Fake Plastic Trees

a green plastic watering can
for her fake chinese rubber plant
in the fake plastic earth

that she bought from a rubber man
in a town full of rubber plans
to get rid of itself

it wears her out, it wears her out
it wears her out, it wears her out

she lives with a broken man
a cracked polystyrene man
who just crumbles and burns

he used to do surgery
for girls in the eighties
but gravity always wins

and it wears him out, it wears him out
it wears him out, it wears him out

she looks like the real thing
she tastes like the real thing
my fake plastic love

but I can't help the feeling
I could blow through the ceiling
if I just turn and run

and it wears me out, it wears me out
it wears me out, it wears me out

and if I could be who you wanted
if I could be who you wanted
all the time, all the time

and I run

The band had just been to see Jeff Buckley play a set, and when they got back into the studio, Thom Yorke recorded the vocals in two takes and broke down in tears after doing so. In fact, the vocals heard on the song were originally meant to be a guide vocal, meaning that they would eventually be re-done after the rest of the band recorded their instruments. However, Thom's performance was flawless, so they kept it.

--Green Plastic

Thom : "Last night I was called by the American record company insisting, well almost insisting, that we used a Bob Clearmountain mix of Fake Plastic Trees. I said: 'No way.' All the ghost-like keyboard sounds and weird strings were completely gutted out of his mix, like he'd gone in with a razor blade and chopped it all up. It was horrible."

--Green Plastic

Some of my favourite lyrics on the album--"Gravity always wins"--what a line.

--Phil Selway | Ansaphone 008

This took a while to record only because it was hard to better Thom just singing it with an acoustic guitar. Amazing lyrics.

--Ed O'Brien | Ansaphone 008

My favourite lyrics on the album. Writing the string parts was my studio highlight, in a megalomaniac kinda way.

--Jonny Greenwood } Ansaphone 008

Er.... Deep?

--Colin Greenwood | Ansaphone 008

The product of a joke that wasn't really a joke and a very lonely drunken evening and well, a breakdown of sorts.

--Thom Yorke | Ansaphone 008