The Tourist

By Faithless the Wonder Boy

"It barks at no-one else but me" = Is it just me that feels this way...
"No-one else would know" = Same again.
All 'slow down' parts refere to growing up too fast / life running away from you.

That's my interpretation. This is (proberly) the best song ever. Peaceful, calm, and the finishing symbal - beautiful, perhaps scary?
By pacino96@hotmail.com

I have to agree with the guy above me the tourist is very scary almost a transitory thought in someone's mind listing to the music, its alot like regular life its like dulled perceptions being slashed by this thought

the thought of everything around you going to fast how you can travel and leave your state or place in life and come back and everything is still the same, the scary thought of life is that life continues without you(a ghost) you would assume the world revolved around you(the dog barks at no one else but me) but it doesn't and I think the protagonist in the song is just realizing this on "a plane going 1000 feet per second" -a really fast out of control world where like a thousand lives pass in front of you and you give no thought to anybody's elses life the thought of a life so fast you rarely give any thought to anyone your a tourist to your family, your friends, your own soul instant gratification is not the way to live life want to be entertained turn on the tv want to escape take to many drugs wanting everything quickly is how the world is today but that doesn't mean you have to go alone with it

the author of this song is basically saying ...slow down you idiot because if you take in so much life so fast you'll either burn out or miss the point

this is the best song ever written, I believe because its so simple lyrically but there is this complex texture in the guitars and the way song picks up at "hey man...slow down" part is what music is all about
By Mike Hershey

As most of the songs on OK Computer focus on modern alienation, "The Tourist" is no exception. Radiohead themself have stated that each song is like a personal monologue, and to understand the song, one should understand the voice that is speaking.

Strangely, the word 'tourist" doesn't appear in the song, but the association is clear: the bourgeois, egoistic, consumer-oriented individual whom Radiohead dislike.

The verses just express the same idea of weariness and alienation (It barks at no one else but me) and the trouble of modern life (I guess it's seen the sparks a'flowing . . It asks me where the hell I'm going, at a thousand feet per second . . .)

The singer begs the world to "slow down." The impact of the song reaches its height as the plea becomes more and more desperate. Finally, the chime at the end puts an ironic twist on the song, recalling the buzz of some modern appliance like a microwave or a toaster. It brings a chilling closure to the album.
By Christopher Cich

From listening to the song. The narrator states that a dog or creature is barking at him only like he was a spectre. The narrator was also talking about the "sparks a flowing" and nobody actually seeing him. This leads me to think that the narrator is dead.

He is in a place where the only thing that sees him is a dog, and no one else. Dogs are said to have the sense of seeing the dead. The spectre recalls back to earlier. When he says "Sometimes I get overcharged" and "That's when you see sparks", he is stating about how upset he get over something, maybe cause a driver of a taxicab or someone similar is driving too fast. This is possibly the reason why he is constantly shouting "Hey Man! Slow Down"

Suddenly the cab wrecks, throwing the passenger from the car at an exaggerated "thousand feet per second".

The end of the song tells of the very last words the man was saying in life. "Hey man, slow down! Idiot slow down!" He recalls his stay as "The Tourist" in the afterlife. Recalling all the things in the past and preparing for his final destination in death. During this point in the song, the victims body is in the hospital in his last moments.

To add the finale, the drumbeats at the end of the song are the heartbeats of the crash victim . The triangle beat is the final pulse hit you hear when a heart monitor stops tracking heartbeats. The victim is finally dead.

I wouldn't doubt that this song has something to do with a car crash. Thom always had that fear for cars. Many songs even tell of his fear for them. (Killer Cars, Airbag)
By Skillen@lineone.net

The Tourist is in reference to the way Thom noticed that tourists race past the attractions they've come to see, not fully appreciating them, 'it barks at no-one else but me' refers to the attractions themselves crying out to be acknowledged. This being Radiohead however, means it has a deeper meaning, possibly that we all rush around in life, never stopping to take it all in.
By Nathan

I believe this song is about how life travels faster than a person wants it to. Life is like a foreign place and person a tourist. The person wants to see more of his current location but life keeps pushing him forward. The person is overwhelmed by the fast pace of life and is becoming frustrated. In the end he is trying to make life slow down and go more at his pace.
By Blaker

When I see the lyrics and hear the song, I hear two different viewpoints throughout. The voice singing in the verses is the actual tourist, while the voice of the chorus is a native who is observing the tourist wasting his vacation by running around aimlessly.

When the verse says, "he barks at no one else. . ." he is talking about a native of wherever he is visiting that is yelling at him.

The actual chorus ("idiot, slow down!") is the "barking" that the narrator describes. So there are actually two perspectives in the song. One is the tourist's perspective; he doesn't understand what he's doing wrong, he's just going about seeing all the sites. The other perspective is that of the enlightened one observing him. He's telling him "hey man, you have to enjoy, just relax and look around."
By mazen

i always thought that this song is , like the first song of ok computer (airbag), about cars...i thought that radiohead meant that the one who is speading at "1000 feet per second" is just a tourist in life, the person who comes to life for a short while, and leave the place without staying a long time, without tasting the best thing in life...hey , all you people who speed too much on the roads: "idiots slow down"...
By talentedmrp

i just finished reading an article about rail-car graffiti artists in a very good periodical by the name of Utne Reader...the subject of the article stated that the beauty of painting on a canvas that could move all over the country, is that to observe the beauty of life's motion, you must allow yourself to access SYNCHRONICITY...you must be able to slow down or speed up at will, because life is far too transitory to be lived at one speed. i would never dain to interperet a song for someone, unless i had written it...the beauty of music, is that we draw whatever we need from it. at least i do...i love music...it sustains me. the tourist reminds me of those time when i'm moving too fast to see my own life slipping by (hey idiot...slow down...)....those moments when the pressure of consciousness builds up inside you and you almost feel the sparks slipping out.... anyway...not just an attempt at interpreting, more of reminder to SLOW DOWN...
By buccasciotta

To me this song represents the ambivalence that permeates OK Computer. It's slow and relaxing and beautiful, but the lyrics suggest something else entirely. It's sort of like being really high or really tired and being wisked around, the serenity you feel when you step outside of it all, and you just want to say "hey man, slow down"
By Panag

Taking into account Thom's explanation of sitting in Paris (I think it was Paris) and watching the tourists hurrying along (at a million miles per second), trying to see all the sights, rather than just sitting and taking in the beauty of the place, I think he's perfectly summed up his attitude in the chorus ("Hey man, slow down"), in the sense that sometimes, it's best to just experience at your own pace, instead of putting travel and life down to snippets of memory and photos. Experience at your own pace, just let the beauty of everything really sink in. Don't let time govern your life.
Additionally, and this is probably why I love this song so much, I think that this closing song for OKC is basically an audio instruction manual for listening to the album. Take it easy, lay down if it helps, just take it all in, really listen to the music. Because this is when Radiohead are most effective, when all your focus is on the sounds, melodies, beats and lyrics. Then is when you really realise the pure fucking genius of the group.