November 25th, 2009
Radiohead – Street Spirit (Fade Out)
Here’s the song of the week from my iPod. Have a Happy Thanksgiving.
Radiohead is an alternative rock band formed in England in 1985. The band members are Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano), Jonny Greenwood (guitar, keyboard), Ed O’Brien (guitar), Colin Greenwood (bass guitar, synthesizers) and Phil Selway (drums). The original name of the band was “On A Friday” but they changed their name in 1991 at the request of their record company, EMI, when they signed their first record contract. The new name was based on a song on the Talking Heads album, True Stories.
The group’s first album released in 1992 contained the group’s most successful US single, “Creep.” The song was blacklisted by BBC Radio 1 because it was deemed “too depressing”. This fit in the with the group’s overall image which Beth describes as “the best Emo group of the 90′s.” They have been very successful with all of their seven albums going gold or platinum in the US and the UK. All four of their most recent albums have reached number one in the UK and at least number three in the US.
The Bends, released in 1995, was Radiohead’s second album. Five singles from the album reached the top 25 in the UK. The most successful single in the US was “High & Dry” but the most successful single in the UK was “Street Spirit (Fade Out).” For a group that routinely writes depressing songs, “Street Spirit” reached a new level of depression described as “one of [the band's] saddest songs” and a “dark tunnel without the light at the end,” by the group’s lead singer.
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, 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 its 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
