Radiohead: Idioteque Meaning

Idioteque Lyrics

Who's in bunker, who's in bunker?
Women and children first
Women and children first
Women and children
I'll laugh until my head comes off
I swallow till I burst
Until I burst
Until I..

Who's in bunker, who's in bunker
I've seen too...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Feb 9th 2009 !⃝

   Hey everyone. Well, I've heard to Idioteque over and over again and I can't stop thinking it's about global warming.
   
   Who's in a bunker? Who's in a bunker?
   Women and children first and the children first and the children
   
   I think this part talks about in how we are already "trapped" and we need to run away, to fight for our perseverance
   
   I'll laugh until my head comes off
   I'll swallow till I burst, Until I burst, Until I
   
   This one, In my opinion, is about those people who think global warming is all a big fake and don't care about what might happen.
   
   Who's in a bunker? Who's in a bunker?
   I've seen too much, I haven't seen enough, You haven't seen
   
   So, again, this one talks about people who have already believed and the others who need more proof, maybe a natural disaster or anything. Something like an alert.
   
   Here I'm allowed everything all of the time
   Here I'm allowed everything all of the time
   
   This part of the music refers to how people have been behaving as far as the environment is concerned. We have always been doing what we wanted. Now, we're paying for it.
   
   Ice age comin', ice age comin'
   Let me hear both sides, let me hear both sides, let me hear both
   Ice age comin', ice age comin'
   Throw it in the fire, throw it in the fire, throw it in the
   
   Actually, I didn't get this one. The Ice age coming is referring to the next Ice age we might be going across.
   
   We're not scaremongering
   This is really happening, happening
   We're not scared among the red
   This is really happening, happening
   Mobiles working, mobiles chirping
   Take the money and run, take the money and run, take the money
   
   Now, Thom begs for us to run away, since this is really happening. This is reality.
   
   (Basically, from now on the music keeps saying "First the children".)
   
   So, this is the way I interpreted Idioteque. I hope some other people have more ideas about it. Oh, and I'm sorry for my poor English. As you might have noticed already, it is not my native language :)
2. anonymous

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   Feb 20th 2019 !⃝

   It means that the grand solar minimum is here. they'll raise more taxes to find a solution, to preserve the women and the children first, if course... but nothing will become of it, they'll continue to build their own wealth and solidarity while we all starve and freeze to death. The media and figureheads could have warned us, yet their program wasn't to warn us, they want us thinking everything is okay, that everything is in its right place, repeated over and over it on the kid a album. Idioteque, must be somekind of place that divides us and tells us it is global warming
3. anonymous

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   Mar 26th 2013 !⃝

   "Ice age coming, let me hear both sides. Ice age coming, throw me in the fire."
   i think hes refering to: the fact that another world disaster will happen leading us into an ice age. "Let me hear both sides" meaning...let me hear the scientific way the world will end and let me hear the religous way that the world will end. One way or another...its gonna happen. So when it does...."women and children first, take the money and run."
4. anonymous

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   Jun 15th 2012 !⃝

   I agree with most of what the first comment said. I think the "let me hear both sides" part means let me hear what people think is happening, and throw it in the fire might mean just throw away the ideas, how most people don't care. And "take the money, run" is referencing people only caring about money, wealth, not global health or whatever happens around them.
5. anonymous

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   Jun 5th 2011 !⃝

   I personally think it's about either the holocaust or a person who's going/gone insane. I know these are two very different views of the song, but I think maybe that's the point. I think you're kind of supposed to make of it what you will and appreciate that it can mean anything you want it to if you put enough effort into making the proper connections.
6. anonymous

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   Mar 20th 2011 !⃝

   For me it’s about war and that the people who suffer the most are the most vulnerable and weak. Also about our inability to stop or influence repression and the frustration that ultimate synthesizes use from the horrors of the world. It’s all linked to money under the pretext of dogma and politics
7. anonymous

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   Jan 18th 2011 !⃝

   any radiohead fan should know that some songs dont have a straight out meaning. the greatest bit of this song is that there is no perfect meaning and when ever thom sings it he sometimes changes the lyrics. so dont fret over the meanin of this song

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