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Kida-mnesia

Started by Glyn, September 07, 2021, 05:02:33 PM

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popcorn

I think the confusion comes from Radiohead's own pointless secrecy.

There's no reason at all why they couldn't have just said in promotional material or interviews "oh here's the story of this song which we know millions of people are interested in". But we didn't even get confirmation that they'd submitted it as a Bond theme until Sam Mendes explained in a BBC interview. We know almost nothing about they make anything any more.

Glyn

Some snippets here
https://youtu.be/Le1NBH0CUFA
Fog sounds interesting atleast.

Still hoping that the online gallery has some hidden tracks buried away somewhere.

turnstyle

Follow Me Around has been released.

It's fine. Good. Finely good. I dunno.

I remember this song used to be one of the elusive tracks back in the day, everyone wanted a studio version. It surfaced on the Meeting People is Easy documentary, a drab sad affair that was one of the few 'intimate' insights fans got into the band during its OK Computer mega-fame phase. They took success and adoration and made it look like hell, as only Radiohead could. And we lapped it up.

In the film the band can be seen at a rehearsal playing FMA - Thom starts on an acoustic, the rest if the band are milling about. Colin is playing Risk. Phil is having a sly wank behind a hi-hat. Jonny is playing Manic Miner on a ZX Spectrum he's constructed from old guitar pedals.

Thom sings along, with beautiful, effortless vocals. He's wearing a pair of baggy cargo trousers. It was the late nineties.

The documentary continues. Footage of interviews. Jonny mentions a journalist's Tellytubby watch. Ed has some photos taken in a stairwell. Oh, innie gawjus!

All the while in the background, the song swells and builds, the band come in, instruments layered on top of Thom's acoustic guitar, Jonny makes his guitar sound like a pig stuck in a fence in a good way, and it builds and builds and Thom's singing gets more intense and it sounds fucking brilliant. Then the band wind down, act like it's nothing, like this song wasn't a genuinely fucking great song, just some shit they came up with half an hour ago, and Thom says 'dinner ready?'.

It was so damn good that some guy on an old Radiohead forum (ateaseweb?) recorded his own full band version, and it was actually damn good.

Well anyway, the version they've put out is just Thom on acoustic guitar. None of the energy of the MPIE version. Guy Pearce is in the very literal music video.

It's fine. Good. Finely good. I dunno.

Official version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrxWiU_v9Qs

MPIE version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IukmT0Jgwyg

popcorn

Never thought it was one of Radiohead's best to be honest, but then their unreleased stuff generally never was, that's kind of why it stayed unreleased. It was always a fairly basic song and this basic acoustic arrangement feels like an appropriate resting place for it. Happy to take it as a snapshot of the time.

I like the vocoder effect on the voice, unexpected but adds an interesting friction.

turnstyle

Quote from: popcorn on November 02, 2021, 05:45:48 PM
Never thought it was one of Radiohead's best to be honest, but then their unreleased stuff generally never was, that's kind of why it stayed unreleased. It was always a fairly basic song and this basic acoustic arrangement feels like an appropriate resting place for it. Happy to take it as a snapshot of the time.


Well thanks for pouring that old bucket of cold piss all over my enthusiasm chum!


popcorn

I'm helping you find acceptance in the version we got. I am assisting you on your journey to peace.

turnstyle

Quote from: popcorn on November 02, 2021, 05:54:01 PM
I'm helping you find acceptance in the version we got. I am assisting you on your journey to peace.

To be fair, my enthusiasm for this song was forged over 20 years ago and I've lost all perspective. I would have merrily listened to a recording of Thom having a polyp removed back then and thought it was genius.

popcorn

I'm relieved they left out the "Did you lie to us Tony?" line.

turnstyle

Quote from: popcorn on November 02, 2021, 05:58:10 PM
I'm relieved they left out the "Did you lie to us Tony?" line.

Yeah, I did listen out for it and breathed a sigh of relief when it didn't show. Feels like 2021 isn't the time to bring back BLIAR.

If they'd left it in I guess Thom could have just blagged it and claim it was a reference to Frosties or summit. Totally NOT part of a nutritious breakfast, Mr marketing man, with your cartoon tiger.

Video Game Fan 2000

I never thought it was good. But there's something nostalgic about it now, comes from a time when Gomez and the Beta Band were often considered the sound of the future.

Video Game Fan 2000

Quote from: popcorn on November 02, 2021, 05:45:48 PM
then their unreleased stuff generally never was,

Last Flowers deserved a full band Beatlesing.

Glyn

Quote from: turnstyle on November 02, 2021, 05:42:33 PM
It's fine. Good. Finely good. I dunno
Similar to the 'low-energy' version of Lift released on OKNOTOK. Sadly this time I doubt anyone is going to be able to steal the much better version.

It would have sat nicely on Hail to the Thief but perhaps it's a bit too similar to Go To Sleep.

Rich Uncle Skeleton

that version of Lift still boggles my mind, thank god for that minidisk leak. the pinkpop 1996 recording is still one of my favourite tracks by them and there's still always that to listen to, but bloody hell. there are better times to be all uncompromising and confound the expectations of your irritating fans. "oh you want that OK Computer era studio version of Lift do you? well we've got a great finished version of that but here you go, a lazy runthrough we did during a levels check." And released as a single of sorts with an actual video, no less. strange bunch.

as for Follow Me Around it's fine, wasn't expecting much else. super dry sounding mind and pretty long! every time I listen to it with headphones regardless of volume by the end I feel like it's giving me a headache.  always preferred this one from Earl's Court in 2003 played a bit quicker and on electric guitar probably just because it's the first one I heard so any other one's always sounded a bit sluggish. good video for this one though.

Video Game Fan 2000

The album version of "I Will" baffles me the most because I remember them talking it up so much - Thom loves the song and wants it perfect, no Amnesiac messing around this one has to be a good proper version, and then they release a version that sounds like he sung it into a dictaphone taped to Colin's chest. And now they're opening the vaults they include a version of a song thats based on "I Will" backing track reversed, but no actual studio take of the original song, that they mentioned recording so many times.

purlieu

The full band version of I Will (was it a b-side?) is by far the best version of the song, the album one is so utterly horrible I can't believe they thought it was the best they could manage with the song.

Glyn

People on AtEase (or whatever AtEase is now) have heard a leak and are being surprisingly positive about the bonus cd. Apparently it works nicely as a collection of songs (mostly Nigel's work is the assumption) and Like Spinning Plates is a bit of a revelation.

Am going to take some persuading but they have done a great job on lowering my expectations so it would be nice to be surprised. Hopefully the exhibition lands tomorrow too.

brat-sampson

I've long loved the piano-led live version of Spinning Plates, so yeah getting an extended cut of that on an album is fantastic.

Like Spinning Plates is good but the rest of the bonus disc is pretty dismal. I'm relieved I cancelled my order for the triple vinyl.

turnstyle

Quote from: Wayman C. McCreery on November 05, 2021, 10:11:16 AM
Like Spinning Plates is good but the rest of the bonus disc is pretty dismal. I'm relieved I cancelled my order for the triple vinyl.

Yep, has a real sense of sweepings from the studio floor.

On listening to the 'Untitled' tracks and other very short instrumentals, my first reaction is:


It's a disc of interludes.

popcorn

I enjoyed the bonus disc. Thought it was an interesting way of approaching it - arranging these various bits and pieces into a sort of trippy voyage. I do love all the mad sounds they recorded in this period, and I like the transitions. It's like tuning into some distant, unreachable Radiohead galaxy on a dodgy radio.

I'm just guessing here, but I think the three untitled pieces are new compositions -  taking some of the separated isolated tracks and sounds and blending them into new collages.

I found the Pulk/Pull version of True Love Waits quite moving. That song went on such a long journey, and we've acquired more and more pieces of it over the years. It's pretty amazing how Pulk was secretly TLW all along, and how all those weird noises suddenly feel all sympathetic and warm and loving in this new context.

As has been said, it's annoying how the album doesn't contain all the B-sides, and yeah, you just know there are hours and hours of fascinating material that will probably remain unreleased forever now. It definitely feels like there was scope to do more with this release. Oh well, I like what we got.

popcorn

#81
Quote from: purlieu on November 03, 2021, 08:12:04 PM
The full band version of I Will (was it a b-side?) is by far the best version of the song, the album one is so utterly horrible I can't believe they thought it was the best they could manage with the song.

Yeah they nailed I Will with the LA version, released as a B-side. I'm so grateful we have that version. Its sardonic swaggering mood and full-band arrangement would have fit Hail to the Thief better too I reckon.

brat-sampson

It's definitely more than the sum of its parts. I'll never be sticking on Untitled V2 on its own or mixing it into a playlist, but as part of the 35m EP it all works really well.

purlieu

I wish they'd done a Com Lag style EP of the b-sides, then this would feel slightly less unsatisfying. I suppose there's still the 2009 reissue.

Custard

Didn't know the drummer was friends with Lorraine
https://www.instagram.com/p/CV8-Nirqto2/

Apparently the vinyl's a bit of a shitshow. Distorted and loads of them are off-centre according to Discogs and r/radiohead.

Johnny Textface

Quote from: Wayman C. McCreery on November 08, 2021, 08:56:43 AM
Apparently the vinyl's a bit of a shitshow. Distorted and loads of them are off-centre according to Discogs and r/radiohead.

Oof they're an awkward bunch.

good times

Agreed that disc 3 works when taken as one piece, weirdly hearing the songs in context made me rate If You Say The Word and Follow Me Around a lot more highly.

Of the others, Pulk & Fog are definitely the stand outs. Like Spinning Plates is interesting but the finished version is way better, the first verse which was left off the Amnesiac version is really awkward and crap and the piano doesn't work.

popcorn

Yeah the new version of LSP gives a fascinating insight into the development of the song, but it's obviously unfinished and nowhere near as well crafted as the final studio version. I think doing the piano arrangement as a live version instead was a nice fate for it.

I agree the extra verse is awkward and was probably the result of initially trying to exactly mirror the reversed melody from I Will. It clearly took a bit more tweaking to get the melody to feel natural that way round. The piano arpeggios and chord progression aren't quite right either.

I think the fan frenzy triumphing it as the superior version comes from the fannish tendency of fetishising "the songwriter and his instrument" over arrangement or studio craft (which is what actually makes Radiohead interesting to me). It's like the version of Motion Picture Soundtrack from OKNOTOK - great performance but not what the song needed to be on record.

good times

Quote from: popcorn on November 08, 2021, 01:35:38 PM
Yeah the new version of LSP gives a fascinating insight into the development of the song, but it's obviously unfinished and nowhere near as well crafted as the final studio version. I think doing the piano arrangement as a live version instead was a nice fate for it.

I agree the extra verse is awkward and was probably the result of initially trying to exactly mirror the reversed melody from I Will. It clearly took a bit more tweaking to get the melody to feel natural that way round. The piano arpeggios and chord progression aren't quite right either.

I think the fan frenzy triumphing it as the superior version comes from the fannish tendency of fetishising "the songwriter and his instrument" over arrangement or studio craft (which is what actually makes Radiohead interesting to me). It's like the version of Motion Picture Soundtrack from OKNOTOK - great performance but not what the song needed to be on record.

Yeah totally, I was looking at one of the dumb threads on reddit about disappointing studio versions and was surprised to see MPS called out a few times. I admit back when it came out it took some getting used to, but it's quite clearly superior in it's final form.

Videotape always get shouted out as well, but the early live version with the big ending sounds wank listening back these days.

With Like Spinning Plates I sort of wondered if they'd gone back recently and done the piano riff as an overdub, it all just seemed a bit too convenient that they'd have a version which combined both the studio and the live version. Wondered similar with the Pulk/True Love Waits mash-up, like they'd just tried to retrospectively create something which previously had only existed in fan folklore.

It seems to be accepted wisdom that Man O War and Lift had work done to them for the OK Computer re-issue, so they've got previous.