Fake Plastic Trees

"Fake Plastic Trees" is a song by the English alternative rock band Radiohead from their second studio album The Bends released in 1995. It was the third single to be released from that album in the UK, but in the US it was the band's first single from the album. According to band singer Thom Yorke, the song was recorded as the band had just been to see Jeff Buckley play a set at The Garage in London; when they got back into the studio, Yorke recorded the vocals in one take and broke down in tears at the end. The song's lyrics are about Canary Wharf in London and about the world of mass marketing and mass consumption. One source of frustration for the band at the time was their US record label, Capitol, who wanted a strong track for American radio to follow the success of their previous hit single, "Creep". Surprised that the slow paced "Fake Plastic Trees" was seen as a potential single to follow up "Creep" , Yorke ultimately realized the label had remixed the track without his approval: "Last night I was called by the American record company insisting, well almost insisting, that we used a Bob Clearmountain mix of it. I said 'No way'. All the ghost-like keyboards sounds and weird strings were completely gutted out of his mix, like he'd gone in with a razor blade and chopped it all up. It was horrible."

[Verse 1] A green plastic watering can For a fake Chinese rubber plant In a fake plastic earth That she bought from a rubber man In a town full of rubber plans To get rid of itself [Chorus 1] It wears her out It wears her out It wears her out It wears her out [Verse 2] She lives with a broken man A cracked polystyrene man Who just crumbles and burns He used to do surgery For girls in the 80s But gravity always wins [Chorus 2] And it wears him out It wears him out It wears him out It wears [Verse 3] She looks like the real thing She tastes like the real thing My fake plastic love But I can't help the feeling I could blow through the ceiling If I just turn and run [Chorus 3] And it wears me out It wears me out It wears me out It wears me out [Outro] And if I could be who you wanted If I could be who you wanted All the time All the time