Lyrics

Notes

A green plastic watering can   For a fake chinese rubber plant In the fake plastic earth    That she bought from a rubber man In a town full of rubber plans To get rid of itself   It wears her out, it wears her out It wears her out, it wears her out   She lives with a broken man   A cracked polystyrene man Who just crumbles and burns    He used to do surgery   On girls in the eighties   But gravity always wins    And it wears him out, it wears him out It wears him out, it wears him out   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    And it wears me out, it wears me out It wears me out, it wears me out    And if I could be who you wanted If I could be who you wanted   All the time, all the time

Thom : "Last night I was called by the American record company insisting, well almost insisting, that we used a Bob Clearmountain mix of Fake Plastic Trees. I said: 'No way.' All the ghost-like keyboard 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." The band had just been to see Jeff Buckley play a set, and when they got back into the studio, Thom recorded the vocals in two takes and broke down in tears. According to Thom, this song is about Canary Warf in London. This song is one of the band's largest hits - always played live. A song written for the world of mass marketing and mass consumption. Many versions of "Fake Plastic Trees" are available, including the single from The Bends and an acoustic version on the CD single part 2, which also appears on the Clueless soundtrack. This song was the band's proudest moment, and it remains a live favorite for obvious reasons. [taken from greenplastic.com]