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How Can You Be Sure? Lyrics

Seen all the good things and bad
Running down the hill
All so battered and brought to the ground
I am hungry again
I am drunk again
With all the money I owe to my friends

And when I'm like this
How can you be smiling, singing?
How can you be sure?
How can you be sure?

If you walk out the door
Will I see you again?
If so much of me lies in your eyes
I am hungry again
I am drunk again
With all the money I owe to my friends

When I'm like this
How can you be smiling, singing?
How can you be sure I don't want you?
How can you be sure I don't want you?
How can you be sure I don't want you?
How can you be sure I don't want you?

I don't want you, I don't want you anymore
I don't want you, I don't want you anymore
Song Info
Submitted by
shut On Nov 22, 2001
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Cover art for How Can You Be Sure? lyrics by Radiohead

I think this song is about being with someone who seems to be so much better than you. Someone that stays with you when you come stumbling home drunk and starving after a bad night, and in your sore mood you wonder how they can be smiling and singing when it feels as if your world is peeling away. Almost as if they're insensitive to your pain and the things you're going through. So you begin to push them away. I think when the duet comes in to say "I don't want you... I don't want you anymore", it's signifying that both sides of the relationship are fed up with one another's behavior because no one wants to really be a crutch time and time again for someone that digs themself into a deeper pit, and if you're the one digging, more often than not you want empathy and someone to carry you instead of singing Spongebob's "F.U.N." song.

My Interpretation
Cover art for How Can You Be Sure? lyrics by Radiohead

this song is about how you feel after a break up. from his side she looks like a very selfish person and he doesnt seems to understand how things work. I know it coz i've been on both sides of the story. Is not that i'm selfish, is that I dont care anymore, and I like to be honest about that. this is an amazing song, express the frustration when someone leaves you just like that, and is very sweet... "if so much of me lies in your eyes" is the best part!!!!!!

Cover art for How Can You Be Sure? lyrics by Radiohead

Ace song.. one of the best b-sides..

Cover art for How Can You Be Sure? lyrics by Radiohead

hey no one this songs from when they were on a friday which is way before fake plastic trees

Cover art for How Can You Be Sure? lyrics by Radiohead

it's a radiohead pop song... wtf?

Cover art for How Can You Be Sure? lyrics by Radiohead

I think this song also might be about a boy who is unhappy with his girlfriend because she doesn't show that she cares about him. If she did he wouldn't be feeling so miserable. "When I'm like this how can you be smiling and saying: How can you be sure I don't want you?" So basically it could be a relationship were the boy is always uncertain and at the end of the song he decides he doesn't want her anymore for this reason.

Cover art for How Can You Be Sure? lyrics by Radiohead

hahahah this song cracks me up. sorry but i really cant take it seriously. just a much lamer attempt at an acoustic rock ballad like fake plastic trees. (i like fake platic trees by the way)

That's because it was actually originally written & performed when Radiohead were called On A Friday (or Shindig). It's pre-Pablo Honey, I think it was on a 1990 demo tape. Look it up.

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