Radiohead Songs - Climbing Up The Walls Lyrics

Radiohead - Climbing Up The Walls

Radiohead - Climbing Up The Walls Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: OK Computer
Released: 1997

Climbing Up The Walls Lyrics

I am the key to the lock in your house
That keeps your toys in the basement
And if you get too far inside
You'll only see my reflection

It's always best when the light is off
I am the pick in the ice
Do not cry out or hit the alarm
You know we're friends till we die

And either way you turn
I'll be there
Open up your skull
I'll be there
Climbing up the walls

It's always best when the light is off
It's always better on the outside
Fifteen blows to the back of your head
Fifteen blows to your mind

So lock the kids up safe tonight
Shut the eyes in the cupboard
I've got the smell of a local man
Who's got the loneliest feeling

That either way he turns
I'll be there
Open up your skull
I'll be there

Climbing up the walls
Climbing up the walls
Climbing up the walls

Writer/s: YORKE, THOMAS EDWARD/GREENWOOD, JONATHAN RICHARD GUY/SELWAY, PHILIP JAMES/GREENWOOD, COLIN CHARLES/O'BRIEN, EDWARD JOHN
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Climbing Up The Walls Song Chart

This is the first track in the band's repertoire to be described as "scary." It relies heavily on strings, but not in the conventional way. The string section features 16 different violins playing quarter tones apart from each other.

Lead singer Thom Yorke: "This is about the unspeakable. Literally skull-crushing. I used to work in a mental hospital around the time that Care In The Community started, and we all just knew what was going to happen. And it's one of the scariest things to happen in this country, because a lot of them weren't just harmless... It was hailing violently when we recorded this. It seemed to add to the mood."

More from Yorke: "Some people can't sleep with the curtains open in case they see the eyes they imagine in their heads every night burning through the glass. Lots of people have panic buttons fitted in their bedrooms so they can reach over and set the alarm off without disturbing the intruder. This song is about the cupboard monster." (thanks, michelle - shingle springs, CA, for all above)

Radiohead recorded the album in the mansion of actress Jane Seymour, who was busy filming her show Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. Ed O'Brien felt that the gothical mood of this track was the result of recording in its library. The Cure also recorded their 1996 Wild Mood Swings album in Seymour's mansion.

The phrase "Climbing up the walls" means being in a state of agitation through stress or worry.

Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood sometimes uses a radio when they perform this, tuning it to different stations during the song. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France, for above 2)

The string coda at the end was largely inspired by an interest the band had in modern Polish composer Krzystof Penderecki, whose works also feature on the soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.