The Bends

where do we go from here
the words are coming out all wierd
where are you now, when I need you

alone on an aeroplane
falling asleep 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 wierd
where are you now when I need you

It's incredibly annoying that no one's noticed the giggles in that album. The song 'The Bends' is completely jokey, completely taking the piss. None of that stuff had ever happened to us when we wrote it. That was our Bowie pastiche, our joke song ! And I really do wish I'd never written that fucking song - it's become the bane of my life. Hundreds of journalists asking - every single fucking interview : "Do you wish it was the sixties ?" No, I don't wish it was the fucking sixties - Levis jeans wish it was the sixties - I certainly fucking don't.

--Thom e. Yorke

One particular line in the song, "We don't have any real friends," was meant to be taken literally. "That represents what we felt, yes," Jonny said,. "There is a sense of isolation being in Radiohead." For all its poor-little-me overtones, the line was grounded in reality; the band's contact with their old friends from Oxford and elsewhere had decreased as they spent more of their time away from home, and keeping any sort of meaningful relationship going with anyone outside the group had grown increasingly hard. "You go away for two, two and a half months at a time," Colin would observe later, "then come back, then go away again, and meanwhile your friends have gone on with their lives."

--Exit Music: The Radiohead Story by Mac Randall

I wanted to get away from the studio to view a house for rent. Consequently, this was the first take.

--Phil Selway (ansaphone)

Weird to have finally recorded this song after playing it live so man times. This track really highlights Jonny's abusive guitar playing.

--Ed O'Brien

Schlang! Schlang--schlang, schlang; shlang... schlang! That's "The Bends", full of air.

--Jonny Greenwood (ansaphone)

A perennial hardy annual of a live favourite, faithfully committed live to tape.

--Colin Greenwood (ansaphone)

Listen out for the recorders. I do. This song is so old I have no idea what it means anymore. For which I am glad.

--Thom Yorke (ansaphone)