4 Minute Warning Lyrics
Soon I'm gonna wake up
Someone's gonna bring me 'round
Hiding in the forest
Running through the fields
Laying flat on the ground
Stepping over hills
Running from the underground
4 minute warning
I don't wanna know
I just wanna run and hide
But soon I'm gonna wake up
Someone's gonna bring me 'round
4 minute warning
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in the 60's, the British government estimated that it would take four minutes for a nuclear bomb to reach England from USSR. This is about him (during a theoretical bombing...maybe a dream)running is fast as he can, through the forests, to try to get as far away from the city as possible. running through the forest to save his life
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every day, my mind is filled with an irrational fear and desperation for hours and hours. i don't know what is real and what is not. all my sickest fears seem like a reality. after everything goes away and the screaming becomes whispering i understand its all in my head. but when its happening i can't tell. its a nightmare every day. every time. this song gives me hope. soon i'm gonna wake up.
when i thought about what you said and listened to it. i started to cry
when i thought about what you said and listened to it. i started to cry
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I think it has to be a reference about nuclear bombs/war, but it could be a metaphor about just trying to run or get away from any negative situation in your life. It seems as a lot of radiohead songs have multiple meanings...also, this song is incredible, dark, i love it!
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Listening to this song is like watching the world end.
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This is obviously about how little progress we have made since the cold war. We all I hope know what a 4 Minute Warning was during the cold war and yet today the threats we face give us no warning. We have actually regressed. Sad but beautiful song.
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This song sounds so pretty, but is so sad at the same time. Classic Radiohead I guess, lol. I really love how the voices in the background start sounding more and more like sirens as the song goes on.
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This song makes me think of "The Road" by Cormac Mccarthy...like a prequel to the book. I'm sure it isn't but thats what it reminds me of.
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"stepping over heads" provokes such dark imagery even for thom yorke. how much worse could it get than being in a field covered with dead bodies and you're trying to escape?
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I think the cold war imagery evoking the "4 minute warning" is a metaphor for facing an uncomfortable reality, the moment of clarity when the consequences are inevitable, the hiatus between realising the unavoidable truth and consequences after the time when any action to avert the impending impact is futile. Hence the opening lyric "should've known way back". I think it's irrelevant whether that is a drug addict, alcoholic, criminal looking back on his actions prior to conviction, perhaps a morally wayward person contemplating the ruinous future. Just the literal, historical 4 minute warning seems a little prozaic to me.
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.. this should explain this song ..
flawless
flawless