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amnesiac and new singles
For the Pyramid Song maxi-single go
here.
For the Knives Out single go here.
For other unreleased songs go here.
For Amnesiac scans go here
The latest full Radiohead album is called 'Amnesiac', and was released on May 29th in Japan (in the first week of June 2001 rest of the world). Thom said the title refers to our way of forgetting things and remembering them again (see You and Whose Army?). He anecdotally completely forgot the whole of the song Morning Bell, then one day the whole song came back to him. This is what he wrote at Spin with A Grin:
"the gnostics believe when we are born we are forced to forget where we have come from in order to deal with the trauma of arriving in this life. i thought this was really fascinating. its like the river of forgetfulness. it may have been recorded at same time as `Kid a but it comes from a different place i think. i used to listen to it on my laptop on tour supposedly trying to find a running order but really becuase i was so happy to have soemhting we had done that nobody else had heard and was our secret. it sounds like finding an old chest in someones attic with all these notes and maps and drawings and descriptions of going to a place you cannot remember. thats what i think anyway"hat i
Ed has said that he thinks that Amnesiac sounds like The Bends, but admitted that he was talking nonsense.
The songs on Amnesiac are from the same recording sessions as Kid A. Also, about half of them were performed extensively during the band's 2000 Tent Tour.
Thematically, the album deals with death, defeat and despair, as well as the cynicism of big business, politicians and the media.
At the end of February, Thom posted the following track list on the official message board:
* 01. packt like sardines in a crushd tin box
* 02. pyramid song
* 03. pulk/pull revolving doors
* 04. you and whose army?
* 05. i might be wrong
* 06. knives out
* 07. amnesiac/morning bell
* 08. dollars & cents
* 09. hunting bears
* 10. like spinning plates
* 11. life in a glass house
The listing was later confirmed in a press release, complete with Thom's typing mistakes. Some of the titles were amended slightly in versions subsequently sent to the press. Titles below are the final ones.
On the subject of B-sides, Thom announced on the message board that the first four would be "Orgy", Trans Atlantic Drawl, Fast Track and Kinetic. These all appeared on the Japanese and double-CD versions of the Pyramid Song single. For more information see the Pyramid Song page. He also mentioned that he was 'desperate' to finish True Love Waits.
In an interview with a Japanese magazine, Thom had this to say about Amnesiac, and in particular the minotaur image: " Stanley Donwood is really into the Minotaur right now. Actually we just spoke about it not too long ago. He has this obsession with Minotaurs and the labyrinth. I really didn't know the myth and the story behind the labyrinth until we talked. The music is trying to escape the labyrinth. About the icon (Minotaur) on the cover, there is no real meaning. He looks a little devilish, but he is a Minotaur and he can't escape from his own home. He is trapped and can't move anywhere. That also fits Amnesiac. But who can really understand it? I mean, Stanley's really crazy!!! I don't completely understand it myself, really."
Comments, criticisms, suggestions to 
attackn01@yahoo.co.uk
packt like sardines in a crushd tin box
A catchy start to the album, and musically akin to 'Idioteque' (especially later versions, for example BBC Sessions and Saturday Night Live), though somewhat slower. It was apparently written in a park in Paris, watching the old people and the little kids. Colin said this on the backing track of this song, "The ‘kkkurrghh’ from Packt Like Sardines, that’s from Thom’s laptop. We just compressed messed-up loops. Pull Pulk Revolving Doors was made using an MC505 and some loops, together with some other found loops that we made in St Catherine’s Court when we were recording OK Computer".
This song is about disappointment and futility, and, in the end, the desire to lead a quiet life. The line 'I'm a reasonable man, get off my case' is reminiscent of the end of Voltaire's 'Candide'. The title is one of Thom's Dadaist 'out of the hat' lines, found on the Kid A tour poster, and to be used in the following exercise:
instructions for use:
1 printout.
2 cut into flashcards line by line and wave from the public gallery.
3 produce at random out of a hat.
4 wear headphones or mobile earpiece.
chancey gardner
chattering classes
roundup
trapped like rats
inexplicable
exocet
what have i done wrong?
a waking nightmare
carpal tunnel syndrome
most paper money has traces of cocaine
most paper money has traces of blood
compromise
there is nothing i can do to make you understand
look out the window what do you see?
lost in woods
not a single word
albatross
watch him skwirm cant decide
never
cliches fall from mouth like spit
possibly california
packt up like sardines in crushtin box
gotobed
shot in the head
stuck in the mud
lost in woods
look at him go
only window shopping.
nothing.
something.
everything.
something.
nothing.
The song also features a reappearance of Fred, the chirpy chappy from 'Fitter Happier', muttering robotically in the background.
Some of the lyrics to this song used to be at the official site. The title is probably a reference to death : "dead by 32 pack up like sardine in crush tin box", or perhaps just yet another crashed car image.
after years of waiting
nothing came
as your life flashed before your eyes
you realise......
I'm a reasonable man
get off, get off, get off my case
I'm a reasonable man
get off my case, get off my case
after years of waiting
after years of waiting
nothing came
and you realise
you're looking, looking in the wrong place
I'm a reasonable man
get off my case, get off my case
I'm a reasonable man
get off my case, get off my case, get off my case
I'm a reasonable man
get off my case, get off my case, get off my case
after years of waiting
I'm a reasonable man
get off my case, get off my case, get off my case
I'm a reasonable man
get off my case, get off my case, get off my case
I'm a reasonable man
get off my case, get off my case, get off my case
I'm a reasonable man
get off my case, get off my case, get off my case
pyramid song
For a fuller account of the imagery and background in this song click here.
“3 chords on the piano”.. In London at
Meltdown this song was dedicated to Scott Walker.
The opening lines may be based on the old spiritual 'Swing Low Sweet Chariot'.
I looked over Jordan, and What did I see?
Coming for to carry me home?
A band of angels coming after me
The line 'we all went to heaven in a little rowboat' has a long history in popular music.
This song used to be called 'Egyptian Song'. Apparently it was written in Copenhagen in 1999. Thom went to an exhibition of Egyptian art. He came back, and wrote this song in 30 minutes. A version was leaked at the Sundance Film Festival, revealing Jonny's mastery with string arrangements. This is Jonny's favourite song on the album : "Pyramid Song is probably our best ever - not that I'm so cocky as to think we're that great or anything - just relieved it's out (kind of) and we recorded it well enough."
At the Houston concert (June 2001) Thom called this "a song about past lives".
In an interview with MTV, he had this to say, "That song literally took five minutes to write, but yet it came from all these mad places. [It's] something I never thought I could actually get across in a song and lyrically. [But I] managed it and that was really, really tough. [Physicist] Stephen Hawking talks about the theory that time is another force. It's [a] fourth dimension and [he talks about] the idea that time is completely cyclical, it's always doing this [spins finger]. It's a factor, like gravity. It's something that I found in Buddhism as well. That's what "Pyramid Song" is about, the fact that everything is going in circles".
Pyramid Song is filled with images from Dante's Divine Comedy, making it a kind of sister song to In Limbo on the previous album. Click here for more.
In most countries, Pyramid Song was the first single.
Oh….
I jumped into the river and what did I see?
black-eyed angels swam with me
a moon full of stars and astral cars
and all the figures that I used to see
all my lovers were there with me
all my past and futures
and we all went to heaven in a little row boat
there was nothing to fear
and nothing to doubt
there was nothing to fear
and nothing to doubt
Oh……
I jumped into the river
black-eyed angels swam with me
a moon full of stars and astral cars
and all the figures I used to see
all my lovers were there with me
all my past and futures
and we all went to heaven in a little row boat
there was nothing to fear
and nothing to doubt
there was nothing to fear
and nothing to doubt
there was nothing to fear
and nothing to doubt
pulk/pull revolving doors
One of the stranger songs in the current repertoire, the lyrics are reminiscent of the 'trapdoors that open' on 'In Limbo' . It all seems to be an extended metaphor for different stages and events in our lives, with the trapdoors at the end probably referring to death.
Thom explained the song thus : "Revolving Doors for example, is something that happened in my brain where... Like, Alice in Wonderland. Is it Alice in Wonderland? Where she walks down the corridor and there are lots of different doors. I was sort of in that corridor, mentally for 6 months. And that was an extremely central part, for me, what I was writing. 'Cos every door I opened, it was like, dreading opening it. 'Cos I didn't know what was gonna happen next. See, that makes perfect sense!"
The title may also be a
Ralph Nader reference, the term revolving doors alluding to the ease with which
people at the top of the food chain switch between politics and big business.
there are barn doors
there are revolving doors
doors on the rudders of big ships
and there are revolving doors
there are doors that open by themselves
there are sliding doors
and there are secret doors
there are doors that lock
and doors that don't
there are doors that let you in and out
but never open
and there are trapdoors
that you can't come back from
A song dedicated to Tony B. “I’m sorry I never got the chance to shake your hand” This takes up a theme begun in Kid A, particularly in the 'hidden' booklet. On the RHMB, Thom wrote to Tony B, "I don't hate you Tony, but you need to choose your friends better".
Thom's page
at the official site famously said: "I RECKON I MAYBE DESERVE A FILE AT MI5 NOW TONY WHAT DO YOU THINK?"
He later gave this description of the current establishment: "Labour are
good at highjacking and betraying", and it is interesting, though probably
coincidental, that the album came out just before the British general election.
In the light of the line "You forget so easily", one is tempted to assume that Tony is the eponymous amnesiac. It probably alludes to conveniently forgetting election promises.
The British Prime Minister has often been accused of surrounding himself in the government with like-minded politicians and spin doctors (two prime examples are Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell). These are often called 'Tony's Cronies' by the press.
Thom told Mojo magazine:
``The song's ultimately about someone who is elected into power by people and who then blatantly betrays them - just like Blair did.
``At the same time, I think he couldn't help betraying this country. I think the man's a fool. He's just a product of his time, like any important public figure.
``Anyone who's put into that position just immediately becomes like all the people surrounding him.''
On the official board on 20 June, Thom wrote to Tony B, "did we fuck (vote Labour in the last election), and added, "thats right we are so grateful you sold our country down the river. and then got upset when we tried to criticise you"
The line 'Holy Roman Empire' probably refers to the supposed plot by the leading EU countries, led by the Germans to create a new Holy Roman Empire, as part of a bid to take over the world.
This song uses the language of the playground for its satirical effect (harking back to 'Lurgee' on Pablo Honey). A more-or-less final version was played at the Sundance Film Festival, with barber shop-style backing vocals.
Thom commented that this is one of his favourite songs on the album "coz it was fun to play and totally relaxed and the song wrote itself and i love colins double bass on it"
come on, come on.
you think you'll drive me crazy
come on, come on.
you and whose army?
you and your cronies?
come on, come on.
holy roman empire
come on if you think
come on if you think
you can take us on.
you can take us on.
you and whose army?
you and your cronies
you forget so easily
we ride tonight
we ride tonight
ghost horses, ghost horses
we ride tonight
we ride tonight
ghost horses, ghost horses
ghost horses
I might be wrong
A happy and optimistic (if it isn't interpreted as ironic) song. The band performed it during the second half of the Kid A Tour, first as an acoustic number, later with the guitar riff which would feature in the album version. Most of the lyrics to this song could be found on the deciduous page at the official site.
There may be some relation between the 'go down the waterfall' of this number, and the 'jumped into a river' of Pyramid Song.
Another of Thom's favourites, "because its sounds like the stones that it came out of. its a song that was always there waiting". At Houston Thom referred to it as a "song for the swamps", which suggests the apparently optimistic tone should be taken with a pinch of salt.
I might be wrong
I might be wrong
I could have sworn I saw a light coming on
I used to think
I used to think
there was no future left at all
I used to think
open up, begin again
let’s go down the waterfall
think about the good times
and never look back
never look back
what would I do
what would I do
if I did not have you?
open up, and let me in
let’s go down the waterfall
have ourselves a good time
it’s nothing at all
it's nothing at all
nothing at all
crawling out and in again
crawling out and in again
knives out
This has been performed many times recently with the order
of the lyrics changing from version to
version. Often introduced as a "song about cannibalism, at the
Newport concert it was described as "a song about making a meal out of your
friends". It was first heard on a live webcast in December 1999, and in
London in September was dedicated to "all those who tune in on the
web". The lyrics to this song can be found 
both in the 'hidden' booklet to
Kid A, and formerly on the outta juice
page at the official site.
The lyrics, though ostensibly referring to cannibalism, probably deal with the way we forget our friends, and kick them when they're down. It is reminiscent of 'London' by the Smiths (one of the band's teen idols).
In an interview with the (gulp) NME, Thom said this: "It's partly the idea of the businessman walking out on his wife and kids and never coming back. It's also the
thousand yard stare when you look at someone close to you and you know
they're gonna die. It's like a shadow over them, or the way they look straight through you. The shine goes out of their eyes."
On "Later with Jools Holland" this song was dedicated to all the journalists who slagged them off after one listen to Kid A.
I want you to know
he’s not coming back
look into my eyes
I’m not coming back
so knives out
catch the mouse
don't look down
shove it in your mouth
if you’d been a dog
they would have drowned you at birth
look into my eyes
it’s the only way you’ll know I’m telling the truth
so knives out
cook him up
squash his head
put him in the pot
I want you to know
he’s not coming back
he’s bloated and frozen
still there’s no point in letting him go to waste
so knives out
catch the mouse
squash his head
put him in the pot
morning bell/amnesiac
Thom is quoted as saying this would be
unrecognisable from the song on Kid A. This version is much slower, and the
arrangement is somewhat different, and rather eerie, like "Tales of the
Unexpected". The title may relate to the way Thom completely
forgot the song 'Morning Bell' then later it returned to him in its
entirety. The song also includes, of course, the line 'Where did you park
the car?". He gave this explanation for the song's reappearance: "We
only found it again by accident after having forgotten about it. because it
sounds like a recurring dream. it felt right."
It deals with the pain of separation, though again some of the words sound a little random, and ‘out of the hat’. The line 'cut the kids in half' is perhaps an allusion to the Biblical wisdom of Solomon.
Thom has also said that this song describes his own experience of living in a haunted house. The title is presumably an alarm clock.
the morning bell, the morning bell
light another candle, and
release me, release me
you can keep the furniture
a bump on the head
howling down the chimney
release me, release me, yeah
release me, release me
where’d you park the car?
where’d you park the car?
your clothes are on the lawn with the furniture
and I might as well, I might as well
sleepy jack the fire drill, round and round…
and round
cut the kids in half, cut the kids in half
cut the kids in half
release me, release me, release me
release me
dollars and cents
A song about the IMF, the World Bank, the Global
Corporations, and how they are screwing the developing world. Thom had this to
say on the subject, "If there is a Devil at work,"then he rests in
institutions and not in individuals. Because the beauty of institutions is that any individual can abdicate responsibility. The assumption that we're
all utterly powerless, that's the Devil at work"
This song was played throughout the Kid A tour, with varying lyrics from venue to venue. The version on the album has Alice Coltrane-style strings, courtesy of Jonny. According to Colin, the bassline is inspired by Curtis Mayfield.
I'm still working on this transcription (any ideas appreciated)
there are better things
to talk about
be constructive
bear witness
we can use
be constructive with your blues
and when you turned the water came in
even when you turned the water came
why don’t you quiet down?
why don’t you quiet down?
why don’t you quiet down?
quiet down!
(I want peace and honesty
I want to live in the promised land
I want to be free)
you don't live in a business world
you never go out and you never stay
we'll have goals in a liberal world
living in times without good standing, babe
it's all over baby's crying, it's all over baby
I can see out of here
all of the planet's dead,
all over the planet, so let me out of here
all over...
we are the dollars and cents
and the pounds and pence
and the mark and the yen, and yeah
we’re going to crack your little souls
we're going to crack your little souls
we are the dollars and cents
and the pounds and pence
and the pounds and pence, and yeah
we’re going to crack your little souls
crack your little souls
we are the dollars and cents
hunting bears
This is a short (two-minute) tune, based around electric guitar, and has no lyrics. Interestingly though, Thom did once write the following :
bears
giant bears
they will eat me and you
run back to the house before they catch us
wee hee hee cant catch me
were going on a bear hunt.
like spinning plates
This song will be one of the more controversial on the album. Interestingly Ed described the
band's recent activities using the same phrase. It refers to the plate spinning trick,
in which china plates are spun simultaneously on the top of long poles. The more
plates
you have, the more insanely you have to run from
pole to pole to keep
them spinning, and not smashing.
The big fish eat page at the official site offered the following:
spinning plates trick.
spinning plates im spinning plates
juggling plates
juggling plates
spinning plates
spinning plates
spinning plates
spinning plates
im juggling
plates
The first half of the song has Thom singing backwards, then the tape reversed, an effect similar to the eerie speech of the dwarf in David Lynch's 'Twin Peaks'. Jonny confirmed this trick on the message board on 5th April. The vocals switch to something more normal (and reminiscent of the title track of Kid A) about half way through. The song describes the futility of trying to please everybody, and do too many things at the same time. The line 'living in cloud cuckoo land' echoes the 'living in a fantasy world' of In Limbo on the Kid A album.
Thom said "I'm so proud of 'Spinning Plates' because it was the most skew-whiff way of ever writing a song you could possibly imagine. Basically it was fragments of another song ['I Will'] spun backwards - rewriting the melody that's backwards and having to change it. It was great, that's the sort of stuff I get off on. Still at the end of the day it's a song, and I think coherent."
If you play the song backwards, you can hear the words "read my lips" (thanks Fuzzims for that). This may be a reference to the famous George Bush line: "Read my lips. No new taxes"
while you make pretty speeches
I'm being cut to shreds
you feed me to the lions
a delicate balance
when this just feels like spinning plates
I'm living in cloud cuckoo land
and this just feels like spinning plates
our bodies floating down the muddy river
life in a glasshouse
This song has been played live only once (on the BBC Jules Holland Show), and a practice version is heard in the background during the video Meeting People is Easy. The lyrics can be found on a page from the band's official website. The version on the album includes a Humphrey Lyttleton brass section. The great man himself said the song reminded him of Procul Harum: "The words were very surreal, rather like Procol Harum’s Whiter Shade Of Pale," he says. "I think Thom's are slightly better, but they're coming from the same sort of area."
The song deals simultaneously with the break-up of a relationship, and the media's intrusions into people's personal lives. There is a possible echo here of How to Disappear, which is also about the loss of a private life. Interestingly, Thom quotes from Miles Davis' autobiography thus:
"by now they had made me a star, and people were coming just to look at
me, to see what i was going to do, what i had on, whether i would say anything
or cuss somebody out, like i was some kind of freak in a glass cage at the
motherfucking zoo. man that shit was depressing. "
Most of the lyrics used to be on the somepeoplelikewatchingotherssqwirm page at the official site, including the following:
.
The 'someone listening in' part perhaps also alludes to Thom's paranoia about the British Secret Service.
The line 'don't talk politics and don't throw stones your royal highnesses' achieved an unintended topicality in the first week of April, when Sophie, wife of Prince Edward was forced to resign from her job in a PR company for making disparaging remarks about the government and Royal Family. The Royal Family have made several PR gaffes in the past, for example Prince Charles' various soap-boxes, and Prince Phillip's astonishing use of the word 'slit-eyes' to describe the local people on a visit to China.
It goes without saying that people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
The song was also possibly influenced by the death of Princess Diana, which occurred at the time it was being written.
once
again
I’m
in trouble with my only friend
she
is papering the window panes
she
is putting on a smile
living in a glass house
once again
packed like frozen food and battery hens
think of all the starving millions
don't talk politics and don't throw stones
your royal highnesses
of course I'd like to sit around and chat
well of course I'd love to stay and chew the fat
of course I'd like to sit around and chat
but someone's listening in
once again
we are hungry for a lynching
that's a strange mistake to make
you should turn the other cheek
living in a glass house
well of course I'd like to sit around and chat
well of course I'd love to stay and chew the fat
well of course I'd like to sit around and chat
only, only, only...
there's someone listening in