explaining radiohead lyrics

so i'm driving home with the kids in the backseat. and i'm playing radiohead (track 7 of "in rainbows," and then track 8). and aiden really gets into singing the song, but he asks me what "they" (radiohead) are singing. so i tell him:

"i don't wanna be your friend, i just wanna be your lover."

and both willow and aiden concur: "that's bad, yeah, daddy?" "why doesn't he want to be your friend?"

i tell them, it's not exactly bad, in fact, it's not bad at all, because he's saying that he want to be someone's lover. next:

"no matter how it ends, no matter how it starts."

willow corrects me. "it's starts, daddy, not stahts."

i tell her, "some people pronounce it 'stahts.'"

next:

"forget about your house of cards, and i'll do the math (???)" (the latter part is probably wrong, but that's what it sounds like to me)

willow asks, "what does that mean?"

and i respond, "how should i know?" but i add, "do you know what a house of cards is?" and both willow and aiden nod.

next:

"fall off the table and get swept under"

aiden says, "that's bad. he shouldn't be on the table, yeah daddy? he's going to get hurt."

and i say, thinking, actually, for the first time: "i think he's talking about the house of cards."

and then, willow says: "that's like how the wise man builds a house on a firm foundation, like stones or rocks or bricks. the foolish man builds his house on sand, then it's going to blow away."

i think she got that from some light sermonizing over at her preschool, children's house. i kind of laugh. "yeah. i was actually thinking more about the three little piggies."

next:

"denial. denial."

aiden: "what's denial?"

me: "it's sort of like lying. like when something happens and you hide it."

willow: "that's bad. this is a bad song, daddy."

me: "..."

next:

"infrastructure will collapse"

aiden: "what's that?"

me: "okay. infrastructure. that's like- okay, you know a building? inside a building is sort of a skeleton, like a metal skeleton, and it holds the building up from inside. that's the infrastructure."

aiden, laughing: "hee hee, a skeleton!"

me: "not a real skeleton..."

willow: "what is collapse?"

me: "collapse means to fall."

willow: "oh, i get it." and she claps her hands. "claps. if you claps your hands, then the house of cards will fall."

me: "collapse, not claps. they're two different words."

willow, ignoring me: "i get it. collapse. claps." and she claps her hands.

me: sigh...