airbag
By francisco quinteros

well, this song isn't so bad and i thin most people have a pretty good handle on it.  i mean, besides concluding the tourist, it also does so optimistically.  and i think that this gets overlooked by many people given the general mood of the album.  but the guy doesn't die after all the fucked up shit in his head.  he survives and is ready to.  the chorus line might be the confusing part.  but after having dodged death there is that euphoric feeling of being ready to take anything on.  it also quite literally details the accident, from colliding into an overturned truck because of speeding and the signs being the last thing he sees before passing out.  the passing out is the "deep deep sleep of the innocent" which is when you lose consciousness for the last time. but, it wasn't.

By Karl Stringer

To me, airbag is a sybmolisation of the way in which man rushes through his day in a "tunnel", so he doesn't even think what is going on, and keeps on the same old routine every single day.

It is only when something hits him hard that he finally stops to realise exactly the way he lives and the things that make him tick. Then the idea of being able to take the world on sets in.

It seems like the ever so familiar scene set by most people who ted to be content with what they have, without realisation that they are living a virtual shit of a life, then they have to fight back from this anguish and pick themselves up to carry on.

By Dean Bexley

This song plays on Thom Yorkes own fear of car crashes and has been the subject of other songs (killer cars, stupid car).

The song describes the feeling of having just surviving a car crash (an interstellar blast) and the feeling of being indestructible (I'm back to save the universe).

Thom was quoted in select magazine as having said something like "every time you have a car crash you should run down the street shouting 'I'm back, I'm alive!)

The car crash lyrics in the song are obvious:

In a jack knifed juggernaut

In a fast German car,

I'm amazed that I survived,

An airbag saved my life.

By Brandon Gregory

I feel airbag is a song about being alive after a near death experience. When you come back, you feel invincible (I'm back to save the universe!). Airbag is a symbol of people not living their lives in the present, they need a near death experience (car crash) to wake them up and let them appreciate life (An airbag saved my life). Airbag is an explanation of how people live their lives in daily routines and it shows that it takes a near death experience for people to realize how precious life is. It tells us that we might as well be dead because we are living meaningless lives until we discover what life really is.
By foofight@bellsouth.net

airbag is not about experiencing a death conquering feeling. after a wreck people feel like crap. this is about the narrator getting into a wreck and while he is out cold from HITTING the airbag (thus our title) he is hallucinating these things. born again in the sign he has just seen. saving the universe because he got in a car wreck which caused his hallucinations. a deep deep sleep (passed out). the world war represents the explosion the car made or just the sheer "interstellar burst" and literally his hallucination. people that feel like they conquered death are NOT amazed by the fact that an airbag saved their life..... the narrator on the other hand is.

By Dole

i've read the other interpretations....and i think their close but forget the main point i feel thom is saying about society....most importantly and this is a good way to open an album....the concept of what saves people.....what saves you?....how some one so rebellious against life (anti social) always try to avoid contact and other things you need to do in life in order to survive emotionally.... can stop and take account of how great life is and how fast it can end....how people in a strange way need an airbag to save their lives not to physically survive but survive spiritually as well

in the beginning of the song thom is say in the next world war as fast as it comes,"a jackknifed juggernaut"....i am born again....which means in daily conflict as fast it comes until it gets really serious and we all almost die(or stop talking to that person forever) because of our differences with others, we stop (ex. cuban missile crisis) and pull back and go i am born again because i was so quick to kill off this person.....but instead of taking this other person's life i've decided it would be much better to live my own....but we're born again out of need to survive not out the willingness to work it ou

t in the next verse reminds me of signs in new york and most big cities that have temples or churches have in neon....u know its a big neon crosses that say

j
e
savesaves
u
s

i think thom is commenting on how people don't really pay attention to god until something horrible happens and we are close to death we sudden notice these fake neon signs "scrolling up and down" to get our attention because we all don't have large attention spans....and we are then born again....but again we're born again falsely due mainly to it being beat over our heads that we have to pray, go to church be a good person....we are born again for these signs not for ourselves...i think god would want us to be reborn and enjoy life for ourselves...why give us life if not to enjoy it?

the next two verses deal with thom and his near brush with death in a car crash...and now after his near death experience, maybe he's a little less colder, a little more forgiving of others, not so quick to cut other people out of his life (as the world war line states and yes maybe he finds god and a saving grace not through neon signs as in verse 2 but a crashed german car in the final verse)....his rebirth is true....its come full circle....its gratifying because he experiences it and death makes him feel more alive....

in an interstellar burst, i am back to save the universe is thom's statement on the energy of life in our veins and how dying and coming that close can recharge us, maybe we have given up on life and this reminds us we aren't here long...the point of view of the chorus is that "we" are our own airbags and we can save ourselves if we really want to....we don't have to wait until we almost die to notice life

an interesting song for those who really never notice life until we miss death....we shrug it off and go that was close, never really understanding that could have been it....scary thought

By Javier Marcó del Pont

To me. this song is about someone who wanted to commit suicide and chose, as a method, to drive into a lake. The fact is THE AIRBAG WORKED PRETTYE DAMN WELL and saved his life by making the car float instead of sink.
The line "...An airbag saved my life..." is full of terror, pasion and orange juice.
That's what makes the whole album worth.
O, por lo menos, ASÍ LO VEO YO.
;)
By Mookie Wilson

To me, this song is sarcastically praising the technology that can save your life. This technology, which provides us with our crushing routines (neon signs scrolling up and down) and our fast German cars that kill many of us everyday (auto travel is the most dangerous activity many of us engage in) can also save our life. Hallelujah for airbags! I am born again!
By Colin

The opening song on OK Computer kind of spelled out, (for me), the rest of the album by telling us that our modern inventions can end life or even save life. This is sometimes intentional and sometimes not. An airbag saved my life. When I heard that I knew I was listening to another brilliantly composed album and that the rest to follow was going to be typically poignant. The modern world is an airbag, our accessories try to comfort us and save us from some harsh realities.
By daf n mark

Ever get the feeling that all the interpretations you read are wrong? What follows is the correct interpretation of "Airbag".

Airbag is in fact about reincarnation and eggs. "a fast German car", get it? ReinCARnation. The German car is important because the song is also about the rebirth of Germany under Hitler to form the third reich.

The airbag represents the egg of rebirth and the safty of the uterus. "an airbag saved my life" is a metaphor for Hitler the fate of Germany.
By Wordman

i think this is one of radioheads most incisive songs.I dont think is as much about "modern life" and the emptyness of it all,but a sort of intimist perception of it,an absorvence of it,a sort of dark grin that says yes to it all,like some sort of nihilistic clow act that some people know pretty well. I think the "key" to the song is the chorus itself.It sums it up pretty well,the pain,angish,anger and dispise all diped in those realms of the absurd that we unconsciusly add to the meaing of our existence.After really listening to it,it turn out to be a pretty mellow song,a sort of childish challenge to our own bullshit.
By t0rtoise@hotmail.com

i'm a little less sold on this theory than i used to be when i blasted
airbag through my car speakers all the time, probably ruining them forever.
maybe i need to start again. in any case, patterns or interpretations we
see (hear) in music come from us, not from it. not that it makes the music
or any interpretation better or worse, but it's something to think about as
you wonder how i came up with this nonsense.

we have gotten from general common sense, as well as Thom's comments, that
Airbag is about car crashes, and the false sense of security we get from
airbags, and the true appreciation of life that comes from near death
experiences. however, through a sort of cross-eyed examination of the
lyrics and music it's possible to also come to a more remote (or
pretentious) interpretation:
Airbag is the creation and destruction of the universe; in the beginning is
the creation (big bang, or whatever) of the universe, followed by that of
consciousness; at the end of the song is the death of both.
in greater detail:
the beginning of Airbag is quite striking, and propels the song (and the
album) forward with the force of a rocket launch. the guitar and sleigh
bells come in first, followed by a second guitar, and finally the drums.
shortly after the final chord of the opening guitar line, the vocals start.
this opening line is the creation of the universe; consider it the Big Bang
if you will. Matter is created and then propelled outward. after the Bang,
solidifying matter is thrown clear of the center of the expanding universe,
and no longer accelerates outward, as the initial force of the explosion no
longer affects it. The universe expands at a more constant velocity.
correspondingly, after the opening guitar line, the song settles into a
steady pace (stops accelerating) as the rhythm guitar comes in.
the vocals come more or less all together. the somewhat mysterious
reference to the 'next world war' is significant in several ways: given that
we would imagine a futuristic world war as an incredible storm of light and
sound (the last world war, after all, introduced us to atom bombs and other
fun things), this first line can be read as an image of explosive sensory
overload, a representation of the experience of going through a car crash:
squealing tires, crashing metal, shattering glass, explosions, sirens and
flashing lights, etc. it might not be as destructive as a war, but it
probably sounds and feels like one.
this runs parallel to several other ideas in Airbag: the crashes and
explosions of the car accident represent a sensory shock that is mirrored
on a much larger scale by the Big Bang. It is also mirrored by the
transition from, say, blindness to sight, deafness to hearing, etc. 'the
next world war' can be the incomprehensible overload of a crash, or the leap
from void to matter that constitutes the Big Bang. but the lyrics tell us
that it can also be the transition from unconscious to conscious that
constitutes birth (we, of course, have the line 'i am born again', which
takes on a new meaning in this light).
the 'next world war' idea is carried further by more images from: a
jacknifed juggernaut (the toppling and crashing of large objects), the glow
of neon lights (flashes and explosions).
the second verse mentions the 'deep sleep of the innocent' (nonbeing,
unconsciousness, or even the womb), and continues the description of the car
crash, which (if you believe all this rubbish so far) is linked, by the
song, to the births of the universe and of consciousness.
the recurring line 'in an intastella burst i am back to save the universe!!'
is most important. this an affirmation of existence, whether it be the
words we yell after surviving a car wreck, a birth cry, or the sound of the
universe being created. a burst, however, suggests something short-lived
despite (or because of) its intensity. one human life is only a brief burst
compared to all of human history, human history is only a brief burst
considering geologic time. the lifespan of the earth is a burst considering
the lifespan of the universe, and the lifespan of all of existence is a mere
burst considering the infinite periods of nothingness (not even time exists
before the Big Bang) before the birth of the universe and after its death.
the 'interstellar burst' line, then, is a declaration of birth, but one that
carries with it the knowledge of ephemerality and death. the line (the
closest thing we have to a chorus here) says not only, "i exist." but, "for
however short a time, i exist."
this declaration is made after each verse; after the second verse, the
guitars launch into an interweaving meloady that echoes and resonates
beautifully. echoes make one think of expansive space (there are walls that
return the echo, but the walls are expanding outward) and one gets the
feeling during this instrumental that the universe is continuing to expand
(steadily, as suggested by the return of the rhythm guitar as the melody is
repeated). the chorus is sung a final time; then the song abruptly changes
direction.
If the birth of the universe is the Big Bang, then its symmetrical death is
the so-called Big Crunch. all of matter is eventually sucked back, by its
own gravity, into a single point at the center of the universe, which then
(presumably) winks out as if it had never been.
(of course, astronomers have figured that we're safe from a Big Crunch,
since if something like that were going to happen to our universe it would
have happened by now -- but let's ignore that for today's purposes)
an object thrown up into the air freezes for a moment before it begins to
fall; similarly, there is a moment after the final chorus when the entire
song freezes, as if it were at the top of its trajectory. the universe
stops expanding, and begins to accelerate back inwards. the chorus of 'i am
back to save the universe' becomes both a birth cry and a death cry (though
one that defies death), just as the interstellar burst is both its own
beginning and end. the voice reaches upward even as it begins to fall. the
bass, drums, and guitar noises build up for about a minute (the contraction
speeds up) until the opening guitar line abruptly returns (in live
performances thom puncuates this by screaming); this time, it represents the
Big Crunch, and the song storms to its final, explosive chord. there is a
ready parallel between the destruction of all matter, and the death of a
single person, which is, in a way, the death of a unique universe. thom's
vocals (without words) remain all the way to the end, a final assertion of
life as the universe implodes.
airbag, then, is a sort of five minute primal scream of existence, one that
ties together the life of the individual and the life of the universe in the
form of a car crash. life recognizes its own brevity, but but the fact that
it is a bief burst affirms rather than denies both life and the universe
(and everything!!! haha, sorry). there's a line, i think, in Hamlet (5th
act, scene 2 or something), that paraphrases: "man's life is but to say
'one'." a little strange for hamlet to say, but i think it gets at the same
idea.
By Marvin B

Well, let me start by saying that I think that all the interpretation posted before are wonderful, and they are all correct. As a radiohead fan, I find it impossible to have just a single interpretation of one of their songs, that would be too one-dimensional. This is the beauty of radiohead and their poetic lyrics. Since the words are so cryptic and have to put together, different people come up with different interpretations. Its all based on what you are going through at the time. The more interpretation, the better a song is. In my opinion, I think airbag is a very optimistic song. It is saying that there are second chances, and to never give up. Life is a basket full of hardships and challenges, but one always manages to conquer those challenges. When you do succeed in overcoming the hardships, you gain such positive view on your life, you begin to feel as if you're "born again". I think this song reaches a high point of optimism towards the ends, when the narrator manages to surpass the biggest challenge one could face - death. Many people tend to dislike Radiohead because they think that it's too depressing, too melancholic, too blah, blah, blah... I think that is bullshit. In between all the dark lyrics and wheeping shouts, there is always a light. In their music, radiohead is trying to say that yeah there is all this bad stuff occuring in the world, but all of it could be fix. Nothing in this earth is completely lost.
By Tom

This song merges the first person physical imagery of an accident victim being delivered to the trauma bay while sustaining life threatening injuries with the more significant question beign posed: What is the point of being born again into a world that was moving too fast for me in the first place...? The "neon signs scrolling up and down" are representative of the hospital corridor lights as seen through the eyes of the victim lying on a gurney as he is rushed down the hall in a delirium. The eventual breakthrough comes in the final track "Idiot, slow down" as the traveler listens to his inner voice and decides to turn in another direction.