3 Meanings
Add Yours
Share
Q&A

Desert Island Disk Lyrics

Now as I go upon my way
So let me go upon my way
Born of a light
Born of a light

The wind rushing round my open heart
An open ravine
With my spirit light
Totally alive
And my spirit light

Through an open doorway
Across a street
To another life
And catching my reflection in a window
Switching on a light
One I didn’t know
Totally alive
Totally released

Waking, waking up from shutdown
From a thousand years of sleep
Yeah you, you know what I mean
You know what I mean
You know what I mean

Standing on the edge of you
You know what I mean
You know what I mean
You know what I mean
Different types of love
Different types of love
Different types of love
Are possible
Are possible
Are possible
Are possible
Questions and Answers

Ask specific questions and get answers to unlock more indepth meanings & facts.

3 Meanings

Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.

Cover art for Desert Island Disk lyrics by Radiohead

Some of the lyrics he uses - he speaks of being alive, open, awakened, released - are great descriptions of some sort of breakthrough after a long period of feeling static or dormant. It could be a new love has lifted him out of the shadow of a past one, or a creative idea has set him ablaze with inspiration after a stretch of writer's block.

As for the title, it could be a climate change reference, or the place where he experienced this. The latter could make sense because an island is a place associated with being alone, and he is experiencing this alone. Anyway those are my thoughts.

My Interpretation
Cover art for Desert Island Disk lyrics by Radiohead

I consider this to be about Thom Yorke ending his old romantic relationship and starting a new one, as he did around the time of the album's conception. It's about coming out of a dark time scarred and changed but fully healed and on to new things.

Cover art for Desert Island Disk lyrics by Radiohead

The general facts, as I understand them: Thom Yorke separated amicably from his partner of 23 years and mother of his two children. Shortly thereafter she died of cancer. I don't know when this song was written in this timetable, but it's such a powerfull distillation of both loss and possibility, "switching on a light, one I didn't know." It has to be very dark before that light is switched on... "Let me go upon my way."

Lyrically and musically, this is among the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. It captures a type of optimism born out of sadness, with a spirit of surprise at what's possible in life. It makes me think of moments when I stand outside looking at the night sky, watching my breath in the cold air, comparing the vastness above to the warmth of my home and family a few hundred feet away. Comparing the days when I didn't even know what I was looking for to the present, when on some days I feel like I've found everything I need. "Different types of love are possible." Will I someday look back on these times comparing what I've lost to what I once had?

My personal experience with this song: No band has moved me with their music as much as Radiohead over the past 20+ years, but somehow I missed "A Moon Shaped Pool" - never really digested it. And haven't listened to Radiohead much recently. But with the release of the Radiohead Public Library I've revisited everyhing and rediscovered that no other band's music suffuses me with as much pure emotion as Radiohead. And to discover that "Desert Island Disk," a song I somehow missed is as good as anything I've ever heard? Just, wow, thanks Radiohead. This is why we listen.