The Story of Radiohead's Best Song

I think people are perfectly capable of making their own decisions and God helped me once they listen to me so he could pick one song that you'd like to be remembered by disappear off g'day what you just watched is an excerpt from an interview conducted by the BBC's culture show with Radiohead's Thom Yorke it's a great interview from October 2006 a time when Radiohead were comfortably one of the biggest bands in the world that line seems so significant to me though to be that confident in your answer when you already have a back catalogue of six albums what makes how to disappear off of kid a so special it's important to look at the context of the interview by the time Thom Yorke was on the culture show Radiohead had already been a household name for the better part of a decade and it's easy to assume that reaching this top of the musical ladder just perfects your life after all that's the goal right you have fame fortune and a back catalog of songs you can just play for the rest of your lives but for Radiohead and Thom Yorke especially Fame wasn't all it was cracked up to be [Music] in the spring of 1997 Radiohead were close to releasing the third studio album Ok Computer while writing they had made a conscious decision to write something wholly different to their previous LP the bends they had received acclaim for this album and were already a big name in the UK they knew that they could write something similar and be elevated to the realms of superstardom but they didn't want superstardom they just wanted to play the music that they wanted to play guitarist ed o'brien said in an interview with Q magazine in 2003 everyone said you'll sell 6 or 7 million copies if you bring out the Benz part 2 and we're like we'll kick against that and do the opposite we all know what happened next though when Ok Computer did release on June 16th 1997 it was met with almost universal acclaim Radiohead were almost overnight dragged up to the top of the world Ok Computer was a seminal album and everyone wanted to hear it a month before the album's release the band played a gig in Lisbon where they barely sold 400 tickets five days after the release they were playing for 38,000 people at the Royal Showgrounds in Dublin and a week after that they were headlining Glastonbury now you may be wondering where this all ties into how to disappear completely the fact is these two massive geeks defined Tom York's mental state for the next year the Dublin gig was the biggest Radiohead had ever been asked to perform and York was terrified the night before the gig he was plagued with nightmares about floating down the Liffey a river that flows through Dublin I was running down the Liffey he once said being perceived by a huge tidal wave and a week later the band had a nightmare set at Glastonbury York had already worked himself to breaking point recording Ok Computer and the thought of doing what may be the biggest kick of his career mere weeks after releasing the album was something he didn't think he could manage and then came the set itself despite being popularly regarded as one of the most legendary of all glass every headline sets for the band it was a disaster for almost the entire show they had no monitor speakers they couldn't hear anything they were playing and they could barely even see the crowd at one point York turned to O'Brien and said he was walking off I Bryan convinced him to stay and the band finished their set a huge moment in their lasting legacy as one of the UK's greatest ever bands [Music] despite Glastonbury being a defining night of Thom Yorke's career something had snapped in him while on stage the gigs touring music he didn't want to do any of it anymore but what could he do the band still had to complete another entire year of touring whether he liked it or not so he looked for coping mechanisms and reached out to a good friend of his Michael Stipe of REM when asked how to deal with the constant pressure of endless geeks Stipe had one thing to say pull the shutters down and keep saying I'm not here this isn't happening so that's what he did Yorke shut himself off and staggered through the rest of the Ok Computer tour when the band finally did have some time off in the summer of 1998 he was left in an awful mental state but stardom waits for no one when you're the biggest band in the world you finished touring an album and then you write another one it was too much for him depression and writer's block took hold and the future of Radiohead itself was uncertain writing sessions in Paris and Copenhagen the following year came to nothing and when ideas were thought up they were chopped and changed to the point of obsession the band only found inspiration when they came to a stark conclusion melody is dead rhythm is king [Music] enter kid a release at the turn of the century it's a gray do head in the direction nobody expected gone with the pulsating anthems of the VINs and okay computer gone with the majority of guitars gone with a majority of all analog instruments in their place synthesizers drum machines and for Jonny Greenwood one of the oldest digital instruments beyond Martin Oh Greenwood was primarily the lead guitarist of Radiohead before kedai so for an album that has no real lead guitar lines he needed to focus his efforts elsewhere being the only member of the bands have any training in musical theory Johnny jumped at the chance to show his ability to write orchestral lines both for analog and digital instruments producer Nigel Godrich once said the first time Johnny showed his string arrangements to the other members of the band they all just sort of burst into giggles because they couldn't do what he'd written it was impossible or impossible for them anyway these arrangements are sparse on kedai it as a record does not really call out from any lush string or woodwind sections but one song did track for how to disappear completely [Music] how to disappear completely is the first and only song on kadai to feature an acoustic guitar it's the only song on kadai to be anywhere near conventional there are no drum machines no crazy synth melodies just Radiohead their instruments and orchestra and Thom Yorke singing his heart out the first thing you notice when listening to how to disappear completely is that string line and how uncomfortable it sounds the song is written in D major but these quiet strings play a low D a low a and a high a sharp a note which is not in the key signature as the song develops more and more strings enter and swirl around your ears never leaving you time to really understand what they're playing Greenwoods on Martineau is tracked alongside real acoustic strings and it really shows the melody never stays in one place often slowly rising or falling moving in and out of key on a whim [Music] the snide [Music] these strings are what make how to disappear so interesting musically while they were recording members of the band knew that they'd captured lightning in a bottle with the orchestral Arrangements in the diary that Ed O'Brien kept during the writing and production of kid a he wrote johnny came up with an outrageous Martineau part it's just a matter of getting on his planet but the real emotional weight of the song is Thom Yorke's lyrics and his incredible vocals how to disappear is Tom's attempt to exorcise the demons that possessed him during the okay computer tour he directly references the nightmares he had in Dublin [Music] slow down [Music] and the chorus is word-for-word the lying michael stipe told him to repeat [Music] [Music] going on to reference the Glastonbury technical disaster the music seems intertwined with York's lyrics it's as if the song directly reflects the feelings that he had during those fateful two weeks in 1997 the strings billed constantly evolving and changing like they're trying to drag the vocals under until there's a moment where everything is completely engulfed the tidal wave chasing Yorke has reached him and everything else has pulled underneath leaving only this wall of dissonance he's lost completely dissociated from his surroundings all he can do is cry and wail until it's over suddenly everything is in its right place everything is in key and there's a light at the end of the tunnel the strings reach one final heartbreaking climax and then how to disappear completely ends we left dumbstruck exhausted the way Tom York was left exhausted in the summer of 1998 [Music] the story of house disappear completely is at its heart one that warns of the dangers of superstardom it's a cautionary tale of what can happen if you push a musician to their breaking point and then ask them to keep pushing for many of us headlining Glastonbury Festival is a dream and it's a dream that so few of us will ever actually achieve but for Thom Yorke it became a nightmare how to disappear completely is a testament to that but it's also the crowning jewel of an absolute masterpiece of an album it's Radiohead at their core five musicians who just want to make music the story of how to disappear is without a doubt a deeply upsetting one but at least it has a happy ending Radiohead were able to exercise their demons they were able to finally push away from the hype and the pressure that everyone had piled on top of them and perhaps most importantly they were able to create this song this gorgeous wonderful beautiful song I hope that when it comes down to it it was worth it he could pick one song that you'd like to be remember I have to disappear off today why because it's the most beautiful thing we ever did I think [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Talking With Tom

Views: 1,619,141

Keywords: radiohead, thom yorke, how to disappear completely, kid a, ok computer, creep, the bends, ed obrien, jonny greenwood, colin greenwood, philip selway, glastonbury

Id: Sk6FC7_P88g

Length: 12min 49sec (769 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 02 2020