“Really horrible”: The Radiohead song the band called “Rod Stewart rubbish”
Radiohead have always prided themselves on being on the cutting edge of all things rock and roll. Even though there have been plenty of moments where they seemed to leave the genre behind altogether, they are always the first names that most people think of when it comes to artists that are pushing the genre forward at every opportunity, even if their release schedule hasn’t been the most consistent. Ever since the 2000s, every one of their records has felt like an event, but it took a long time for them to get their bearings when they first started making hits.
Before they had even become legends, though, there was a good chance that they would become a one-hit wonder and fade from the limelight. Considering that grunge was starting to die out in 1994, hearing a song like ‘Creep’ one year earlier from a British band felt like they were playing catch-up with the alternative rock before they even started, which explains why the band avoided playing the tune live for years.
But it’s hard to knock anyone for their first try. This was the kind of record that was intended to give them a firm basis to stand on, and when The Bends came out, they at least seemed to be on an even playing field with the biggest names in Britpop at the time. Yes, Oasis were one of the biggest names in the world at the time, but there was a good chance that Noel Gallagher didn’t have a song like ‘Just’ under his belt, with its strange chord changes and unhinged guitar solo.
As much as you can hear the Radiohead we know and love coming out of their shell on this album, there are also a few tunes that were meant to be the soundtrack of the 1990s to many people. There were already pieces that would be there forever, but it’s hard to think of a song like ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ or the title track without reminiscing on the days when Clueless was one of the most important films of all time.
And somewhere in the middle ground of them is ‘High and Dry’. While there are pieces of the tune that are brilliant and show off Thom Yorke’s pipes perfectly, the frontman felt that the song was far from the kind of record he wanted to be associated with, saying, “We thought it was rubbish. It was too Rod Stewart or something.”
Even if it was a little too saccharine by their standards, Jonny Greenwood was the one who stood up for the tune, saying, “It reminded me of that song ‘Mull Of Kintyre’, that really horrible kind of single, but in a nice way. It was one of those songs that people hopefully would be playing as soon as they learned guitar or something.” And while the song is admittedly not hard to get under one’s fingers, that kind of sweetness is what got them more attention from the big leagues.
It was far from the band’s greatest hit by this point, but it’s hard to think that they eventually got the slot opening for Alanis Morissette without ‘High and Dry’ coming first. They may have wanted to shock the hell out of every audience they played to on that tour, but it was better for them to compromise with a song like this than go right into the bold cynicism of ‘My Iron Lung’.
But despite Greenwood namechecking one of Paul McCartney’s most diabetically sweet tunes, recording this song was a move that John Lennon would have pulled. He knew that the message went down better on ‘Imagine’ than on ‘God’, so if the people got hooked with ‘High and Dry’, maybe they would be a bit more prepared once they got to tunes like ‘Exit Music (For A Film)’ one album later.
