Radiohead, dengan lagu "The Bends", menorehkan lirik penuh teka-teki yang mengeksplorasi tema isolasi, identitas, dan kegelisahan modern. Lagu ini dibuka dengan pertanyaan eksistensial yang menghantui, "Where do we go from here?", menyoroti perasaan tidak pasti dan kerinduan akan arah dalam dunia yang penuh dengan ketidakpastian. Radiohead dengan cerdik menggunakan metafora "bends" untuk mewakili tekanan sosial yang mengancam akan menghancurkan individu, memunculkan pertanyaan tentang apakah mereka akan menyerah atau mempertahankan kemanusiaan mereka dalam menghadapi kesulitan.
The Bends Lyrics
Radiohead
Where do we go from here?
The words are coming out all weird
Where are you now, when I need you
Alone on an aeroplane
Fall asleep on against the window pane
My blood will thicken
I need to wash myself again to hide all the dirt and pain
'Cause I'd be scared that there's nothing underneath
But who are my real friends?
Have they all got the bends?
Am I really sinking this low?
My baby's got the bends, oh no
We don't have any real friends, no, no, no
Just lying in the bar with my drip feed on
Talking to my girlfriend, waiting for something to happen
I wish it was the sixties, I wish I could be happy
I wish, I wish, I wish that something would happen
Where do we go from here?
The planet is a gunboat in a sea of fear
And where are you?
They brought in the CIA, the tanks and the whole marines
To blow me away, to blow me sky high
My baby's got the bends
We don't have any real friends
Just lying in the bar with my drip feed on
Talking to my girlfriend, waiting for something to happen
I wish it was the sixties, I wish I could be happy
I wish, I wish, I wish that something would happen
I wanna live, breathe
I wanna be part of the human race
I wanna live, breathe
I wanna be part of the human race, race, race, race
Where do we go from here?
The words are coming out all weird
Where are you now when I need you?
The words are coming out all weird
Where are you now, when I need you
Alone on an aeroplane
Fall asleep on against the window pane
My blood will thicken
I need to wash myself again to hide all the dirt and pain
'Cause I'd be scared that there's nothing underneath
But who are my real friends?
Have they all got the bends?
Am I really sinking this low?
My baby's got the bends, oh no
We don't have any real friends, no, no, no
Just lying in the bar with my drip feed on
Talking to my girlfriend, waiting for something to happen
I wish it was the sixties, I wish I could be happy
I wish, I wish, I wish that something would happen
Where do we go from here?
The planet is a gunboat in a sea of fear
And where are you?
They brought in the CIA, the tanks and the whole marines
To blow me away, to blow me sky high
My baby's got the bends
We don't have any real friends
Just lying in the bar with my drip feed on
Talking to my girlfriend, waiting for something to happen
I wish it was the sixties, I wish I could be happy
I wish, I wish, I wish that something would happen
I wanna live, breathe
I wanna be part of the human race
I wanna live, breathe
I wanna be part of the human race, race, race, race
Where do we go from here?
The words are coming out all weird
Where are you now when I need you?
