Fake Plastic Trees by Radiohead

Fake Plastic Trees
by Radiohead

A green plastic watering can
For a fake Chinese rubber plant
In the fake plastic earth

That she bought from a rubber man
In a town full of rubber plans
To get rid of itself

It wears her out
It wears her out
It wears her out
It wears her out

She lives with a broken man
A cracked polystyrene man
Who just crumbles and burns

He used to do surgery
For girls in the eighties
But gravity always wins

And it wears him out
It wears him out
It wears him out
Wears him out

She looks like the real thing
She tastes like the real thing
My fake plastic love

But I can't help the feeling
I could blow through the ceiling
If I just turn and run

And it wears me out
It wears me out
It wears me out
It wears me out

And if I could be who you wanted
If I could be who you wanted
All the time
All the time

Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: COLIN CHARLES GREENWOOD, EDWARD JOHN O'BRIEN, JONATHAN RICHARD GUY GREENWOOD, PHILIP JAMES SELWAY, THOMAS EDWARD YORKE

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According to singer Thom Yorke, the song was recorded as the band had just been to see Jeff Buckley play a set at The Garage in London and when they got back into the studio, Yorke recorded the vocals in one take and broke down in tears at the end. The song's lyrics are about Canary Wharf in London and about the world of mass marketing and mass consumption. One source of frustration for the band at the time was their US record label, Capitol, who wanted a strong track for American radio to follow the success of their previous hit single Read Full BioAccording to singer Thom Yorke, the song was recorded as the band had just been to see Jeff Buckley play a set at The Garage in London and when they got back into the studio, Yorke recorded the vocals in one take and broke down in tears at the end. The song's lyrics are about Canary Wharf in London and about the world of mass marketing and mass consumption. One source of frustration for the band at the time was their US record label, Capitol, who wanted a strong track for American radio to follow the success of their previous hit single, "Creep". Surprised that the slow paced "Fake Plastic Trees" was seen as a potential single to follow up "Creep" , Yorke ultimately realized the label had remixed the track without his approval: "Last night I was called by the American record company insisting, well almost insisting, that we used a Bob Clearmountain mix of it. I said 'No way'. All the ghost-like keyboards sounds and weird strings were completely gutted out of his mix, like he'd gone in with a razor blade and chopped it all up. It was horrible."