Knives Out

Album: Amnesiac (2001)
Charted: 13
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Songfacts®:

  • Lead singer Thom Yorke: "Knives Out is not exactly cruelty. Let's rather say that to express some feelings, I can't help but use some violent vocabulary. 'Knives Out' was inspired by several different situations. I think the important thing is not that it sounds violent but rather that I try to express specific moments that I have experienced in my life: I transcribe them again, especially those I've been through in the music business. It doesn't hurt many people when someone disappears, they can always take advantage of what remains. In short, the lyrics are more violent than the feelings behind them. The song is also about the death of the people close to me. Each song tries to elucidates things that I don't understand. 'Knives Out' is especially brutal because it is a desperate attempt at solving something very complicated for me." >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Bertrand - Paris, France
  • According to an October 2000 Q magazine article, this song took 373 days to record. The band kept trying to rework the song before deciding it was fine the way it was.
  • The video was directed by Michel Gondry, who directed the movie Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind as well as videos by The White Stripes and others. Shot all in one take, the clip features Thom Yorke at a hospital visiting a woman, played by French actress Emma de Caunes. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Carlos - Chicago, IL, for above 2
  • According to guitarist Ed O'Brien's internet diary, The Smiths were the inspiration for this song's cascading guitar parts.
  • The lyrics referring to cannibalism ("Squash his head/ Put him in the pot") were a relatively late addition to the song.
  • Yorke (from an interview with the New Musical Express): "It's partly the idea of the businessman walking out on his wife and kids and never coming back. It's also the thousand yard stare when you look at someone close to you and you know they're gonna die. It's like a shadow over them, or the way they look straight through you. The shine goes out of their eyes."

Comments: 2

  • Johan from VenrayI think the video clip is very important to better understand the song.

    I think the train and television represent the past and what it meant to the protagonist.
    In the first clip he and his girlfriend are sitting pleasantly together while the train is moving through a green and peaceful countryside environment. They're holding hands and showing affection while they make photos of each other to preserve this memory.

    The camera moves, we see these two lovers as twin elephants, trunks enmeshed. Almost mirrored individuals, almost twin( flame)s

    The protagonist is moving on the floor, on a bed, free to move around, and he does so. It seems to imply he is a visitor, there not for himself but for someone else. Behind him we see two drawings of innocent animals with the photo of his girl. A fish, which may represent a free-spirited nature, and a deer, which may represent innocence.
    The elephants, fish and deer - they're just depictions. representations. internal abstractions the protagonist has in the back of his head.

    The girl then is lying on an operation table (akin to a child's game I know in my country as 'dokter bibber').
    Maybe this implies its to her, ultimately, all just a game.
    More and more people come in the room. She's becoming the complete and utter center of attention, while the protagonist is just worried and left alone. Medical props are put on the bed, and the protagonist is holding hands, letter the girl bite into his hands in response to her pain. He is hurt because she is hurting.

    More and more people come in, to focus on the girl. To care for her, do household chores (bringing new towels et al). She needs these others to care for her.

    The camera moves back to the television. We see the protagonist with a very big heart that he opens to the girl, putting the picture he took from the girl in the earlier shot in his heart. The girl almost childlike gives him a big intimate kiss, but he pushes her away gently, gently pushes her aside and she does the same back. The train's surroundings have become urban with a hint of a reddish mountain-like background behind it. Some more urban environments and regular mountains follow.

    We see the protagonist with his feet encased in what appears to be ovens. He can't go away any longer.
    Behind him, and only in this shot, we see a child. Maybe this child is the reason why he is so imprisoned.
    He is in actual significant pain, beating his head repeatedly at his pillow in actual hurt. This is not a game.
    As he introspects, looks under below his covers, he sees how his very feet have been replaced with oven-baked chicken, and the woman he sees just cheer at the thought of eating him, having their knives out in anticipation of the feast. The protagonist looks in shock.

    We see a last shot of the child, but quickly the camera moves back to the girl, with more and more people surrounding her. She's the center of the chaos. No longer do we see anything medical that can help with her game-like condition. The only thing placed on the table are trays of food. More and more it becomes apparent that it's a game at the protagonist's expense. It becomes a utter chaos, the child is no longer in the picture. Everybody tries to help, but it really doesn't in any way change the condition of the girl.

    The camera moves back to the train, we see how the wagons are filled with body parts. It is presumed these are all cut off from the protagonist.
    In the train itself, we see how the girl lashes at the protagonist with - oh so poetically - a knife, while he tries to hammer sense into her. we see an urban environment as background in this shot, with mountain background. When the girl stop attacking, the protagonist stops as well, and instantly opens the box with a ring in it. (He still has that earlier picture of her in his heart). At this moment the background changes from urban to mountainous... to a gruesome feast of ribs and bloodied body parts. By this time its clear that this was the protagonist's.
    The girl inspects the ring, looking at it from all sides, and directly afterwards.. feels the debilitating hurt inside, apparently caused by this ultimate act of love from the protagonist.
    The protagonist is eager to help, worried for her, at this time.

    The tape is rewound, the protagonist and girl in the train reflect on their part behavior, almost in shock at first, but when we come to the earliest moments of their interactions (the lovebombing phase) the main character is the first to break a smile to the girl. And she immediately mirrors him with her cat-like smile.

    The camera moves back to the protagonist's bed, to reveal it is empty. Only thing left is the ring. There's nothing left to visit.

    The camera moves on, the operating table is no longer there. The girl is out of the picture.
    All that's left is the protagonist. Completely eaten up. Only thing left is his big heart, him playing the guitar. The photo of the girl becomes removed from his heart.

    At the end shot, you see the protagonist, no longer as a strong man. He is transformed into a little mouse, a shadow of his former self, while going over the backgrounds of the train over and over and over again, maybe trying in a desperate attempt to make sense of it all. At this point "him and the girl" are out of the picture.


    Unfortunately, this all fits perfectly with a very specific cluster-B personality disorder that features all the traits this girl displays in the clip, one where:
    - there is extreme displayed affection in early phases of the relationship
    - abandonment is retaliated upon.
    - the afflicted is the center of cycles of chaos.
    - many people try to help, ultimately play into the game
    - the partner/significant other(/favorite person?) is drained, eaten up, stripped from all humanity. Broken into pieces and made to serve.
    - actual true acts of love drive the afflicted to abandon/push away/discard the other.
  • Victoria from Memphis, TnI love this song. one of the best Radiohead songs:)
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