I've been listening to Radiohead's "Videiotape" over and over again today. I've actually been listening to it on repeat for the past few days, and have been listening to Radiohead exclusively for the past two weeks. Its a strange song, full of emptyness, with a hint of longing. Its the perfect song for an ending, whether you needed or wanted the ending to happen.
The album, I've read, is about relationships. Relationships at first seem like rainbows, beautiful, perfect, enchanting. But as time goes on, you come to see that being in a rainbow is to be in a thin veil of water droplets, just as in relationships you learn there are flaws, problems; that this enchantment is nothing but an illusion of prefection, of beauty. It will disappear in time; the rainbow, the euphoria, the relationship.
So then, the question begs asking, why bother?
When I’m at the pearly gates
This’ll be on my videotape
Mephistopheles is just beneath
And he’s reaching up to grab me
This is one for the good days
And I have it all here in
Red, blue, green
You are my centre when I spin away
Out of control on videotape
On videotape
This is my way of saying goodbye
Because I can’t do it fact to face
So I’m talking to you before
No matter what happens nowI won’t be afraid
Because I know
Today has been the most perfect day I have ever seen
