This song is def a twin to "Unfair" (a song she has been quoted as saying is about falling in love with someone who is already in a relationship) so it is presumably about the same person. Given the references to buying an apartment and not being able to see her love interest "after tonight," it's most likely that she's moving away and she'll "wait a day to break the bad news" (i.e. notifying him that she's leaving once she's already gone).
And, of course, the fact that she sees in him a fellow "idealist" and "dreamer" (terms commonly given to people with the INFP personality on the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)) portends that she'll always be left wondering if they would've been perfect together.
A green plastic watering can
For a 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
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
Oh
For a 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
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
Oh
Lyrics submitted by piesupreme, edited by Dennis527, Radiohead123, fathousefly, JohnTheSavage1, ParanoidAndroid8, jackhandey
Fake Plastic Trees Lyrics as written by Colin Charles Greenwood Jonathan Richard Guy Greenwood
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
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Come on we've all been there right? In our fake plastic love? You know? That person that you knew deep deep down would never work out, but you thought they were beautiful or special, and thereby you were being fake pretending to be something you were not with that person.
Trying to make that person happy by being fake. It wears you out. Somehow though you keep hanging on for along time because he or she tastes and looks like the real thing....you think if this relationship ends you might blow through the ceiling; you can't help the feelings you still have for the person...but the relationship wears you out and you are living on borrowed time as you know in the long run it could never work...it's fake and plastic.
Add: In the end you know if you could be who your partner wanted it would work..but you can't, you can only be yourself in the end because gravity wins.
adn - you completely changed my entire concept of what this song meant, completely nailed it<br /> <br /> thats what I'm going through, i know there was a reason i drifted to this song
A++ on that write-up.
@adn No, it's a song about sex, sex has a plastic quality, but to abuse it only causes ageing and heartache. "If l could be who you wanted...al the time"<br /> It talks about how people grow old..."she lives with a broken man that crumbles and burns..did surgery in the eighties, but gravity always wins"<br /> People waste their sexual energies in their youth, which makes them grow old faster.<br /> "She looks like the real thing...my fake plastic love"... Men fall for physical attributes and physical pleasure, but that is not the essenc of love, it's about caring for the actual person.<br /> "I could blow through the ceiling" he ejaculates<br /> "If l just turn and run" part of him wants to just give it up, run away, to conserve his energies and youth. In the clip an old man is holding 2 guns. Representing the wasted sexuality of his youth.
@adn It’s actually about death and reincarnation. But when your life is defined by bad and broken relationships, often that’s all you will see in music.
I think it's about wanting something you can't have, but even that thing you desire so much isn't what you need. "She tastes like the real thing." in a world full of fakeness, he wants desperatly to believe that this one is "the real thing." He's willing to be fake himself. Have you ever seen the shel silverstein poem about the woodpecker and the rubber tree? it just keeps pecking anyway. it's absolute desperation.
"The saddest thing I ever did see<br /> Was a woodpecker peckin' at a plastic tree.<br /> He looks at me, and 'Friend,' says he,<br /> 'Things ain't as sweet as they used to be.'"<br /> -Shel Silverstein
Close. It's about desiring to be something more for someone else. If I could be all you wanted. It's the desperation of not being enough for someone whom you wish would feel that you were enough.<br />
And it wears me out, it wears me out It wears me out, it wears me out
If i could be who you wanted If i could be who you wanted all the time, all the time
I played this song while I was contemplating suicide. I was (still) facing a lot of heartache: my asperger's is a significant obstacle to my social life, my dad physically and verbally abuses me, and the women i love are nice but are shallow, materialistic and don't love me back. By august 26, these things wore me out and i finally tried to kill myself because i felt like no one will ever love me enough to stop hurting me like my dad or love me for who i am. If i could be who she wanted me to be, i feel that women would finally accept me. this shallowness of our society just destroys good hearted people who may not be gorgeous but have a lot to offer. this song is easily one of my favorite songs but it is also one of the saddest songs for this reason.
It is unfortunate that such great deep songs always make some people think (more) of suicide. I think the fact that they impact someone so drastically clearly indicates the songs' brilliance despite the potentially negative side effect.
@buggy1984 <br /> I was at that point too. But believe me you will find love man. We all do. But in the mean time do what makes you happy. (Unless that's skinning people and making them into lamps) ((if you watch American horror story you know what I mean)) <br /> You seem pretty awesome actually! The way you an push through all that you've been through. You're stronger than you realize.
@buggy1984 I can't be sure if you are still alive, who knows maybe you actually did it. I can say that when I heard this song a couple of months after I tried for my fifth and final time to kill myself, that if I had heard this song I might of actually gone through with it. All my attempts were very bad ones, but I just wanted to see if I could feel anything, or if there was still something inside me that made me human. I remember that when I used to cut myself that I couldn't feel anything as the blade went through, it was just numb. Later, when I tried to do it by bath, I felt numb when the blade went through the first couple of times, but I realized that I just couldn't get myself to cut deep enough. I was too afraid to push the blade any further and about what would happen if I stayed alive after such a huge cut. After I talked myself out of it, I believe that would of been my third attempt, for the first time I could feel the pain. The pain had scared me shitless. I realized that if I was going to do it, it wouldn't be by cutting. I don't know what I was really talking about there but I don't know, just thought I would share my experience <br />
@buggy1984 <br /> Hey.. I hope you're okay... There's hardly anyone who hasn't gone through such things, I myself had been in love with my best friend, who rejected me. If they dont reciprocate the love, sure we do feel like it's the end of the world and we do feel very hurt and depressed but we just gotta move on and not beat ourselves over it for too long cuz if that person doesn't understand how much we feel for them, then its just not worth it to waste so much of our feelings on them. Dont let ppl and circumstances bring u down. Its not ur fault that u have Asperger's. I hope u are okay and I hope u have moved on from that rough patch
@buggy1984 I, too, have Asperger's and gotta say the song resonated. <br /> It was 1998 when I sort of just decided I was going to get into music, but I wasn't quite sure how because there weren't any good radio stations where I lived, and music streaming hadn't been invented yet. Then MTV, I think, put together a list of the 100 best music videos and I found it on the Internet. "Fake Plastic Trees" was on the list somewhere, and so that's how I discovered Radiohead. I liked it then, of course, because it's a beautifully sad song and I like sad things. I must admit, that the lyrics didn't mean that much to me at the time--I was looking for unrequited love stuff. I also didn't yet know I had Asperger's; I just knew I had a crush and couldn't talk to her because there's no way she'd like me. "Creep" was a lot better in that regard, obviously.<br /> Fast forward to this year: I'm trying to get good at singing while playing the guitar. Better said, I'm enjoying singing while playing, so hopefully I can get good at it too. I've been looking up songs I like and their lyrics, and essentially rediscovered this one.<br /> I understood the song much better this time. I know everybody masks to some extent, but for Aspies, it's exhausting. There's so many social customs that are pointless and artificial, like watering a fake plant. I have to spend long periods alone to "recharge." It's virtually impossible to maintain long term without getting Autistic burnout.<br /> And then this verse, along with the way Thom sings it, sent chills down my spine:<br /> <br /> But I can't help the feeling<br /> I could blow through the ceiling<br /> If I just turn and run<br /> <br /> Because of a lifetime of suppression, which by now is ingrained, I have had the feeling sometimes that if I could completely give up on trying to be or appear normal, I might be able to release my true self, and it would be brighter than the sun. I don't know that it would. I don't even know what that self would look like. I don't know that I'll ever be able to overpower anxiety and dig it out. But I can't help the feeling...
@buggy1984 Music is so very powerful. I hear you. Please just know you are worth being here. What your father “thinks of you” should not define you.I will tell you what made me feel better… I think to myself, did my Mom make big mistakes with verbal/physical crap, yes; however, they know their mistakes. They treated us like this because of the crap that happened to them. Generational trauma is very real and it is a vicious cycle. This is their first time at life too. Please don’t think I am making excuses, just a different perspective. I have chosen to break the cycle. Know this world is better with you in it. Unfortunately, there are a lot of superficial materialistic women and men out there…. Work on yourself and find your worth first before trying to find a partner. Once you do, ALWAYS know people will show you who they are… believe them and act the very first time no matter what. I KNOW there is a woman out there that will love love love you. Buggy1984, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE go to the ends of the earth to heal. YOU ARE ENOUGH!!!! (((((HUGS))))))
There are 3 stories: a woman wrapped in fake happiness, a man creating fake realities and who is eventually owned by it, and the speaker's own love.
For me the first two serve as a backdrop for the third story. The third story is actually where the music picks up. Simliar to what has been posted, it's about loving someone so much that you are forced to be someone you are not. The song laments on how difficult it is, but he has no choice. Love makes you do crazy stuff. It makes you endure things you don't want to endure.
But it's wearing him out.
How it ends is really up to you.
@migmol this is the interpretation that may best reflect the intent of the composer, IMHO. <br /> <br /> It is very interesting though, to see how everyone gives it a different interpretation based on the filter of their own personal context they see it through.<br /> <br /> With that in mind, I take and own the part where he says: <br /> <br /> It wears me out. It wears me out...
@migmol Really good interpretation. Your explanation resonates with me.
There's something so piercing about this song and its utter sense of hopelessness, yet it ultimately makes it so comforting
So true...
I love this song, but afraid to hear it
@MercurySmile words cant describe the feeling. That's the beauty of this song. It has a common feeling in all meanings. And it's comforting.
He's talking about the American lifestyle. We don't care about how something really is, as long as it looks good and gives a good impression to those whose opinions mean something to us. The girl married the guy, because her family would be happy she married a successful guy who probably did plastic surgery which is faker than fake. Everyone is just living in a house of cards, no one knows who anyone really is anymore because society dictates what we should be.
@apk1550 Yes, or maybe modern/Western life. We\'ve given up the rigid dogma of religion and moral codes for a soft \'figure it out as go go\' lifestyle. Which does indeed wear us out. Extremely technical jobs that require heavy education but serve very little. Women trying to match the online ideal and men crushed by the guilt of their intersectional oppression. It\'s all postmodern malaise. And yet the song inspires deeply.
Wow, great and sad song, Thom is a genius...
this song quite describes my life right now ):
In a world that people and feelings are shallow and fake, I found a different and sensitive girl, a girl who sees the things as I do...and soon i was madly in love with her
"She looks like the real thing She tastes like the real thing"
And yeah, after a long time gathering courage, and that feeling burning me inside, i told her how much i love her, how much i care and want to stay with her...
but she just don't care about me and my feelings. I don't make any difference in her life...
"It wears me out"...
Even thought, i still love her, but i can't do anything about it, she doesn't want me...
"If I could be who you wanted all the time"
shit, i want you so much. can't stop crying listening to this :'(
It's incredible how close your tale is to mine. I am plagued by my infatuation with this girl, but unlike your tale, she is no different to the plastic people I see daily. She ignores me and just doesn't even want to have anything to do with me. Oh how I wish I could be who she wanted.
can i join the club?? <br /> But I might win with my history. Is quite simple, this girl was everything I wanted, she was more than perfect, utterly beautiful and deeply interesting, we shared a vision you could say and the best part: she was in love with me, just like i was in love with her. We had a long realtionship like for a year, half our senior year and first semester in college. Then things started to turn bad. Then I realized that it was because she started change with college, he started to be like everybody else, kindda shallow, different plastic friends, didnt care anymore about lots of things we both thought matter a lot. Then she just stopped loving me, cause of course, i wasnt anymore what she wanted..
Damn to nrs182`s story! I know you feeling bro. I Its remind me to my brake up just 3 weeks ago.<br /> <br /> It is so close to my story. Only, i feel more lucky because i just date this girl just for 2 months. Short story, Similar as yours, she started to like everybody else. In just 2 month we are so close,, one of my most intimate relationship. But after she meeting that bastard, who is more likely to be her father, it completely different. When we broke up, she said that she never went to serious relationship with me, just a shallow one. What a fake!
To me this song is all about artificial societal conformity. The goal to be what the world deems is 'perfect' is a constant challenge because of aging and 'gravity' as mentioned in the song. It speaks of a man who was a plastic surgeon who once thought looks were everything, that's where he first fell in love and that's where his money came from, but eventually he realized that there is no authenticity in pretending to be something else. The perpetual struggle to remain perfect actually causes imperfection, and in conclusion, 'it wore him out', like it wears all of us out. Perfection is nonexistent, and we're all living in a fake plastic world trying to be something we're not.
@Angaliene
My take. This is a song about a woman who married a rich plastic surgeon and had the perfect live living in the suburbs. Years later, neither were happy. He was a depressed plastic surgeon and she realized the material things didn't make her happy anymore. She was stuck in the the suburbs acting like she was happy with her fake smile, fake watering can, watering her flowers, which she didn't give a shit about, while here she still lived with her miserable, depressed husband. WOuld make a rather good fictional book.
this is my favorite song... whenever i cant sleep, i put on this song and im out like a light. his voice is just so soothing, ya know? i think this song is about how everything in the world is so corrupt and... fake? even the trees... and its like not even love can be real anymore..