The beautiful Radiohead song Thom Yorke wrote for his son
Hail to the Thief, Radiohead‘s sixth studio album, was released in 2003, following their electronic experimentations Kid A and Amnesiac. The record blended electronica with more conventional rock instrumentation, arguably bridging the gap between OK Computer and Kid A. Although frontman Thom Yorke’s lyrics have always been concerned with politics, Hail to the Thief is arguably the band’s most political work to date.
During the album’s production, Yorke was primarily inspired by world events and politics, such as the presidency of George W. Bush and the war on terror. He told Rolling Stone: “I was listening to a lot of political programs on BBC Radio 4. I found myself – during that mad caffeine rush in the morning, as I was in the kitchen giving my son his breakfast – writing down little nonsense phrases, those Orwellian euphemisms that [the British and American governments] are so fond of.”
He continued: “They became the background of the record. The emotional context of those words had been taken away. What I was doing was stealing it back.” Despite trying not to “write anything political, anything expressing the deep, profound terror I’m living with day to day,” Yorke stated, “It’s just fucking there, and eventually you have to give it up and let it happen.”
The musician decided to simplify the album’s political themes by taking phrases from fairy tales and children’s television shows and using them as allegories for his social commentary. Yorke’s wife had given birth to the couple’s first child in 2001, a son named Noah, which altered the musician’s outlook on life. Fearing how the state of the world would affect future generations, Yorke channelled his anxieties into Hail to the Thief.
After the explosive opening tracks ‘2+2=5’ and ‘Sit Down. Stand Up.’ – which bears direct influence from George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984 – the album mellows its pace with the introduction of ‘Sail to the Moon’. The lullaby-inspired song centres around a piano ballad that shifts time signatures, with Yorke delivering an impressive vocal performance.
The first verse alludes to the hasty decisions made by governments, alluding to the invasion of Iraq via childlike imagery: “I sailed the moon/ I spoke too soon/ And how much did it cost?” In the second verse, Yorke addresses his son, Noah, through references to the biblical story of Noah’s Ark. “Maybe you’ll be president/ But know right from wrong/ Or in the flood you’ll build an Ark/ And sail us to the moon”. Yorke imagines the potential the younger generation possesses, advising them to retain a strong sense of morality.
The frontman wrote the lyrics in just five minutes, but his original demo left Jonny Greenwood unimpressed. Luckily, the band reworked the track, leading Greenwood to assert that it is “just about the best song on the record.”
