Let Down is the fifth track off of Radiohead's third studio album OK Computer.
Background and Recording
Let Down was intended to be the first single off of the album, but Paranoid Android was chosen instead. The track was ultimately not released as a single because the band was unsatisfied with the video they had produced, and ended up losing money. However, it was released as a promotional single later.
The song was recorded at St Catherine's Court mansion ballroom. Thom Yorke was inspired to write the song while sitting in a pub, noting the customers "clinging on to bottles" and sensing in them the "emptiest of feelings," a sense of disappointment.
Composition
Let Down contains multi-layered arpeggiated guitars and electric piano. Jonny Greenwood plays his guitar part in a different time signature to the other instruments. O'Brien said the song was influenced by Phil Spector, a producer and songwriter best known for his reverberating "Wall of Sound" recording techniques.
Meaning
Let Down is about a fear of being trapped and "that feeling that you get when you're in transit but you're not in control of it—you just go past thousands of places and thousands of people and you're completely removed from it."
Music Video
Radiohead - Let Down
Lyrics
[Verse 1]
Transport, motorways and tramlines
Starting and then stopping
Taking off and landing
The emptiest of feelings
Disappointed people
Clinging on to bottles
And when it comes it's so, so disappointing
[Chorus]
Let down and hanging around
Crushed like a bug in the ground
Let down and hanging around
[Verse 2]
Shell smashed, juices flowing
Wings twitch, legs are going
Don't get sentimental
It always ends up drivel
One day I am gonna grow wings
A chemical reaction
Hysterical and useless
Hysterical and
[Chorus]
Let down and hanging around
Crushed like a bug in the ground
Let down and hanging around
[Bridge]
Let down and
Let down and
Let down and
[Verse 3]
You know, you know where you are with
You know where you are with
Floor collapsing
Floating, bouncing back
And one day
I am gonna grow wings
A chemical reaction
(You know where you are)
Hysterical and useless
(You know where you are)
Hysterical and
(You know where you are)
[Chorus]
Let down and hanging around
Crushed like a bug in the ground
Let down and hanging around