.Radiohead Karma Police
Karma is a Sanskrit term for action and generally deals with the results of one’s behavior. From a simplified Western perspective, the idea of karma is that if you perform an action, “you get what you deserve,” whether good or bad.
“Karma Police” is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 25 August 1997, as the second single from their third studio album, OK Computer (1997). It reached number one in Iceland and number eight on the UK Singles Chart. In the US, it reached number 14 on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart. It was included on Radiohead: The Best Of (2008).
The music video sees the singer, Thom Yorke, in the back of a car pursuing a man. The title lyric originates from an inside joke; the members of Radiohead would threaten to call the “karma police” if someone did something bad. Yorke explained that the song was about stress and “having people looking at you in that certain [malicious] way”.
Verse 1
Karma police
Arrest this man
He talks in maths
He buzzes like a fridge
He’s like a detuned radio
Yorke and Jonny Greenwood emphasised in interviews that the song was humorous and “not entirely serious”. The line “He buzzes like a fridge / He’s like a detuned radio” refers to distracting, metaphorical background noise that Yorke calls “fridge buzz”, one of the themes of OK Computer. “Karma Police” also shares themes of insanity and dissatisfaction with capitalism.
“Maths” is a shortened UK term for “mathematics.” This line might refer to a person who works with numbers, like a scientist or statistician; or, in simpler terms, it’s a way of saying that the subject ‘speaks in riddles’ and irritates the authorities with what they consider to be nonsense.
Verse 2
Karma police
Arrest this girl
Her Hitler hairdo
Is making me feel ill
And we have crashed her party
There’s no such thing as “karma police” in the Hindu religion; karma being a disembodied cosmic force. Yorke’s narrator personifies the concept, asking the karmic police force to arrest someone for their trivial idiosyncrasies.
Chorus
This is what you’ll get
This is what you’ll get
This is what you’ll get
When you mess with us
If the subject of the song is to be seen in the first verse as doling out karmic judgment on people who offend the narrator, the chorus could be seen as demonstrating the subject’s fundamental misinterpretation of Karma by personalizing and subjectivizing it.
To the subject in the first verse, on the surface, Karma seems to exist to satisfy his desire to pass judgment on those who do things which annoy him. And if that’s the case, then the chorus could be giving a clear confirmation as to what Karma means to him and what drives those judgments—and, perhaps, how he exonerates himself of the burden of consequence.
Verse 3
Karma police
I’ve given all I can
It’s not enough
I’ve given all I can
But we’re still on the payroll
Where the first two verses are accusatory, this one is more exasperated. It seems the narrator passed judgement on others either justly or as a projection of one’s own feelings of ineptitude and lack of confidence in their ability to be good enough.
“I’ve given all I can/It’s not enough” is a phrase a lot of people can relate to; You can work your ass off for something (a job, a needy friend, a hard test) and no matter what, it’s not enough and you’re never satisfied; however, because you get something back from it (“the payroll”) you stick with it because you don’t know what else to do. Thus, the speaker is desperately asking for some credit for the good things he does.
Thom Yorke further clarifies,
It’s for someone who has to work for a large company. This is a song against bosses. Fuck the middle management!
“We’re still on the payroll” also suggests that sometimes we play out the role of the Karma Police as well, executing what we think of as Karma. Of course, we twist what we find to be right/wrong to our execution of karma (“She’s making me feel ill / And we have crashed her party.”)
Chorus
This is what you’ll get
This is what you’ll get
This is what you’ll get
When you mess with us
Outro
For a minute there
I lost myself, I lost myself
Phew, for a minute there
I lost myself, I lost myself
For a minute there
I lost myself, I lost myself
Phew, for a minute there
I lost myself, I lost myself
At this point, the narrator answers his prior phrase “This is what you get;” because everyone is affected by Karma, he reminds himself that he, too, is not immune to Karma, and shouldn’t be putting negative emotions into the universe since it might come back to get him.
“Phew, for a minute there, I lost myself” could also refer to accidentally letting go, relaxing, and being okay with himself before he remembers that he is still under scrutiny by other people also filling the role of the Karma Police.
However of the closing refrain, “Phew, for a minute there I lost myself”, Yorke cited it as an example of his practice of using everyday phrases in his lyrics, and said he probably heard the phrase on television. According to the Financial Times, “When sung in his trembling high voice, this unexceptional phrase becomes charged with power. Yorke said: “It’s so ironic that for years people would write about the way I wrote lyrics as if it’s like some deep heartfelt thing. It’s fucking not at all. It’s like collage. It’s just walking down the street and experiencing something and thinking, ‘What would that be like if I stuck that in your face?'”
Well, how you like them apples? Never mind, I guess I was wrong!
Joycean Rum 