I forget the name of the song but in the video the lead singer lays down in the street, passers-by ask him why he is laying down. The singer whispers to them, telling them why he is laying down, and the passers-by then lay down on the pavement next to him.
My question is: Does anybody know what it is the singer is saying to the pedestrians that causes them to lay down? It isn’t made clear in the song but I thought someone may have heard the answer in an interview.
I haven’t seen the video in the while, but I’m pretty sure that Thom Yorke isn’t the one that lays down. The band watches the whole scene from an apartment window.
Anyway, what could the laying-down guy possibly say that would make everyone else lay down? I can’t think of anything that would possibly make that happen. That’s the whole idea of the video; you’re just left to reflect on something that’s so terrible/awe-inspiring/whatever that it makes 50-odd other people forget what they were doing and lay down in the street. I personally try to imagine what kind of a world they live in, what circumstances shape their existance, etc. But maybe I spend too much time thinking about this video, heh.
The video is indeed for the song Just, from the album The Bends.
Thom Yorke and the rest of the band perform the song/watch what’s going on from a window in a building, while a man lying on the ground below tells concerned people to just leave him alone, that he didn’t fall down, isn’t injured, he just wants to be left alone. But they’re concerned and keep asking him what’s wrong. The music is the only thing heard in the video, all the dialogue of the characters is seen in subtitles.
So a passing police officer comes by and a crowd gathers, people trying to figure out what’s wrong, suggesting he’s gone mad (and he denies it), the officer trying to help him up but the man says not to touch him, until finally a man just demands to know why he is lying there.
So he says something along the lines of “you really want to know? I’ll tell you, but you don’t know what you’re asking of me” and starts talking. The subtitles stop and we just see his lips moving, not knowing what he’s telling the crowd.
The last shot of the video is of him laying on the ground, then panning down the sidewalk to show that all of the people have fallen and are lying on the ground as well.
There’s no official explanation of what it means or what he says from the director or the band. My guess is there isn’t anything specific, but it’s just that the man feels so down about his life and the world in general he doesn’t see the point of going on, doing anything but lying in the street. He doesn’t want to make anyone else feel the same so he avoids talking about it, but when they demand and he tells them they feel the same and lie down as well. I think his “you don’t know what you ask of me” line suggests he knows what the effect will be before he says anything, that his condition/feelings/whatever are essentially contagious and people will be hurt by them on a potentially massive scale.
You may be able to watch it here at mtv.com but it requires realplayer (which I don’t have) so I can’t be sure.
Indeed the point is (at least I think) that we don’t know what he’s saying.
If you want to see the video in real quality, I would recommend buying Radiohead - 7 Television Commercials (2001) DVD which includes videos from both The Bends and OK Computer albums. Although, like the name suggests, it only includes those seven videos, most of them are very good.
I iknow what he’s saying and Im not telling either.
Oh alright then I will.
It’s Quirkafleeg!
Not many people know that.
Okay, I can’t guarantee that this is what the band had in mind but it sounds as good an explanation as I’ve heard.
If you look at the link you’ll find out that it’s either a reference to a classic game on the ZX Spectrum or, more likely, a reference to an underground comic.