David Bowie’s favourite Radiohead song
While some classic artists struggle to keep up with new music and adapt to the latest trends, the same could never be said about David Bowie. The Brixton native always had a finger on the pulse, championing bands that would soon become legendary.
For example, Bowie was quick to sing the praises of Pixies and Sonic Youth in the 1980s, stating: “The first time I heard the Pixies would’ve been about 1988, I found it just about the most compelling music outside of Sonic Youth in the entire eighties”. Within a few years of discovering Pixies, he covered their songs with his band Tin Machine, citing them as a crucial influence on his work in the early 1990s.
Moreover, in 2003, Bowie shared some of his favourite artists with Rolling Stone, stating, “Beck is tremendous, the chances he takes. And I feel that when [Trent] Reznor produces his next piece, it will be really magnificent.” Clearly, Bowie was open-minded, always receptive to bands that were pushing boundaries and experimenting with new sounds and musical directions, just like he did.
Naturally, this made Bowie a fan of Radiohead, a band that never boxed themselves into one genre. The Oxfordshire five-piece formed during school in 1985, eventually signing to EMI in 1991. Their debut single, ‘Creep’, put them on the map, followed by their first album, Pablo Honey. While their early work rode the wave of the dominant alternative rock sounds that were popular at the time, taking inspiration from grunge, their subsequent release, The Bends, showed much more individuality.
However, it was 1997’s OK Computer that allowed Radiohead to truly shine, and it was quickly heralded as one of the best albums of the year, if not the decade. The band created a cohesive, thematically and musically impressive record – one that left a lasting impact on alternative rock.
Radiohead could have continued to play it safe, but that is simply not in their mindset. Instead, Thom Yorke and the group turned their attention towards electronic instruments, releasing Kid A and Amnesiac at the turn of the millennium, which strayed from the realms of traditional alternative rock. With their 2003 release, Hail to the Thief, the band merged their new synth-based direction with their earlier sound, bridging a gap between their 1990s and 2000s work.
That same year, Bowie told Rolling Stone that he’d recently seen Radiohead live in New York. He revealed: “I had a shrewd suspicion that they were the best band around, and that convinced me”.
The musician also appeared on XFM in 2003 to host ‘The Hijack’, selecting some of his current favourite tracks. Unsurprisingly, he picked a Radiohead number, choosing ‘2+2=5’ from Hail to the Thief. Acting as the record’s opening song, ‘2+2=5’ takes inspiration from George Orwell’s 1984, with Yorke exploring themes of complacency and political brainwashing.
While introducing the song, Bowie joked: “This next band, although they’re probably writing some of the most seriously contemplative and earnestly listened to material that’s been written by any band for many, many years, and that they have devotees, including myself, who go and see their live shows all over the world – they actually can’t add.”
Listen to ‘2+2=5’ below.
