I first got hooked on Radiohead with “OK Computer” and have been a loyal fan ever since. Besides guitar, piano, and keyboards, Thom Yorke’s voice is more a musical instrument than human sound to me. Jonny Greenwood on guitars, keyboards, and other instruments; Jonny’s brother, Colin on bass; Ed O’Brien on guitar and backing vocals; and Philip Selway on drums and percussion make up the band, and boy do these guys know how to synch with each other.
It’s interesting that as much as I love Radiohead’s music, I don’t often post about them. I’ve got every one of their albums and most have had the grooves listened away on them. I wouldn’t have posted about them today but on a google search for one-take recordings, “Bodysnatchers” showed up in a list.
Here is what Tyler Golsen has to say about the band and this song in particular:
The unwieldy and experimental aspects of Radiohead’s preferred recording style requires a fair amount of time. The band like to go through multiple different versions of songs, honing in on the aspects that work the best. Sometimes these are progressions and rhythmic patterns, and sometimes it’s a single sound that they want to replicate.
In Rainbows saw the band ease back into the fuller sound of a live rock and roll band after the electronic splicing of Kid A and the unrehearsed spontaneity of Hail to the Thief. Even though the band would refine the arrangements of songs, Thom Yorke still wanted an off-the-cuff excitement to his vocals. And so ‘Bodysnatchers’, the driving and fuzz-filled rocker, kept Yorke’s harried first vocal take as its final.
Connecting more with the propulsive rhythms and distorted guitars rather than focusing on intonation or articulation, Yorke allows himself to gets close to punk as he would ever reach, turning his immaculate instrument into a frenzied wail.
— by Tyler Golsen at Far Out E-zine
In Rainbows (2007) is Radiohead’s 7th studio album. It was first released in October as a pay-what-you-want download, the first ever for a big name band. I did pay $5.00 for it at the time and had it on a disk that actually just recently resurfaced in my hoarder’s heaven when I went searching for, “The Last Waltz” DVD to watch on Thanksgiving.
Per wikipedia:
The retail release of In Rainbows topped the UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard 200, and by October 2008 it had sold over three million copies worldwide. It was the bestselling vinyl record of 2008, and is certified platinum in the UK and Canada and gold in the US, Belgium and Japan. In Rainbows received acclaim, winning Grammy Awards for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package, and was ranked one of the best albums of the year and the decade by various publications. Rolling Stone included In Rainbows in its updated lists of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
In 2005, when they started working on the album, in a weird bit of synchronicity, all of the band members were new fathers. Reading through more material at wiki, there were so many troubles trying to record the album that they almost broke up. They weren’t using their usual producer. After the false start they got their old producer, Nigel Godrich, back at the helm.
Speaking to the theme for this week, from wiki:
To focus them, Godrich transferred their rhythm tracks to a single track, where they could not be further altered. According to Colin, “The idea was to make us commit to something … It was as if we were sampling ourselves. And when you mash sounds together like that they cross-pollinate, they marinade, they interact with each other… They have little sonic babies.”
About Bodysnatchers (from wiki):
Thom and Jonny debuted “Bodysnatchers” in May 2006 at their performance for the Big Ask at KOKO in London. For the album it was recorded at Tottenham House, a dilapidated country house in Marlborough, Wiltshire. Yorke said the atmosphere of the house was captured in the recording. According to Thom, “Bodysnatchers is the only track on the album that was recorded as a live take with the band members playing together.”
Live “From the Basement”:
I do not
Understand
What it is
I’ve done wrong
Full of holes
Check for pulse
Blink your eyes
One for yes
Two for no
I have no idea what I am talking about
I am trapped in this body and can’t get out
Ooooohhhh
You killed the sound
removed backbone
A pale imitation
With the edges
Sawn off
I have no idea what you are talking about
Your mouth moves only with someone’s hand up your ass
Ooooohhhh
Has the light gone out for you?
Because the light’s gone for me
It is the 21st century
It is the 21st century
It can follow you like a dog
It brought me to my knees
They got a skin and they put me in
They got a skin and they put me in
All the lines wrapped around my face
All the lines wrapped around my face
And for anyone else to see
And for anyone else to see
I’m alive
I’ve seen it coming
I’ve seen it coming
I’ve seen it coming
I’ve seen it coming
Songwriters: Radiohead
And….. as a bonus, if you’re energized and want to hear the whole album, here ya go!
Jim Adams is the host of Song Lyric Sunday. This week the theme is songs recorded in one take.
Tao Talk 
I don’t know much about Radiohead. but I did enjoy this song, Lisa. The lyrics were a bit morbid, but they certainly fit with the title.
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Jim, glad you gave it a try. A lot of their lyrics are like that, with an extra dose of existential angst. The music is always a solid jam and many tunes have unusual or spacy aspects to them. If you get a chance listen to the whole album linked at the bottom and let me know what you think.
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Sunday is my busiest day, so I am sure that I won’t have time to listen to a whole album, plus there are football games on that I want to watch.
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Interesting choice for today. I didn’t know this one before: I rather gave up on them after The Bends and OK Computer, and being very disappointed with Kid A – the last of theirs I bought!
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Clive I appreciate your views on Radiohead. Sounds like you gave them a good try. They and you are on different wavelengths. Thankfully there is enough variety in music that there is always some that will suit a listener’s taste.
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I really liked The Bends and OK Computer. Such a shame that the band and I had a parting of the ways. There’s still plenty of good music to go round, though 😊
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I like this one a lot, but I’ve never heard it before. Interesting reading about it. I have heard of this band, but don’t know much of them. Thanks for sharing this one. :)
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Barbara, glad you like it and happy to share :)
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I share your passion, they came at a time when I thought music was turning to mulch and saved me :)
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YAY, another Radiohead fan! Do you have a favorite album? My younger son found a unique recording and gave it to me: Radiohead’s OK Computer done entirely in midi. It’s a fun listen every once in awhile.
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I went with Paranoid Android. Yes, OK Computer has to be my favourite Radiohead album.
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Glyn, that’s cool :) I can’t really pick a favorite album but that one’s up there.
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In Rainbows is my third favourite (The Bends being the second) :)
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Those 3 are great! What I like about their music is that the albums cover different moods so depending on mood will pick the album.
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Good tune that’s completely new to me. Somewhat incredibly in retrospect, Radiohead fell into the big black hole that much of the ’90s were to me when it comes to music. I spent much of that decade happily living in a retro bubble and rarely paid attention to what was then-contemporary music. As such, I largely missed the fuzz about Radiohead, and they only made it on my radar screen fairly recently, thanks to fellow bloggers! I generally like what I’ve heard thus far.
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Christian sorry to hear that, but it sounds like you are remedying the situation. I think OK Computer is a good first album. The Bends is a fairly low-key 2nd one. Then you are primed for the rest :)
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“Thom Yorke’s voice is more a musical instrument than human sound to me” I like this comment because I have done that (considering voice as an instrument) when I did not know English: Had no choice haha. And I think is great not to concentrate on the lyric at first….
Anyway I never heard the piece, but I enjoyed it. Thanks.
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I appreciate your insightful comment.
Marina, I totally agree not to concentrate on lyrics at first. With Radiohead music sometimes not important to ever know them.
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Before hearing this, I only need one of the Radiohead song. Thanks for expanding my horizons.
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You’re welcome, J.
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Great choice I love Radiohead 💜💜
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So happy to hear it, Willow! They are seriously jamming on this tune.
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Yes indeed they are 💜💜
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I discovered them VERY late and by accident. I was captioning an episode of Bates Motel and this haunting song came on that made me stop working and look it up! Still love that song… and many others. So glad they got their producer back and didn’t disintegrate!!! Speaking of which, in the same vein, I wish we could have gotten our “old owner” back when he sold us to a venture capitalist. I’ve finally gotten around to writing about my job’s demise this week if you wanna drop in…….. :)
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Happy you discovered them, and, not having seen Bates Motel, I am guessing it fits for a song named bodysnatchers. Is Bates Motel any good? And on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the scariest, what do you rate it?
I will head over after hitting send on this!
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Thanks again for dropping by. I do have a nest of horrors in store for part II, so you are correct to “look forward to it” lol !!
Bates Motel, the series, was pretty damn creepy. It probably wasn’t as scary as weird, atmospheric, and the acting was great. I’d say maybe 8ish? Definitely worth seeing. I never saw the last seasons, so I’m not sure if it held up. But first couple of seasons…on the money.
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An executive I knew learned about a music server I had setup for for IT only…I gave him a password to get in….he had me fill it up with Radiohead and he got me into them. One of the few cool ones I worked with.
I like the rough guitar tone on both of them.
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Now that’s what I call good bossing. I do too on the rough guitar tone.
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My boss was pissed when he found out about the music server until…the executive tuned in…then all was good again lol.
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Nice to have the exec in your corner!
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One of my favorite bands. I enjoyed reading what you shared about committing to the rhythm recorded and so forth and their cross-pollination.
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Marleen glad to hear you’re a fan.
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Note Li: where you thought you put the whole album is rather an additional song, currently.
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Do you mean 15 Step? That’s the first song on the album, and I think it will auto-advance through the whole album. Actually there isn’t a bad song on the whole thing.
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