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Planet Telex
The Bends
High and Dry
Fake Plastic Trees
Bones
Nice Dream
Just
My Iron Lung
Bulletproof... I Wish I Was
Black Star
Sulk
Street Spirit (fade out) |
Radiohead "Planet Telex"
You can force it but it will not come
You can taste it but it will not form
You can crush it but it's always here
You can crush it but it's always near
Chasing you home saying
Everything is broken
Everyone is broken
You can force it but it will stay stung
You can crush it as dry as a bone
You can walk it home straight from school
You can kiss it, you can break all the rules
But still
Everything is broken
Everyone is broken
Everyone is, everyone is broken
Everyone is, everything is broken
Why can't you forget?
Why can't you forget?
Why can't you forget?
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Released:
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February 1995 |
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Found on:
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The Bends & High & Dry single. Hexidecimal mix found on High & Dry CD1 and Fake Plastic Trees US single. L.F.O JD mix found on High & Dry CD2. Karma Sunra mix found on Just CD1. Trashed mix found on DJ Club Mix 12". |
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"Planet Xerox" was this song's original title, but because Xerox was a copyrighted name, Radiohead changed it to "Planet Telex." The only song written in the studio during the Bends sessions, it was recorded one night when the band returned to the studio after drinking a lot of wine. Thom did the vocals lying down, completely drunk. This is the most frequent remixed song in Radiohead's roster.
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Radiohead"The Bends"
Where do we go from here
The words are coming out all weird
Where are you now, when I need you
Alone on an aeroplane
Fall asleep on against the window pane
My blood will thicken
I need to wash myself again to hide all the dirt and pain
Cos I'd be scared that there's nothing underneath
But who are my real friends
Have they all got the bends
Am I really sinking this low
My baby's got the bends, oh no
We don't have any real friends, no, no, no
Just lying in the bar with my drip feed on
Talking to my girlfriend, waiting for something to happen
I wish it was the sixties, I wish I could be happy
I wish, I wish, I wish that something would happen
Where do we go from here
The planet is a gunboat in a sea of fear
And where are you
They brought in the CIA, the tanks and the whole marines,
To blow me away, to blow me sky high
My baby's got the bends
We don't have any real friends
Just lying in the bar with my drip feed on
Talking to my girlfriend, waiting for something to happen
I wish it was the sixties, I wish I could be happy
I wish, I wish, I wish that something would happen
I wanna live, breathe
I wanna be part of the human race
I wanna live, breathe
I wanna be part of the human race, race, race, race
Where do we go from here
The words are coming out all weird
Where are you now when I need you
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Released:
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March 1995 |
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Found on:
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The Bends |
This track was intially introduced as being about "knowing who your real friends are and when they're going to come to your gigs." Thom soon simplified this to "knowing who your friends are." The song reflects Radiohead sense of humor; it contains many ridiculous lines about the CIA and the Marines.
Of the opening, Thom says, "The sound at the beginning comes from this caterwauling mayhem outside this hotel in the States. There was this guy training these eight-year-old kids, who were parading up and down with all these differents instruments. The guy had this little microphone on his sweater and was going: 'Yeah, keep it up, keep it up.' So I ran out and taped it." |
Radiohead"High and Dry"
Two jumps in a week,
I bet you think that's pretty clever don't you boy?
Flying on your motorcycle,
watching all the ground beneath you drop
You'd kill yourself for recognition,
kill yourself to never, ever stop
You broke another mirror,
you're turning into something you are not
Don't leave me high, don't leave me dry
Don't leave me high, don't leave me dry
Drying up in conversation,
you'll be the one who cannot talk
All your insides fall to pieces,
you just sit there wishing you could still make love
They're the ones who'll hate you
when you think you've got the world all sussed out
They're the ones who'll spit on you,
you'll be the one screaming out
Don't leave me high, don't leave me dry
Don't leave me high, don't leave me dry
Oh, it's the best thing that you ever had,
the best thing that you ever, ever had.
It's the best thing that you ever had,
the best thing you have had has gone away.
Don't leave me high, don't leave me dry
Don't leave me high, don't leave me dry
Don't leave me high,
Don't leave me high, don't leave me dry
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Released:
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March 1995 |
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Found on:
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The Bends and High and Dry single |
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Originally written two years before The Bends when they were recording Pablo Honey, the song started out life over a stolen Soul II Soul rhythm. They then decided to do a version of it. They had just had a new skin put on their bass drum, so Phil was messing about with it, and that is how the drum beat came up. Thom played the opening bit acoustic, for a laugh, and everyone thought it sounded like Rod Stewart. Bits got recorded and added, but it soon got discarded pretty quickly.
About at the time that they were recording The Bends, someone found it again, and they were surprised at how well it fitted in. They then put it on the album, not bothering to re-record it. The album version is the original demo version, just remixed. This song is one of the only occasions on which it was not all recorded together - as the band came in separately, and recorded their own sections before it was all put together.
It is widely regarded as perhaps Radiohead's most accessible pop hit, and was a live favourite, though it hasn't been performed in a decade. There was speculation this was mostly due to the demands of the vocal part on Thom Yorke's voice. However, in a recent interview Thom said he "had his arm twisted... to put [the song] anywhere" and described it in the following words: "It's not bad, you know. It's not bad... it's very bad. [Laughs]"
Thom has frequently dedicated this song to the "older people, who don't like loud music". There are two videos for this song - one for the release in the UK featuring the band in a desert, and one for release in the USA with a story revolving around a Pulp Fiction-esque diner.
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Radiohead"Fake Plastic Trees"
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
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Released:
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March 1995 |
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Found on:
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The Bends & Fake Plastic Trees single. Acoustic version found on Fake Plastic Trees CD2. |
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.
*Green Plastic gets its name from this song! :) |
Radiohead"Bones"
I don't want to be crippled and cracked
Shoulders, wrists, knees and back
Ground to dust and ash
Crawling on all fours
When you've got to feel it in your bones
When you've got to feel it in your bones
Now I can't climb the stairs
Pieces missing everywhere
Prozac painkillers
When you've got to feel it in your bones
When you've got to feel it in your bones
And I used to fly like Peter Pan
All the children flew when I touched their hands
When you've got to feel it in your bones
When you've got to feel it in your bones
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Released:
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March 1995 |
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Found on:
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The Bends. Live version found on Live at the Forum & Just CD2 |
| Yet another song (like "My Iron Lung") that reflects Thom's obsession with poor health, this is perhaps a product of the physical tribulations of touring. The song looks at Thom's fear of growing old and becoming physically incapacitated. Thom: "We recorded this about four times before we got it right. The original had the ending going on for about a minute and a half, which was something Jonny got from The Fall." |
Radiohead"Nice Dream"
They love me like I was a brother
They protect me, listen to me
They dug me my very own garden
Gave me sunshine, made me happy
Nice dream, nice dream
Nice dream
I call up my friend, the good angel
But she's out with her answerphone
She says she would love to come help but
The sea would electrocute us all
Nice dream, nice dream
Nice dream, nice dream
Nice dream, nice dream
Nice dream
If you think that you're strong enough
If you think you belong enough
If you think that you're strong enough
If you think you belong enough
[Just as well Just as well Just as well]
Nice dream, nice dream
Nice dream, nice dream
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Released:
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March 1995 |
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Found on:
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The Bends |
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This song revels in a happy-life fantasy, but concludes that it can be nothing more than a "nice dream." Heard at the end of the track are selections from an Artic-sounds tape of John Leckie's. The demo version, available on the compilation Volume 13, is mainly an acoustic number featuring organ and strings.
Thom : "We all debuted playing acoustic guitar on this in a sort of cosmic Kumbaya outside the studio. There's this awful photograph of us all sitting on a lawn with headphones on. The lyrics came out of a half-drunk dream I had, one of those where you don't really sleep properly. It's about our relationship with people generally."
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Radiohead"Just"
Can't get the stink off
He's been hanging round for days
Comes like a comet
Suckered you but not your friends
One day he'll get to you
And teach you how to be a holy cow
You do it to yourself, you do
And that's what really hurts
Is that you do it to yourself
Just you and no-one else
You do it to yourself
You do it to yourself
Don't get my sympathy
Hanging out the 15th floor
You've changed the locks three times
He still comes reeling through the door
One day I'll get you
And teach you how to get to purest hell
You do it to yourself, you do
And that's what really hurts
Is that you do it to yourself
Just you, you and no-one else
You do it to yourself
You do it to yourself
You do it to yourself, you do
and that's what really hurts
Is that you do it to yourself
Just you, you and no-one else
You do it to yourself
You do it to yourself, yourself, yourself.
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Released:
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March 1995 |
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Found on:
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The Bends & Just single. Live version found on Just for College promo |
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Here Thom tells the story of how he once had a narcissistic friend he was compelled to elude. Musically, "Just" is considered the most complex track on the Bends album, and it proves beyond a doubt that Jonny's guitar playing is original and superb. A live version of this track is available on the double-CD compilation Evening Sessions: Priority Tunes; while it captures the intensity of the song live, the original remains the best.
The video to the song is one of the most frustrating ever written - but nobody knows what the man says at the end, and there is no use asking as the band have said that they are never going to reveal the answer. Jamie Thraves, the producer had said "to tell you would deaden the impact, and would probably make you want to lie down in the road too".
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Radiohead"My Iron Lung"
Faith, you're driving me away
You do it everyday
You don't mean it
But it hurts like hell
My brain says I'm recieving pain
A lack of oxygen
From my life support
My iron lung
We're too young to fall asleep
To cynical to speak
We are losing it
Can't you tell?
We scratch our eternal itch
A twentieth century bitch
And we are grateful for
Our iron lung
The head shrinkers
They want everything
My uncle Bill
My Belisha beacon
The head shrinkers
They want everything
My uncle Bill
My Belisha beacon
Suck, suck your teenage thumb
Toilet trained and dumb
When the power runs out
We'll just hum
This, this is our new song
Just like the last one
A total waste of time
My iron lung
The head shrinkers
They want everything
My uncle Bill
My Belisha beacon
The head shrinkers
They want everything
My uncle Bill
My Belisha beacon
And if you're frightened
You can be frightened
You can be, it's OK
And if you're frightened
You can be frightened
You can be, it's OK
The head shrinkers
They want everything
My uncle Bill
My Belisha beacon
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Released:
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September 1994 |
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Found on:
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The Bends & My Iron Lung single |
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Written the day Radiohead was forced to pull out of the Reading Festival in 1993 due to problems Thom was having with his vocal chords, this song comes off very bitter. But as it progresses, "My Iron Lung" seems to drive out Thom's angers about how the band's music was largely ignored - aside from "Creep." Thom has admitted in interviews that he is very proud of this song's lyrics; he felt he had perfectly captured the essence of what he was writing about.
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Radiohead"Bulletproof... I Wish I Was"
Limb by limb, tooth by tooth
Tearing up inside of me
Every day, every hour
I wish that I was bullet proof
Wax me, mould me
Heat the pins and stab them in
You have turned me into this
Just wish that it was bullet proof,
was bullet proof
So pay the money and take a shot
Lead-fill the hole in me
I could burst a million bubbles
All surrogate and bullet proof
And bullet proof
And bullet proof
And bullet proof
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Released:
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March 1995 |
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Found on:
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The Bends. Live and acoustic version found on Fake Plastic Trees CD2. |
| One of the songs that prompted reviewers to believe that Thom had some serious personal problems, "Bullet Proof" actually has a more universal meaning, which invites the listener's personal interpretations. This is truly one of the best songs in the band's roster, and one of Thom's own favorites. The instrumentation was created by Jonny and Ed; they recorded their guitar noises without listening to other layers of the cut. These guitar sound tracks were then put together and mixed with the rest of the song. |
Radiohead"Black Star"
i get home from work and you're still standing in your dressing gown
well what am i to do?
i know all the things around your head and what they do to you.
what are we coming to?
what are we gonna do?
blame it on the black star
blame it on the falling sky
blame it on the satellite that beams me home.
the troubled words of a troubled mind i try to understand what is eating you.
i try to stay awake but its 58hours since that i last slept with you.
what are we coming to?
i just don't know anymore.
i get on the train and i just stand about now that i don't think of you.
i keep falling over i keep passing out when i see a face like you.
what am i coming to?
i'm gonna melt down
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Released:
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March 1995 |
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Found on:
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The Bends |
| For Thom, this song is special. Although he has never offered an explanation of it, throughout 1995-96, when the band played it live, he did introduce it in various ways - declaring, for instance, that the song is about "Sex in the morning. Which is the best time to have it. As long as you've cleaned your teeth beforehand". The lyrics probe the destruction of a relationship and touch on sex with a third party. |
Radiohead"Sulk"
You bite through the big wall, the big wall bites back
You just sit there and sulk, sit there and bawl
You are so pretty when you're on your knees
Disinfected, eager to please
Sometimes you sulk, sometimes you burn
God rest your soul
When the loving comes and we've already gone
Just like your dad, you'll never change
Each time it comes it eats me alive
I try to behave but it eats me alive
So I declare a holiday
Fall asleep, Drift away
Sometimes you sulk, sometimes you burn
God rest your soul
When the loving comes and we've already gone
Just like your dad, you'll never change
Sometimes you sulk, sometimes you burn
God rest your soul
When the loving comes and we've already gone
Just like your dad, You'll never change
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Released:
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March 1995 |
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Found on:
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The Bends |
| One of Thom's earliest creations, this song was inspired by a ruthless and unexplained killing spree conducted by a lone gunman in Hungerford, England, in 1987. Although its original concluding lyrics were "just shoot your gun," these were changed when the song was recorded in late 1994. This was because the death of Kurt Cobain was still weighing heavily on people's minds while the Hungerford killings were not; Thom chose to change the lyrics so that no one would think the song was about the late NIrvana leader. "Sulk" is rarely heard live: the band played it in concert a few times in 1994, even less often in 1995, and never again after that. |
Radiohead"Street Spirit (Fade Out)"
Rows of houses all bearing down on me
I can feel their blue hands touching me
All these things into position
All these things we'll one day swallow whole
And fade out again and fade out
This machine will not communicate
These thoughts and the strain I am under
Be a world child, form a circle
Before we all go under
And fade out again and fade out again
Cracked eggs, dead birds
Scream as they fight for life
I can feel death, can see it's beady eyes
All these things into position
All these things we'll one day swallow whole
And fade out again and fade out again
Immerse your soul in love
Immerse your soul in love.
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Released:
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March 1995 |
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Found on:
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The Bends & Street Spirit single. Acoustic version found on Fake Plastic Trees CD2. |
| This song was written in 1993, around the same time as "My Iron Lung." "Creep" is Radiohead's American hit, this is the British equivalent. Laced with Ed's absolutely perfect arpeggios, the track has a mesmerizing quality that links it to the work of Stereolab. With lyrics about feeling like a very small person in an intimidating world, this fan favorite is memorable and timeless. |
