Radiohead: 15 Step Meaning

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15 Step Lyrics

How come I end up where I started
How come I end up where I went wrong
Won't take my eyes off the ball again
You reel me out and you cut the string.

How come I end up where I started
How come I end up where I went wrong
Won't take my eyes...

1. anonymous

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   Mar 28th 2017 report

   it's all about the 5/4 time signature. the lyrics are secondary and seem stream of conscious. you could should dance to this song counting the measures as 12345 instead of 12341234; the dance step would be three measures long, and thus a 15 step (3 measures of 5)
2. anonymous

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   Jun 30th 2016 report

   The title of the song refers to a line from The Count Of Monte Cristo but Alexandre Dumas where Dantes' character is thrown into prison.
   
   The line is below:
   
   "He descended fifteen steps, and the door of a dungeon was opened, and he was thrust in."
   
   Following the story, this is a bewildering moment for the character Dantes.
   
   When knowing the story and seeing the song lyrics through this lens, they make sense and one can interpret it rightly on their own.
3. anonymous

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   Dec 12th 2011 report

   Seems to be either about a intense relationship with someone or something (like a entity, or a drug, or just a feeling of hope) that seems amazing for a while, just to have everything crash down again. Kind of like the tiring roller-coaster of manic depression.
4. anonymous

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   Oct 3rd 2011 report

   I think this song is about a person really struggling to make progress in his life. He keeps moving out, but every time he thinks he's progressed he has to start over. His lack of growth can be attributed to an outside force though, as he seems to have no control over his movement: "First you reel me out and then you cut the string". This entity that is reeling him out and cutting the string could be a lover who teases him, or could just be the world. When he says, "You used to be all right" he could be talking about his view of the world. Now that he has failed to progress, he doesn't view the world as such a nice place anymore.
5. anonymous

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   Mar 14th 2011 report

   I think this song represents soaring up in a relationship and tumbling back down to where you started, and this repeats in a cycle.
6. anonymous

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   Mar 9th 2011 report

   I think 15 step talks about the next step to be taking after going through the fourteen steps during "the station of the cross". talks about man being lost in sin and reluctant to repent... 15 step is the 2nd coming of Christ

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway

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