointment. The song is renowned for its chorus which refers to Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis: "Let down and hanging around. Crushed like a bug in the ground".