Fitter Happier

Album: OK Computer (1997)
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  • Fitter, happier
    More productive
    Comfortable
    Not drinking too much
    Regular exercise at the gym, three days a week
    Getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries
    At ease
    Eating well, no more microwave dinners and saturated fats
    A patient, better driver
    A safer car, baby smiling in back seat
    Sleeping well, no bad dreams
    No paranoia
    Careful to all animals, never washing spiders down the plughole
    Keep in contact with old friends, enjoy a drink now and then
    Will frequently check credit at moral bank, hole in wall
    Favours for favours, fond but not in love
    Charity standing orders on sundays, ring-road supermarket
    No killing moths or putting boiling water on the ants
    Car wash, also on sundays
    No longer afraid of the dark or midday shadows, nothing so ridiculously teenage and desperate
    Nothing so childish
    At a better pace, slower and more calculated
    No chance of escape
    Now self-employed
    Concerned, but powerless
    An empowered and informed member of societ, pragmatism not idealism
    Will not cry in public
    Less chance of illness
    Tires that grip in the wet, shot of baby strapped in backseat
    A good memory
    Still cries at a good film
    Still kisses with saliva
    No longer empty and frantic
    Like a cat
    Tied to a stick
    That's driven into
    Frozen winter shit, the ability to laugh at weakness
    Calm, fitter, healthier and more productive
    A pig in a cage on antibiotics Writer/s: Dan Rickwood, Jonathan Richard Guy Greenwood, Thomas Edward Yorke
    Publisher: Songtrust Ave, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 18

  • Izzy from Bellingham, WaMy interpretation of this song is that these are the thoughts of a person who's really struggling, they try to tell themselves what they want to be (fitter, happier, no longer empty and frantic) and what they want to have as they struggle with the heavy and sinking reality that this is the exact opposite of what they believe they are. Sometimes throughout the song the person narrates their thoughts of denial, "pragmatism not idealism". Their thoughts about what they are, "Like a cat, tied to a stick, that's driven into, frozen winter s--t". "A pig, in a cage, on antibiotics". This narrative potentially observes society and the messages it sends. Along with this interpretation, while I was listening to this song I thought about AI and if this could be from the perspective of how it would see our ideal life as humans. (the computerized voice also led me to think about it this way). Although, I think this interpretation is weaker because of the lack of consciousness or questionability of its existence in AI. (because snippets of the songs lyrics could represent negative views towards society, such as pig in a cage on antibiotics). I like this song a lot because I associate it with emotions of pain and frustration and anger and dazedness, and it helps me to cope with my own. I feel like its important to remember that this is only my own interpretation of the song, and of course its ok to disagree. This also does not mean that this is what the song means, because this is only what it means to me as an individual.
  • Louis from Spring, TxI never thought of this song as a list, but more like a letter to a friend or relative telling them how he's doing lately and what he tries to accomplish. When I hear, "Like a pig in a cage on antibiotics," I think of the helpless person writing the letter from his hospital bed feeling like he's stuck inside a prison only surviving on the pills and medicine the staff give him. He writes about how he's recovering but longs for his freedom and tries to keep his sanity by talking with old friends and trying to enjoy himself the best he can, even though he's dying inside. That's at least what I think.
  • Emma from Brooklyn, NyI love radiohead but this song is really stupid.
  • Johnny from Los Angeles, CaOh wait sorry I didn't read that last bit. I blame it being 1 in the morning.
  • Johnny from Los Angeles, CaThis song is listed on the album, it's just in really small print.
  • Hebrew from St. Paul, MnOne day we will be forced to have an antenna hard wired into our skulls completely blocking out the voice of God, and replacing it with the words of men such as these. Turn off your TVs folks.
  • David from Austin, Txthis song is about a person trying to follow a list of what society tells him he should do to be a better person. the song isn't about robots - the voice is computerized to portray how the man has become like a robot after following this societal advice, because the advice is materialistic and unnatural. occasionally in this song, the man will slip and say how he truly feels about something, such as "moral bank (hole in wall)", "like a cat tied to a stick that's frozen into winter sh*t" and "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics." aside from these lyrics, he's successfully spouting back the advice society gave him, though his robotic voice shows how inhuman it has made him.
  • Joe from Chicago, Arthis song creeps me out for some reason.....don't ask me why.....i just get weird things in my head when i listen to it it's just so random but it ties in good with karma police which is also a great song.
  • Tyler Pead from Fredericton, CanadaThe mechanical voice on this song you hear is none other than Professor Stephen Hawking himself
  • Mongrol from Istanbul, Turkeythis song is about "how radiohead suck young blood"... yeah, true....

    .
  • Max from Sydney, AustraliaFitter Happier was the only product of an otherwise barren three months when Thom Yorke found himself unable to write anything but lists.
    This song is Basicallt a broad-sheet supplement's survival's kit to contemporary living, the lyrics consists of "50 wishes" covering a range of 'issues'-from health and practical concerns to morality and spiritual matters. Idly running his checklist of desires of SimpleText on his 'AppleMac Computer', Yorke indadvertenly found a way to salvage somthing from his period of writers' block. Utilising the machines 'voice' to deliver the lyric also freed gim from the prospect of him having to sing such a goal-driven subject matter straght-faced.


    Thom Yorke Describes 'Fitter Happier' as " The most upsetting song i've ever written".
  • Max from Sydney, Australiasorry, its after simple its supposed to be "life" there
  • Keegan from Richmond, EnglandThe Lyrics "like a cat tied to a stick driven into frozen winter s***" i think are brilliant because when you first hear them you laugh and the following line is "the ability to laugh at weakness" which is of course what you have just done. song-writing at its finest there ladies and gentlemen
  • Pete from Wheaton, Mdit's not a robot talking about how robots are better, that stops working after the beggining. It's about how there's only so much one can do to improve himself. There is a radiohead quote that says something like: the album is about how if you want to change the world or make a difference these days you have to have superhuman powers or be extremely lucky.
  • Patrick from Muncie, InThis song is actually a list of 1990's colloquialisms and phrases. Thom Yorke was drunk when he played the piano on this one and his sloppy playing can be heard with a sharp ear.

    The voice is actually the Macintosh voiceover, which the song was made on.
  • Christine from Sunderlandthere's a line "like a cat tied to a stick that's frozen into winter s**t"near the end.
    is s**t the word you mean?
  • Leo from Grimsby, CaThe voice used is Microsoft Sam for Windows 95/98, the same voice used by Steven Hawkings who allowed microsoft to use the voice technology to microsoft in 1994.
  • Al from Sterling, VaThis is the only track on OK Computer which contains a word that can't normally be played on the radio.
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