The 1995 Radiohead song Thom Yorke will never get right: “It sounds a bit like Status Quo”
Jack Black spoke about how big a fan he was of the perpetually unpredictable Radiohead, and how that fandom can often result in a bit of confusion, because the jump between albums is so vast that people often fall through them.
He used OK, Computer and The Bends as an example of this, saying that one was great for conceptual work, while the other was a reflection of great rock: “If you want concept, you go OK Computer. But if you wanna rock, if you want straight-up fuckin’ songs, you go The Bends. The first few listens, I was like, ‘I don’t understand…. My brain’s not computing….’ Then it clicked in: ‘Ohhhh, I see! It’s the best band in the history of rock!’”
The album was a great example of how well Radiohead could well and truly do rock. It was one of the band’s most exciting albums, and with tracks like ‘Bones’, ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ and ‘My Iron Lung’, there’s no escaping just how dominating the sound of Radiohead is throughout this entire LP.
However, while the album made for a pretty great listen, it’s an album that the band is quite hesitant to play live. This is a common issue that a lot of groups have who like to push boundaries in the studio. They wind up making great albums, but they struggle to take that album and put it on the stage effectively, as recreating those sounds in a live environment proves to be too tough.
Thom Yorke once spoke about his reluctance to play the album live, and specifically referenced the song ‘Bones’, saying the hesitation came because it sounded like a branch of rock that was completely different to what they wanted to sound like on The Bends. In making his critique of the song known, he also inadvertently called out another band whose music he didn’t like.
“I can’t remember when I last heard it. I like playing the songs off it. It’s a little bit rock for me. [Laughs] But that’s OK,” he said, “Every time we dig up ‘Bones’, it never kind of works. It sounds a bit like Status Quo, which is weird, because it didn’t at the time.”
This seems to be a common problem for Radiohead, as they have a lot of songs which are well-received on their albums that they never play live. One of the most famous examples is their classic track ‘Creep’, which is one of their biggest songs ever, but they refuse to play it live.
Of course, this has less to do with the way the song sounded, and more to do with the fact a lot of people were only rocking up to their gigs for that one track. Regardless of the reason, it stands that Radiohead put just as much effort into their live shows as they do their studio recordings, and that occasionally created some friction between the two.
“We seemed to be living out the same four and a half minutes of our lives over and over again,” said Johnny Greenwood, “It was incredibly stultifying”.
