Radiohead
A petulant office-worker fantasy in which the speaker summons an imaginary cosmic police force to arrest people who irritate him…
petty vindictiveness bureaucratic and corporate servitude dehumanisation
Johnny Cash
A prisoner in California listens to a passing freight train and measures his life against it. Over four short verses he moves…
incarceration freedom and mobility guilt and remorse
Kate Bush
A song about two lovers who keep wounding each other without meaning to, and the narrator's fantasy of a supernatural fix: a…
empathy as an impossible exchange the violence hidden inside love gendered misunderstanding