Radiohead's There, There

Here's an appearances versus reality song for you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs1DX32t38c

with some lyrics:


in pitch dark i go walking in your landscape.
broken branches trip me as i speak.
just 'cause you feel it doesnt mean its there.
just 'cause you feel it doesnt mean its there.

There's always a siren
Singing you to shipwreck
(Don't reach out, don't reach out
Don't reach out, don't reach out)
Steer away from these rocks
We'd be a walking disaster
(Don't reach out, don't reach out
Don't reach out, don't reach out)
just 'cause you feel it doesn't mean its there.
(theres someone on your shoulder)
(theres someone on your shoulder)
just 'cause you feel it doesn't mean its there.
(theres someone on your shoulder)
(theres someone on your shoulder)
There there!

why so green and lonely?
and lonely
and lonely

heaven sent you to me
to me
to me

we are accidents
waiting waiting to happen.

we are accidents
waiting waiting to happen


One point of criticism is that this is entirely too self-indulgent. It delves into to much of the narrator' s own feelings.

One cool thing is this dramatic irony that we tell a person "There, there" as something soothing. But here it is the narrator that needs soothing! He says, just 'cause you feel it, does not mean it's there. So there's this lame pun going on, too, where you have the idiomatic expression of "There, there" versus the thing-in-itself not being there literally. It's a cruel joke that the narrator is telling himself. It's as though the narrator feels he has been tricked in the past by appearances not being reality (HELLO KANT).


Something interesting to note would be the fact this is not skeptical against religion. We can note the use of, "Heaven sent you to me" as the narrator asserting divinity.

That is, there is no question of whether divinity exists, but rather if the narrator and the person he is trying to connect with and he can have relationship.