How Thom Yorke and Radiohead used William S. Burroughs to inspire ‘Kid A’
Simply put, Thom Yorke of Radiohead is a genius. His efforts to pull the medium of songwriting into the future are profound. Starting as just another alt-rock vocalist lamenting about being a creep and his hate for Jim Morrison, as Yorke changed, so did the rest of the band. Reflecting this, the differences between their debut album 1993’s Pablo Honey and their last effort, 2016’s A Moon Shaped Pool, could not be starker.
After their first record, which tentatively teased the brilliance to come with cuts such as ‘Blow Out’, the Oxford quintet embarked on the most remarkable artistic odyssey since The Beatles ditched the sugary pop of their formative years for the adventure that started with the weed-drenched Rubber Soul and ended with Let It Be.
At the start, the changes were gradual, and on their sophomore effort, 1995’s The Bends, Yorke and his bandmates enacted the creative shifts that would see them go from just another alt-rock act to one of the most fascinating of their generation. Moments such as ‘My Iron Long’, ‘Street Spirit (Fade Out)’ and ‘(Nice Dream)’ confirmed that something game-changing was bubbling under the surface. By the time the follow-up, 1997’s OK Computer, dropped, the snotty, flannel-shirted days of Pablo Honey were just a distant memory.
It remains the sharpest commentary of the modern world and its systems, courtesy of Yorke’s understanding of the mechanics of the contemporary human condition. It came complete with genuinely breathtaking musical skill and textural nouse, as well as a heavier reliance on electronic instruments, effectively signalling the end of the analogue era in the process. Via these aspects, Radiohead affirmed that they were the definitive band of the post-modern era, and that their future held much promise.
What ensued over the rest of their career was ultimately flawless, and the successor to OK Computer, 2000’s much darker and glacial Kid A helped to usher in the dawn of the new millennium and everything it entailed. More experimental and challenging than what came before, it is memorable for its abstract essence, courtesy of how the band started to process and manipulate their recordings, augmented by Yorke’s impersonal lyrics.
Notably, Yorke’s lyrics on Kid A were characterised by his adoption of an age-old medium, the ‘cut-up trick’, popularised by beat author William S. Burroughs and later used by musical icons such as David Bowie and Kurt Cobain. One of the most famous uses of the technique comes via the penultimate track ‘Morning Bell’, which features juxtaposed lines such as “Where’d you park the car?” and “Cut the kids in half”.
Yorke specified that David Byrne’s approach for Remain in Light had a defining impact on how he conceived the lyrics for the album. He told The Wire in 2001: “When they made that record, they had no real songs, just wrote it all as they went along. Byrne turned up with pages and pages, and just picked stuff up and threw bits in all the time. And that’s exactly how I approached Kid A.”
Interestingly, the lyrics are not included in the liner notes, with the band not seeing them as independent from the music, reflecting the gravity of Radiohead’s artistic advancements on Kid A, with Yorke not wanting listeners to focus on them but the whole piece.
