radiohead song interpretations

prove yourself

Prove Yourself, is about Thom's feelings about Oxford, and the expectatious, career orientated life that goes with it. The very foundations of Oxford itself - a university based town, churning out 'daddy's favourite' son or daughter, ready to go into another brain shrinking, over paid job - is to me something that would irritate Thom enough (or make him feel strongly enough) to write a song about it. Although Oxford is not just about the university and the almost religious routine that occompanies it, it is difficult to not stereotype it as a city for toffee nosed over-acheivers. It is by no means that.

By Frya

The song "Prove Yourself" is obviously about self doubt and suicide consideration but it's also about a kick ass theme that is found in all of radiohead's albums; "me vs. the cruel, heartless world"

In the song he talks about how he's stuck in a rut in his town, presumably Oxford. He feels that the world's vigorous constraints and expectations are terribly overwhelming and that he can't make any significant difference in the world. After arriving at this conclusion he says to himself, "I'm better off dead" and the world answers him; "Prove yourself." Society is saying that if you can't live up it's standards then you should do it (society) and yourself a favor and end your "purposeless" existence. But also, Thom, or the hypothetical Thom that narrates the song, feels that there must be something better in the afterlife. It is this hope that keeps us going.

By Sandra Mandelis

I was clinically depressed about five months ago and during that time, this was one of my anthems. (The other one was Fake Plastic Trees, but there are already enough interpretations like my own on that song, so I decided to write about Prove Yourself). Whenever I was feeling suicidal I listened to this song, I could have written a poem or something that explained my feelings like Thom did.

It starts off with the lyrics "I can't afford to breathe in this town/Nowhere to sit without a gun in my hand." To me at the time, this meant that all the people around you are suffocating you with their ignorance and shallowness and everywhere you go, all you encounter are these people, so you can't be anywhere without constantly wanting to commit suicide, since everything is so depressing.

The chorus starts off by saying, "I'm better off dead/I'm better off dead/I'm better off..." This is the depressed person telling people how he feels, perhaps to his friends. Then it's cut off to the part that says, "Prove yourself, prove yourself, prove yourself." This is his peers telling him to have more self confidence by proving he's a good person to himself. This is how all my friends reacted when I was depressed.

The second verse is a fantastic description of the often misunderstood feelings in a depressed person's mind. "I wanna live/I wanna grow/I said I want it but I don't know." Someone who's depressed isn't feeling that way for the hell of it, they really can't help it! The sad feelings take over from their everyday activities and prevent them from living and growing. Most of the time they don't know how to get out of the destructive cycle. "I work/I bleed/I beg/I pray"-this says that the person does everything that's normal or that they're supposed to do to find solace (like praying) and they don't understand why they can't be happy. By the time Thom gets to "I pray" he's crying out, like a suicidal person reaching out for help. The song goes back into the chorus and ends with the person being told once more to "prove themself"...so we don't know if the depression is every resolved. I think Thom must have experienced depression at some point in his life to be able to write so descriptively and articulately on the subject.