subterranean homesick alien
by Davide Ferrario

I think this is the easiest song to interpretate.....
Thom said he wants to be raped by aliens... for having a shocking experience for the rest of his life... he said that an alien and a ghost are the same thing ... people prefer to believe he existance of aliens instead of ghosts.
In this song there isnt too much to interpretate... i think... is the most explicit liryc i've ever heard in radiohead...

By Silentk33@aol.com

it's simple realy. thom just want's to know in his heart that something is real in the world. to see an alien, something that is generaly thought of as not real, would mean that there is something real out there. even though no-one believes him, he will be happy. shut away, an outcast, yet he will be content. if aliens can exist, then why can't real love.

By Amanda Wright

i can only say what i draw from the song. not what i believe thom meant (i don't know the guy) this song makes me think of home. i grew up in a tourist town and it makes me think of how i could not find the beauty in it but the tourist could. i almost wanted to be one of the tourists(aliens) if only to feel the beauty of my community. even when i am a tourist in another place i can't seem to feel the beauty they can see. i can't seem to shut off the rest of my life to draw in the sights. walking in my home town observing the tourist i pity them for not seeing what really goes on but really it is me who is blind. for some of you who have posted your interpretations it seems some of you are forgetting how vague words really are. none of us know exactly what the song meant to the author, only what it means to each of us individually. please don't speak to others like they don't know what they are talking about. we are all correct in our own minds. while hearing others opinions can bring more into the song, we don't need to hear anothers opinion to know what the song means.

By Ruari Kerr

The central character in SHA is aging rapidly. He has left behind his youth, symbolised by "the warm summer air" and he says "I keep forgetting [what it was like to be young]". Now he is older, he is more boring and cautious-"can't smell a thing...watch your feet for cracks in the pavement".

He begins to imagine a young person (an "alien" to his way of life) watching these "strange creatures"-the old-who "lock up their spirits" rather than partying. The conclusion he imagines this youth giving is "They're all uptight".

The narrator wishes to be accepted by these young people, to once again be carefree "I wish that they'd swoop down...show me the world as I'd love to see it" and experience new things: "the stars and the meaning of life". He considers telling all his friends to rediscover their inner childs "but they'd never believe me-they'd think that I'd finally lost it completely". Finally, he decides to accept his aging and decides that "I'll be alright-I'm just uptight".

By raven15@alltel.net

ok...this song...as all others have said...is an easy one...

the character lives in a town where everyone is cautious and pretentious

you can hear the aliens talking to each other...in the high pitched noises...to me they say 'what is that?' the second says 'i dont know'...and the third said...'let's go down and see' he sees the aliens and wants to meet them...he wants to feel something that is totally unrealistic and experience something noone else has.... he knows he will be the outcast if this happened....but he would be the greatest person he knew in his own mind...so he really doesnt care
By Ohsure@aol.com

I think this song has little to do with subterranean homesick aliens, and more to do with suburban homeowners. It has to do with the average person. The ones who lock up their spirits and poke holes in themselves, and live for their secrets. The ones who insist on following all of society's rules without question. They hide their true selves to everyone, thus they are subterranean homesick aliens, to the world. The one who is free and makes their choices free from misconceptions is the one who is ridiculed. But then he realizes that it does not matter, and is happy.
By Jared

Well it's obviously about being abducted by aliens... I don't read much deeper into it than that except that it probably has some connection with the Bob Dylan song "Subteranean Homesick Blues". Never heard them or any other Radiohead fan mention it though.
By SNTODD@prodigy.net

I think that Thom is playing on some Platonic themes in this song. In the Republic, Plato has Socrates tell a story about prisoners in a cave. The story goes that one of the prisoners breaks free and slowly walks out of the cave, soon to be blinded by the light of day. The prisoner is so amazed by the what he has seen that he goes to tell his friends about the sun, the trees and the mountians (symbolically Plato's Forms). The prisoners think he is crazy, and so shut him down and eventually kill him. Thom tells a similar story about the a guy who gets taken by aliens to see the way things really are. The guy goes back down to tell his friends and is put away...and he doesn't care. The story is so similar it is eerie. You will have to read the Cave Analogy in the Republic to believe me.
By Sandra Madelis

This is one Radiohead song that is open to the listener's own interpretation--much like the question Thom was asked in school which inspired the song. I see the alien as representing the singer--they are subterranean=underground=deep. Deep in the way that they see the world on the more insightful, intellectual way that Thom does--and many people do not. This person is homesick, they long to be among others who see the world as they do.

The lyrics elaborate on this..."I live in a town where you can't smell a thing/You watch your feet for cracks in the pavement." The other inhabitants are extremely shallow. Since smell is the strongest of all senses, this says that people are unable to have deep emotional feelings. The story of the alien abduction is symbolic of the singer's perhaps spiritual journey that they went through to gain this deeper understanding. The part about "I'll tell all my friends...they'd think that I'd finally lost it completely/I'd show them the stars and the meaning of life/They'd shut me away/But I'd be alright." No matter what happens to the singer, they will always have their mind and their intelligence.
By Steven

I think this song is about getting out of the so very normal and perfect life, which is also explained in "Fitter Happier". He wants to meet someone who can get him out of the SuperNormal Way Of Life. That person I think is subscribed as the aliens who pick him up. Then he tries to tell all the people he knows that life could be so much better, if you look at all the beautiful things in the world. They all laugh at him and feels just uptight.
By Butterat

The entire OK Computer album is an intricate web of continuous ideas and thoughts. Subterranean Homesick Aliens is just one of those thoughts. It is all about values and security that what you believe is the truth and that what you believe is real. The Breath of the morning, and i keep forgetting the smell of the warm summer air. The character is busying himself by doing things that are totally unnecessary and in doing so, he forgets about the pleasureful things in life. I live in a town where you can’t smell a thing and you watch your feet for cracks in the pavement. Oh, wait, no he’s not… The life, the town, and the society are preventing him from realizing how things really are. He can’t smell the air, so it must not really be there. Stepping on a crack in the pavement is a noted sign of bad luck. The people are superstitious and are comfortable with believing that if they aviod the cracks in the pavement, they will have no more bad luck or misfortune. Up above, the aliens hover, making home movies for the folks back home… This is a dual-symbol of both natural curiosity and of something that people aren’t comfortable with. …of all these weird creatures who lock up their spirits, drill holes in themselves, and live for their secrets. People, in general, are really good at hiding their emotions from others for fear of stepping on a crack in the pavement. They punish themselves, chastising themselves by drilling holes in themselves so much because they want to be better. They don’t want others to see their dark misdeeds. They become so enraptured in living for their secrets and trying to make themselves seem better to/than others that they forget about everything else in their lives. They’re all uptight. That sentence means exactly what it says. I wish that they’d swoop down in a country lane, late at night while I’m driving. The character wants to become familiar with these forbidden evils that people naturally fear for no reason other than because they aren’t familiar with them. They’d take me on board their beautiful ship and show me the world as I’d love to see it. The character is wishing that with him under the control of these new, forbidden beings, the world will look like a better, happier place to live. I’d tell all my friends but they’d never believe me. They’d think that I’d finally lost it completely. The character realizes that even if he did see the world as a perfect home, a paradise, he could never be happy there because no one else would see it as a good place, and definitely not as a paradise. I’d show them the stars and the meaning of life. They’d shut me away. The character tries to explain to the rest of humanity that the earth is a good place to be, and that everything really is wonderful but the people of earth would remain steadfast in their beliefs that life on earth is hell. They’d also become scared by someone threatening the comfort they have with being in a terrible world, living a terrible life, and they would shut him away to keep him from ruining their happiness with their misery. I’ll be alright. I’m just uptight. The character realizes that even if he were imprisoned, he would still be happy because he lives in a world full of happiness, and that if he relaxes, and learns to just enjoy things every once in a while, life would be a whole lot better for him, even if he is in jail.
By Sara M

Personally I believe that our own situation and characters warp our interpretations of everything, but this is how I see this song.

It's about someone who is alienated from everybody, feels they don't belong in normal society - 'they'd shut me away'. The character in the song seems to be frustrated with everyday life and people, for example 'about these weird creatures' and 'show me the world as I'd love to see it'. He thinks that he's superior to everyone else for thinking the way that he does ('I'd show them the stars and the meaning of life'), but then seems to admit that he's just as bad - 'I'm just uptight'.

Apologies for a bit of a vague paragraph there.

By Independent Automaton

My interpretation is based around the idea that all OK Comp' songs follow a wider context, to which Subterranean follows also: that is, the concept of mental illness.
It is a bit like the proverbial "Boy Who Cried Wolf". The guy in the song is insane, and as such has no credibility because everything he has previously said has been deemed pure madness. He is frustrated because when he finally does encounter aliens (we assume he does), no one will believe him. My reasons for thinking this are as follows:

The breath of the morning
I keep forgetting
The Smell of the Warm Summer Air

"The morning" that he keeps forgetting perhaps refers to the morning he was either returned, or abducted by the aliens.

I Live in a town
where you can't smell a thing,
you watch your feet
for cracks in the pavement.

The town "where you can't smell a thing" refers to the psychiatric unit in which the guy is incarcerated - the idea of not being able to smell a thing accentuates this, as such an awful place would pressumably have paded cells and would always smell of detergent, blocking other smells out. The reference to cracks in the pavement is far more broad, referring to mental illness more generally. However, always backtracking and going over already troden ground/subject matter is common among those affected by psychoctic disorders.

The following verses are much more blatant about the guy's experience with aliens, not particualarly focusing on the psychotic aspects. "Lock up their spirits" suggests the frustration once again, both at the fact that the guy himself is locked up, and the in the way his persecutors lock up their own imaginations and willingness to understand/and/or believe/entertain the thought of the unexplained. "They're all uptight" therefore.

With the reference to "I'd tell all my friends but they'd never believe me", I don't know whether to take it as his friends isolating him literatally, or whether he means he sometimes doesn't believe himself, and that the friends are actually voices in his head mocking him.

The final references to "I'm alright" being repeated over and over like a re-assurance is like something out of an obcessive disorder, with the guy having to tell himself that he is not mad, even though he is.

What a great song though!
By Sillycyban

Instead of looking too deeply into this song, it should be taken at face value. It's a story about aliens who watch us and send info (home movies) back home.
The moral of the story seems to be simply how screwed up humanity is. "Weird creatures who lock up their spirits, drill holes in themselves, and live for their secrets"
And all uptight. People in general are cruel to one another in some shape or form, they're afraid to open up to one another, unless they're on a talk-show to boost their pride.
And being taken aboard a spaceship and "shown around" is a fantasy shared by many.
When he states that he'd tell his friends, but they wouldn't believe him says to me that no one ever truly takes him seriously, and he feels somewhat isolated, at times.
By Giuseppe Diomede

Of all the songs on OK, this one really sticks out as being the one that best describes suburban America...a place that the band itself deems as ridiculous. Being from an American suburb and knowing just how uncultured, cheesy and anal the people that live in them are, I can relate to this type of satire. This song means a ton to me because, for one, I agree with it to the -nth degree. In fact, I believe that the film "American Beauty" probably would have used this song if it sounded differently. Basically, suburbanites are afraid of everything. They are afraid of the city...they are afraid of minorities...they are afraid of liberal views...they are afraid of public transportation...they are afraid of the obvious, because they don't want the people around them to know that they believe it...they are afraid of having a rusty lawnmower. We're all uptight.