climbing up the walls

By Jack Stalk

ever get the feeling that someone is watching your every move? ever get the feeling that the someone is really you? ever get the urge to follow someone else's every move? ever feel like telling someone that you're going to be there regardless of what they do?

this song is like a dive into depression induced insanity. flooded by nonsense thoughts and illogical compulsions. and of course all encompassing paranoia. this time it's like paranoia from the perspective of the person perpetrating the fear. so anyway, eitherway you turn i'll be there. i lurk in your very own pathetic skull. and there is no time for damage control.

By Brad C

I think that Climbing up the Walls deals with the issue of mental illness, from the first words right through to the end. 'I am the key .., that keeps your toys in the basement' could mean 'once I take over I can let the toys (crazyness) out that you keep supressed'. And 'If you get too far inside, you'll only see my reflection' could mean that when someone is mentally ill, they know that if they search within they with realise and see it themselves. And 'We are friends till we die' is the paranopia that sweeps over someone who is ill when they realise they may not be able to get better. The chorus ('either way you turn..., climbing up the walls') basically spells it out for me how a person can feel helpless paranoia, and the whole song is the voice they are hearing in their head. ( "I" am the..., either way you turn "I'll" be there)

By Jacob Churosh

This song is about being stalked, but not in the usual sense. The Police wrote "Every Breath You Take" about one guy and one girl....but this seems to be about more than two people. It's as if somebody, some ENTITY is watching over our society, watching us every breath we all take, invading our privacy regularly. The government? The media? Religion? Whoever they are, they like to watch--even as we speak, they're climbing up our walls.
By davenet@home.com

All song deserve individual interpretation but...

To me, "I" refers to fear. Not just one fear, all fears. It seems that Thom is speaking like fear would if "it" could talk, if "it" were actually a human. If you listen closely is sounds like nonsense, it sounds like there is no plan. He speaks like the subconscious speaks to you in dream form. It makes sense when your dreaming but is illogical when you wake.

He is everything to you. He helps you, he destroys you, he keeps you locked in your basement (basement can be interpreted as the subconscious, stay there too long and it gets pretty scary).

"Either way you turn, I'll be there", Fear is always with you, fear runs your life. Everything you do is because of fear, fear of results, fear of failure, every fear you have, which is every fear that exists.

"Open up your skull, I'll be there" Find out what's inside your mind, your subconscious, the control of your life. Go to a shrink and "open up your skull", I'll always be there, I'll will always control you, always. Thom is most likely enthused with this new idea he heard, "Your dreams are the subconscious trying to tell you what is wrong with you, and sometimes how to fix it"...

"Climbing up the walls" Fear is seeping its way out of your skull, out of the dark pit of your mind. You sleep, you dream, you remember fears. These then become part of you. This is how insanity start. It's climbing up the walls of your mind to fly into a conscious state, which ain't good.

Anyway, I don't want to bore everyone with an interpretation of all the lyrics in the song, with this basic outline you could probably figure it out on your own by listening to the song again with my interpretation in mind.
By Telemon531a@aol.com

Have you ver been so completely connected to one person, most probably of the opposite sex, that you feel as if you have become that person. And, upon realizing that they do not feel the connection you feel, you feel like you're maybe a little bit crazy? Well, hindsight is never wrong, and I feel that this song perfectly encompasses the feeling of desperation one feels when somebody they love (or they think they love) just doesn't return that love. And then, you try to explain to them in simple terms that makes you sound sane, but that will fail miserably every time. And, in the end, you just try to tell them there is no use trying to resist the pull of destiny, because "if you get to far inside, you'll only see my reflection", and "either way you turn, i'll be there; open up your skull, I'll be there...climbing up the walls". So that's the way I see it, from a personl perspective.
By Jordan Michelman

some songs deserve interpretation. and other songs deserve to be simply appreciated for what they are. "climbing up the walls" falls under the latter. i don't feel any of the other interpretations have come close to explaining or summarizing the message and emotions this song conveys. however, i will say this- in it's own terrifying, mesmerizing way, " climbing up the walls" is the sexiest song ever. period.
By Andew Murphey

To me this song deals with a person's inner self that keeps this person unhappy and has control over this person's emotions and thoughts. I think it also deals with this person watching their self-destructive personality harm the ones he cares about the most.

"I am the key to the lock in your house that keeps your toys in the basement"-To me that is showing how this persons innerself is inexcapeable and that it controls him or her...it controls his "toys"....maybe his toys are his happyness or recolections of happyness this person once had....just as most people remember their toys as a happy symbol of their childhood. "and if you get to far inside youll only see my reflection"- thats symbolizing how this inner self is taking all his happyness away and leaving sadness in its place. The next few lines show how this person is slowly watching his depression and sadness effect his loved ones.

The line "we are friends until we die" is the realization of this person that he can't escape himself. This next part is very crutial to the meaning of this song. "Either way you turn ill be there...open up your skull..ill be there climbing up the walls..." This shows how this infectious state of mental illness and depression is every place this person turns...its in the people around him...its in all aspects of his life...and worst of all...its in his mind..he can't run away from it. The next few lines refer to this person trying to confort him self by covering up and denying his problem...by pushing his loved ones away to as their own way of pretecting them...but inturn the person is just making theirself lonelier and lonelier. The end of the song just repeats the fact that this person's inner self is everywhere...controling him.
By Hayley

I think Climbing Up The Walls is about something in your memory that haunts you. The person did something awful a long time ago and regrets it, he tries to ignore it and go on living his life like it never happend. But it still haunts him, and he can never look back on his life. So he is constantly "climbing up the walls" trying to get away from it, but he can't.
By Chris Brown

I think the song is on about to people whom were the closest of friends who were practically the same person have just delved into the realm of utter hatred.

“I am the key to the lock in your house that keeps your toys in the basement, and if you get too far inside you'll only see my reflection. It's always best when the choir is out, I am the pick in the ice, do not cry out or hit the alarm, we are we're friends till we die.” For some reason one of them thinks it’s a mistake and doesn’t want it to end so s/he start to follow the other one till it ends in violence. “And either way you turn I'll be there, open up your skull, I'll be there climbing up the walls. It's always best when the light is off, it's always better on the outside, fifteen blows to the back of your head fifteen blows to your mind” The two people were most likely married or were seeing each other. As they want to lock the kids up and keep them away from the violence. “So lock the kids up safe tonight, shut the eyes in the cupboard. I got the smell of a local man, who’s got the loneliest feeling” I’m most likely wrong but it seems to make sense to me.
By iron lung

this song is about controlling someone else's mind...being the subject of their every thought...without rest....sort of an unwanted obsession

'i am the key to the lock in your house...that keeps you tied to the basement' means that you can't get inside yourself without my help

the rest of the song backs this point up

'open up your skull...i'll be there...climbing up the walls'= crazy obsession

need i say more?
By paranoid andrew

This song is about someone who goes crazy and thinks there is a monster following him around everywhere, so they lock him up.
"I am the key to the lock in your house that keep your toys in the basement"
The house is the persons mind and the toys are his thoughts. The monster is stopping him from thinking of anything else.
"And if you get to far inside you'll only see my reflection"
It saying that if you try to find out what this thing is the further it is away from you.
"I am her face as she sleeps tonite I am the pick in the ice."
Its saying that this monster is everywhere and in everyone he sees.
"Do not cry out or hit the alarm you know were friends till we die/you'll get the loneliest feeling."
Its saying that if you try to tell anyone they think your mad and alienate you (put you in the asylum).
"Either way you turn, i'll be there/open up your skull i'll be there"
Its saying that the monsters everywhere and the man is afraid to commit suicide because he thinks that when he dies the monster will still be there. The second verse describes who the man goes crazy and tries to kill the monster but can't because he isn't real.
Also Thom used work in a mental home
By Sara M

I love this song. It is one of my favourites on 'OK Computer', perhaps because it feels relevant to me.

Basically this song is about your subconcious - 'I' refers to the other part of yourself that feels almost like another person because it is so dark/depressing/surreal/evil. 'I am the key.........that keeps your toys in the basement', 'I' am the thing that can unleash your darkest, most surreal thoughts from your subconcious mind, i am the key that can unleash what you would like to be surpressed.

'I' is the night-marish state between waking and sleeping, the time when you stir from sleep and the dark seems saturated with prescences: 'it's always best when the light is off'.

'I' is always there ('anywhere you turn', 'roll up your skull...' etc., etc.) because it is a part of you, it is self generated and difficult to let go of ('we are friends till we die'). It is paranoia, fear, depression, and ultimately the little voices that whisper in you ear, trying to drive you crazy.'Do not cry out or hit the alarm' because it's a futile attempt; I am part of you, you are my puppet.

'Roll up your skull, I'll be there, Climbing up the walls.' 'I' will drag you away from reality if you don't keep me in check; 'I' am a constant threat to your sanity.
By Not Important

"I" am the darkness that was with you since birth. The voices in your head, the reason you fuck up, the reason you can't smile, the reason you forget you're alive. I am your twisted pleasure, you're demented pain. The secrets unrevealed, birth, life and death.You were meant to live with "me", "I'm" all that you have. "I'm" the reason you were who you were, are who you are, and will be who you will be. "I" am you and you are me.
By Eve

i agree with some of the ideas that others have had about this song... so here goes mine...

to start, i my concept of this song was derived from a week long session of listening to this song constantly...i was ragingly depressed and at one point this song seemed to be a script for what was going through my head... anyway, now that youre all bored, here goes:

the narrator (the key to the lock of your house and so on) is the insanity caused by severe depression. i see this to be confirmed numerous times in the song...ex: either way you turn, ill be there...with depression, or any thing of its kind, there is no escape... no matter what you try to do, its there, 'climbing up the walls' of you head. what is see in the resolution of this song ::lock the kids up safe tonite...whos got the lonliest feeling:: is that the person can not fight the insanity, he is trapped in his own world of pain and takes his life...

luckily i got out of mine :) needless to say, this song really gets in your head, moreso than any other ive heard... just thought i would share...