Submitted 3 years ago by ocnys to Lighthouse
Source: Genius
The third track is a lullaby-like piano ballad with shifting time signatures, was written in five minutes for Yorke’s infant son Noah.
Alluding to the Biblical story of Noah’s Ark, the song contains the lyrics
"maybe you’ll be president, but know right from wrong / or in the flood you’ll build an ark / and sail us to the moon."
Tate observed that the song
"thus, in biographical context, becomes addressed to a next generation in the same way Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four may have been written indirectly for Orwell’s son … in the same way, Hail to the Thief may not be imagining present ills so much as warning a next generation."
The song’s subtitle was taken from a song from the British children’s television programme Bagpuss. Jonny Greenwood was initially unimpressed with Yorke’s demo of the song, feeling it had only half an idea, but felt it became just about the best song on the record after the band restructured it.
Alternate Title: “Sail to the Moon (Brush the Cobwebs Out of the Sky)”