‘No Surprises’: How a Radiohead classic was once a protest song
When Radiohead first rose to fame, they were celebrated as a rock band and lumped in with many of the grunge bands making waves. Their hit song ‘Creep’ helped a great deal with this, climbing the charts and being seen as an instant classic. While the band enjoyed the success that came on the back end of the track, they grew tired of the song and didn’t like the kind of people it attracted.
“I have a real problem being a man in the 1990s… Any man with any sensitivity or conscience toward the opposite sex would have a problem,” said Thom Yorke discussing the track, “To actually assert yourself in a masculine way without looking like you’re in a hard-rock band is a very difficult thing to do… It comes back to the music we write, which is not effeminate, but it’s not brutal in its arrogance. It is one of the things I’m always trying: To assert a sexual persona and on the other hand trying desperately to negate it.”
Their disdain for this hit is likely one of the driving factors that led Radiohead to make much more experimental music in the future. The Bends was still a straight-up rock album, but their next record, OK Computer, was a much more varied offering. It was a great piece of music and very necessary at the time, as rock had become quite stagnant, and Radiohead injected something new into it.
This is a concept album that explores the perspectives of many people from different backgrounds and the perils they face at the hands of technology and modern living. The whole thing feels like a protest against our increased reliance on technology; however, one song in particular really stands out as a protest song on the album: ‘No Surprises’.
The song is an eerie-sounding number highlighting how difficult life is, regardless of how you choose to live it. You can try to rebel against the things that you dislike, but in doing that, you become nihilistic in the helplessness of everything. This is perfectly highlighted in the lyric, “You look so tired, unhappy, bring down the government.”
On the other hand, the song talks about how you can pay no heed to the injustices of the world and live a simple life. While this might sound dull, there is ignorance in bliss, but the song comments on how even within this ignorance, there is sadness. The line, “I’ll take a quiet life, a handshake of carbon monoxide,” perfectly embodies this.
The song is a brooding protest number, and its glumness makes it difficult for Radiohead to play live. “‘No Surprises’ has to be played a certain way for it to work. If you play it right, it is f–king dark. But it’s like acting,” said Yorke when discussing the volatility of the song, “It’s on the edge of totally hamming it up but you’re not. It’s just the words are so dark. When we play it, we have to play it slow. It only sounds good if it’s fragile.”
