Reviews for High and Dry Lyrics

everyones opinion is valid my personal opinion is that this song is about people in general and how we will do just about anything to have attention,fame,company and a lasting reputation so much that we can become corrupt and something we truly arent these lustful and self-centered desires blind us and we utterly forget that that is truly important (friends and family) and when our fame, money, and material items are gone so are those people we once thought were and called "friends" so we are left "screaming out" and sometimes its to late to make amends and those who truly cared are gone (the best thing you've had has gone away)

I have a deep emotional connection to this song for by total chance, my friend decided to play this song and only minutes after finishing, the lyrics began to unfold in my very own life.

If that's not spooky I don't know what is.

By the time you're thirty (and I'm well past it) you know the person in this song and know you can;t do anything about them. And, honestly, there's a part of you that wants to let them be because they're interesting. Kind of gut-wrenching but in that way you let yourself off the hook. Funny, totally NYC from a UK band.

When it comes too songwriting or just life in general, I feel that putting a name too an emotion or a thought is making it generic compared too its actual meaning. Like when two people say I Love You, saying that too each other is generic because love is an emotion that is infinite. Like putting a name on a person, it somewhat caps its actual meaning. For Example, when you sing a song on your way to work thinking about what ur boss is going too say too you about lighting his desk on fire, when u forget the words, you replace the actual words of a song with your own. But when you actually listen too what your saying, it can be a suprise the topics that you bring up, things you knew you felt, or didnt know you felt, their there. Just think about the times and moments you listen too music, Why then? Why now? Stop. Think

Simply excellent!! Lyrics so simple yet full of emotions and feelings. Listening to it is like immersing myself into the life of another person. Every band or artiste will try to do that to us but I think no one does it better than Radiohead. Best one so far!!

as a listener of extremely eclectic taste, i must say that when an artist or group of artists write and perform something this raw as far as content goes, they really just want you to feel it, or it comes from a personal desire to feel something themselves.a song of this type isn't for reasons of gain or materialism and thus should not be felt in a materialistic way but on a spiritual and multidimensional level.Raidiohead, which i must say is probably my favorite band, are great songwritters and have the ability to express such spirituality and depth in every single song.

As a lyricist, I must say that... we rarely know what the songs we write are about. It's surprisingly difficult to write a song that is actually about something in-particular without being corny.

Often I find that writing lyrics is almost a full combination of everything you believe in and feel for at that moment, as there are so many moments in a day for passionate artists.

Honestly, most of us just say... whatever you think it's about is what it's about. So keep up the good work.

...just don't ever battle over meanings unless there is some fact behind it, it's silly.

The song is about fame, and the way that one will put the passing glories that come with it ahead of their friends and family who have been with them all along.

I can't listen to this song, it just kills me. Radiohead's music is so beautiful sometimes, but so depressing.

After his meteoric rise to fame, a young motorcycle stunt rider's career ends in a jump that goes horribly wrong. The public forget him almost as quickly as he caught their attention. Some sneer that he got what he deserved. He lives on in a palsied body that denies him movement and speech but not comprehension, and comes to realise the depth of his loss.

I agree that unless Thom Yorke ever says in an interview or someplace what the song is about, anything we say is speculation.

That said, I think this song is about anorexia, or about a relationship/friendship with an anoretic.

The "jumps" he mentions could be blackouts or fasting spells, and also in the first stanza he mentions a mirror, which is a common theme in anorexic writing/thought.

"All your insides fall to pieces, you just sit there wishing you could still make love" - Try being an anoretic. See what it does to your internal organs and sex drive.

"It's the best thing that you've ever had" - it's a "beautiful obsession".


Even writing this, I still see what many have been saying regarding the fact that it might be referencing drug use instead.

I'm only thirteen and my dad recently put this song on a mix CD for me. I loved it straight away, which was unusual for me as I usually only accept songs after a few listens. I need to listen to more Radiohead, as what I've heard I really like. I think (very possibly wrongly) the meaning's pretty simple - a young man feels as if he is immortal when he's high, or doing daredevil stunts, but he doesn't realise he's ultimately marooning himself and stopping people from loving him. A similar concept to Desperado, but this is definitely the better song.

this was the very first radiohead song i ever listend to. it sealed the deal. radohead's lyrics have very diffrent meanings for everyone. to me these lyrics are about how some people go out of their way to get attition the wrong way when the one that cheers them on when theyre really themself is the one that loves them, but theyre to blind to relize it.

radiohead is by far one of the greatest bands ever. i will die listening to them<33

To me, this is a tell-tale of addiction, drug use, and withdrawal:
You'd kill yourself for recognition; kill yourself to never ever stop.
- Have you ever recognized that theres always going to be that one person who will do anything to the utmost extreme just so they can steal all the attention? Even if its something disgraceful according to society's standards. The part "kill yourself to never ever stop" reminds me of when my uncle said to his father in regards to his drug addiction "I'm going to die high", as if he predicted the overdose soon to come.

Drying up in conversation, you will be the one who cannot talk.
- you're "drying up" (coming down?) and the words aren't able to come out as your mouth is being occupied with vomit...

All your insides fall to pieces, you just sit there wishing you could still make love
- drugs mess you up plain & simple. goodbye sex drive.

They're the ones who'll hate you when you think you've got the world all sussed out
-A while back, an ex bf told me "the intelligent ones do H" WTF?
They're the ones who'll spit at you. You will be the one screaming out.
-and golly gee whiz, he sure wish he could eat his words now.


It's the best thing that you've ever had; the best thing you've had has gone away.
- Now you're dry, strung-out & in midst of a come-down; the best thing in the world, the high, has left you.

i love the feeling you get when you analyse a song to its core... and you finally Understand the meaning of the song on a deeper level and its just psychologically orgasmic every time I listen to it.

I get the goosebumps haha

to me the song is about the gradual movement of what general society believes is "cool" and the means but which they gain acceptance or even fame in this world is becoming more and more shallow and meaningless. Those that hold true intelligence and wisdom about what life is all about are becoming few and far between. It's somewhat a cry for help saying if no one cares about what people think or feel anymore, only what they do and if it's "fast" and "cool" and requires no thought just action then life itself dies. "It's the best thing that you ever had" refers to life and how we belittle it and throw it away.