‘Climbing Up The Walls’: The song Radiohead wrote about “the unspeakable”
Back in 1997, it’s fair to say in a scene dominated by Britpop and laddish rule, the revolutionary sound of OK Computer by Radiohead was like nothing that had ever hit the airwaves before. The whole idea of a concept album, not least one exploring the effects of sonic dystopia as well as being an eye to the future in its ruminations on capitalism and rampant technological advances, was a complete artistic 180 on audience expectations. However, the gamble paid off, with the album shooting to number one and producing the band an esteemed status as pioneers of the experimental sound that would subsequently become their trademark.
In so many respects, the tracks on OK Computer are as much relevant to our current landscape as they were almost 30 years ago, such are the longevity of its themes and content. But there is one song on the album that particularly made a splash at the time – or, more appropriately, a sonic shudder – in the form of ‘Climbing Up The Walls’.
The ninth track of OK Computer is written from the subversive position of fear itself, with the chorus uttering the chilling ultimatum: “And either way you turn, I’ll be there/ Open up your skull, I’ll be there/ Climbing up the walls”. If nothing else it’s a nice one to have up your sleeve next Halloween. But there was an “unspeakable” sinister truth to the song that frontman Thom Yorke was at pains to convey, even if it meant delving into the terrifying crux of paranoia.
Considered Radiohead’s first truly “scary” offering, Yorke said ‘Climbing Up The Walls’, “is about the unspeakable. Literally skull-crushing. I used to work in a mental hospital around the time that Care In The Community started, and we all just knew what was going to happen. And it’s one of the scariest things to happen in this country, because a lot of them weren’t just harmless… It was hailing violently when we recorded this. It seemed to add to the mood.”
Disturbing lyrical content aside, the sonic position of the song is also one of petrifying intensity, with the fullness of a string section swelling in all the wrong tones. Set to play quarter steps apart, they create a clashing cacophony fit for a horror movie – but this was, indeed, the point.
Yorke continued to project on to the vulnerability of the human condition when he explained that: “Some people can’t sleep with the curtains open in case they see the eyes they imagine in their heads every night burning through the glass. Lots of people have panic buttons fitted in their bedrooms so they can reach over and set the alarm off without disturbing the intruder. This song is about the cupboard monster.”
Whether hailing back to childhood nightmares or providing an unnerving fortune to the future, Radiohead stop at nothing to instil the fear of God into the listener across the span of OK Computer. ‘Climbing Up The Walls’ is just one example of many, but it’s clear that fans of the band found kindred spirits in the horror fanatics of the world in making the album the cultural phenomenon it was. But no matter how much you love it, maybe don’t listen if your nerves get easily shot – you never know where it might lead you.
