The Bends

Planet Telex

2007-04-02T19:30:00.001-07:00

you can force it but it will not come
you can taste it but it will not form
you can crush it but it's always here
you can crush it but it's always near
chasing you home saying

everything is broken
everyone is broken

you can force it but it will stay stung
you can crush it as dry as a bone
you can walk it home straight from school
you can kiss it, you can break all the rules
all of the rules, but still

everything is broken
everyone is broken

everyone is, everyone is broken
everyone is, everything is broken

why can't you forget
why can't you forget
why can't you forget

We used up some leftovers to create the drum loop--we cut up and re-arranged the outro section from the first version of "Killer Cars".

Steve Osbourne remix is great.

--Phil Selway (ansaphone)

A drunken evening that spawned probably my favourite track. Thom's one-take vocal crouching in the corner was particularly memorable, he may have been unable to stand. Love Colin's bass groove thang on this.

--Ed O'Brien (ansaphone)

This was the only song written in the studio--I remember helping Thom write the verse, but not having the stamina to stay for the debauched recording session.

--Jonny Greenwood (ansaphone)

err... whooshy? Sitting in T.V. room at RAK studio whilst Thom, Ed and Leckie were working on it, thinking, 'what is this old bollocks?'... then putting bass on, thinking... 'Oh yess, oooh yess, I like it!'

--Colin Greenwood (ansaphone)

The product of a single sex education, romantic novels and art college. [And sensi?]

--Thom Yorke (ansaphone)

The Bends

2007-04-02T19:27:00.000-07:00

where do we go from here
the words are coming out all wierd
where are you now, when I need you

alone on an aeroplane
falling asleep against the window pane
my blood will thicken

I need to wash myself again
to hide all the dirt and pain
'cause I'd be scared that there's nothing underneath

but who are my real friends
have they all got the bends
am I really sinking this low

my baby's got the bends, oh no
we don't have any real friends, no, no, no

just lying in the bar with my drip feed on
talking to my girlfriend, waiting for something to happen
I wish it was the sixties, I wish I could be happy
I wish, I wish, I wish that something would happen

where do we go from here
the planet is a gunboat in a sea of fear
and where are you

they brought in the CIA
the tanks and the whole marines
to blow me away, to blow me sky high

my baby's got the bends
we don't have any real friends

just lying in the bar with my drip feed on
talking to my girlfriend, waiting for something to happen
I wish it was the sixties, I wish I could be happy
I wish, I wish, I wish that something would happen

I wanna live, breathe
I wanna be part of the human race
I wanna live, breathe
I wanna be part of the human race, race, race, race

where do we go from here
the words are coming out all wierd
where are you now when I need you

It's incredibly annoying that no one's noticed the giggles in that album. The song 'The Bends' is completely jokey, completely taking the piss. None of that stuff had ever happened to us when we wrote it. That was our Bowie pastiche, our joke song ! And I really do wish I'd never written that fucking song - it's become the bane of my life. Hundreds of journalists asking - every single fucking interview : "Do you wish it was the sixties ?" No, I don't wish it was the fucking sixties - Levis jeans wish it was the sixties - I certainly fucking don't.

--Thom e. Yorke

One particular line in the song, "We don't have any real friends," was meant to be taken literally. "That represents what we felt, yes," Jonny said,. "There is a sense of isolation being in Radiohead." For all its poor-little-me overtones, the line was grounded in reality; the band's contact with their old friends from Oxford and elsewhere had decreased as they spent more of their time away from home, and keeping any sort of meaningful relationship going with anyone outside the group had grown increasingly hard. "You go away for two, two and a half months at a time," Colin would observe later, "then come back, then go away again, and meanwhile your friends have gone on with their lives."

--Exit Music: The Radiohead Story by Mac Randall

I wanted to get away from the studio to view a house for rent. Consequently, this was the first take.

--Phil Selway (ansaphone)

Weird to have finally recorded this song after playing it live so man times. This track really highlights Jonny's abusive guitar playing.

--Ed O'Brien

Schlang! Schlang--schlang, schlang; shlang... schlang! That's "The Bends", full of air.

--Jonny Greenwood (ansaphone)

A perennial hardy annual of a live favourite, faithfully committed live to tape.

--Colin Greenwood (ansaphone)

Listen out for the recorders. I do. This song is so old I have no idea what it means anymore. For which I am glad.

--Thom Yorke (ansaphone)

High and Dry

2007-04-02T19:15:00.000-07:00

two jumps in a week
I bet you think that's pretty clever, don't you boy?
flying on your motorcycle
watching all the ground beneath you drop

you'd kill yourself for recognition
kill yourself to never ever stop
you broke another mirror
you're turning into something you are not

don't leave me high
don't leave me dry
don't leave me high
don't leave me dry

drying up in conversation
you will be the one who cannot talk
when all your insides fall to pieces
you just sit there wishing you could still make love

they're the ones who'll hate you
when you think you've got the world all sussed out
they're the ones who'll spit at you
you will be the one screaming out

don't leave me high
don't leave me dry
don't leave me high
don't leave me dry

oh, it's the best thing that you ever had
the best thing that you ever, ever had
it's the best thing that you ever had
the best thing you have had has gone away

don't leave me high
don't leave me dry
don't leave me high
don't leave me dry

don't leave me high
don't leave me high
don't leave me dry

One from the vaults--proof that demos are generally the best versions of songs.

--Phil Selway | Ansaphone 008

I really don't remember the day that this was recorded with our sound engineer, Jim. All I do know is that we hadn't arranged the song before we went into the studio, but it ended up sounding great!

--Ed O'Brien | Ansaphone 008

This used to sound like Soul to Soul. A first take demo from ages ago.

--Jonny Greenwood | Ansaphone 008

Over 2 years old now...ah! so young, pure and innocent then -- now I'm just old, pure and innocent! Damn!

--Colin Greenwood | Ansaphone 008

An accident just like Evil Kenevil.

--Thom Yorke | Ansaphone 008

Fake Plastic Trees

2007-04-02T19:09:00.000-07:00

a green plastic watering can
for her fake chinese rubber plant
in the fake plastic earth

that she bought from a rubber man
in a town full of rubber plans
to get rid of itself

it wears her out, it wears her out
it wears her out, it wears her out

she lives with a broken man
a cracked polystyrene man
who just crumbles and burns

he used to do surgery
for girls in the eighties
but gravity always wins

and it wears him out, it wears him out
it wears him out, it wears him out

she looks like the real thing
she tastes like the real thing
my fake plastic love

but I can't help the feeling
I could blow through the ceiling
if I just turn and run

and it wears me out, it wears me out
it wears me out, it wears me out

and if I could be who you wanted
if I could be who you wanted
all the time, all the time

and I run

The band had just been to see Jeff Buckley play a set, and when they got back into the studio, Thom Yorke recorded the vocals in two takes and broke down in tears after doing so. In fact, the vocals heard on the song were originally meant to be a guide vocal, meaning that they would eventually be re-done after the rest of the band recorded their instruments. However, Thom's performance was flawless, so they kept it.

--Green Plastic

Thom : "Last night I was called by the American record company insisting, well almost insisting, that we used a Bob Clearmountain mix of Fake Plastic Trees. I said: 'No way.' All the ghost-like keyboard sounds and weird strings were completely gutted out of his mix, like he'd gone in with a razor blade and chopped it all up. It was horrible."

--Green Plastic

Some of my favourite lyrics on the album--"Gravity always wins"--what a line.

--Phil Selway | Ansaphone 008

This took a while to record only because it was hard to better Thom just singing it with an acoustic guitar. Amazing lyrics.

--Ed O'Brien | Ansaphone 008

My favourite lyrics on the album. Writing the string parts was my studio highlight, in a megalomaniac kinda way.

--Jonny Greenwood } Ansaphone 008

Er.... Deep?

--Colin Greenwood | Ansaphone 008

The product of a joke that wasn't really a joke and a very lonely drunken evening and well, a breakdown of sorts.

--Thom Yorke | Ansaphone 008

Bones

2007-04-02T18:25:00.000-07:00

I don't want to be crippled, cracked
shoulders, wrists, knees and back
ground to dust and ash
crawling on all fours

when you've got to feel it in your bones
when you've got to feel it in your bones

now I can't climb the stairs
pieces missing everywhere
Prozac painkillers

when you've got to feel it in your bones
when you've got to feel it in your bones

I used to fly like Peter Pan
all the children flew when I touched their hands

when you've got to feel it in your bones
when you've got to feel it in your bones

--Phil Selway | Ansaphone 008

Recorded something like first or second take, the same day as we recorded 'The Beds'. Love playing it live.

--Ed O'Brien

--Jonny Greenwood | Ansaphone 008

(Nice Dream)

2007-04-02T18:24:00.000-07:00

they love me like I was a brother
they protect me, listen to me
they dug me my very own garden
gave me sunshine, made me happy

nice dream, nice dream
nice dream

I call up my friend, the good angel
but she's out with her answerphone
she says that she'd love to come help but
the sea would electrocute us all

nice dream, nice dream
nice dream, nice dream
nice dream, nice dream
nice dream

if you think that you're strong enough
if you think you belong enough
if you think that you're strong enough
if you think you belong enough

nice dream, nice dream
nice dream, nice dream

Following his return to his basement flat in Oxford, one evening saw Yorke falling into "a sort of drunken coma and singing a song which became [Nice Dream]. That song refers to a story by Kurt Vonnegut where this crystal's been found that turns all water completely solid and someone drops it into the sea. If you want to kill yourself you just put your finger into the water."--2003 August Mojo

Just

2007-04-02T18:23:00.000-07:00

can't get the stink off
he's been hanging round for days
comes like a comet
suckered you but not your friends
one day he'll get to you
and teach you how to be a holy cow

you do it to yourself, you do
and that's what really hurts
is that you do it to yourself
just you, you and no-one else
you do it to yourself
you do it to yourself

don't get my sympathy
hanging out the 15th floor
you've changed the locks three times
he still comes reeling through the door
one day I'll get you
and teach you how to get to purest hell

you do it to yourself, you do
and that's what really hurts
is that you do it to yourself
just you, you and no-one else
you do it to yourself
you do it to yourself

you do it to yourself, you do
and that's what really hurts
is that you do it to yourself
just you, you and no-one else
you do it to yourself
you do it to yourself, yourself, yourself

My Iron Lung

2007-04-02T18:21:00.000-07:00

faith, you're driving me away
you do it everyday
you don't mean it but it hurts like hell

my brain says I'm receiving pain
a lack of oxygen
from my life support, my iron lung

we're too young to fall asleep
too cynical to speak
we are losing it, can't you tell

we scratch our eternal itch
a twentieth century bitch
and we are grateful for our iron lungs

the head shrinkers
they want everything
my uncle Bill
my Belisha beacon

the head shrinkers
they want everything
my uncle Bill
my Belisha beacon

suck, suck your teenage thumb
toilet trained and dumb
when the power runs out we'll just hum

this, this is our new song
just like the last one
a total waste of time, my iron lung

the head shrinkers
they want everything
my uncle Bill
my Belisha beacon

the head shrinkers
they want everything
my uncle Bill
my Belisha beacon

and if you're frightened
you can be frightened
you can be, it's OK
and if you're frightened
you can be frightened
you can be, it's OK

the head shrinkers
they want everything
my uncle Bill
my Belisha beacon

Bulletproof... I Wish I Was

2007-04-02T18:20:00.000-07:00

limb by limb and tooth by tooth
tearing up inside of me
every day, every hour
I wish that I was bullet proof

wax me, mould me
heat the pins and stab them in
you have turned me into this
just wish that it was bullet proof

so pay the money, take a shot
lead-fill the hole in me
I could burst a million bubbles
all surrogate

and bullet proof
and bullet proof
and bullet proof
and bullet proof

Black Star

2007-04-02T18:19:00.000-07:00

I get home from work and you're still standing in your dressing gown
well, what am I to do?
I know all the things around your head and what they do to you
what are we coming to
what are we gonna do

blame it on the black star
blame it on the falling sky
blame it on the satellite that beams me home

the troubled words of a troubled mind
I try to understand what is eating you
I try to stay awake but it's 58 hours since that I last slept with you
what are we coming to
I just don't know anymore

blame it on the black star
blame it on the falling sky
blame it on the satellite that beams me home

I get on the train and I just stand about
now that I don't think of you
I keep falling over, I keep passing when I see a face like you
what am I going to
I'm gonna melt down

blame it on the black star
blame it on the falling sky
blame it on the satellite that beams me home

this is killing me
this is killing me

Sulk

2007-04-02T18:18:00.001-07:00

you bite through the big wall, the big wall bites back
you just sit there and sulk, sit there and bawl
you are so pretty when you're on your knees
disinfected, eager to please

sometimes you sulk, sometimes you burn
God rest your soul
when the loving comes and we've already gone
just like your dad, you'll never change

each time it comes it eats me alive
I try to behave but it eats me alive
so I declare a holiday
fall asleep, Drift away

sometimes you sulk, sometimes you burn
God rest your soul
when the loving comes and we've already gone
just like your dad, you'll never change

sometimes you sulk, sometimes you burn
God rest your soul
when the loving comes and we've already gone
just like your dad, You'll never change

Street Spirit (Fade Out)

2007-04-02T17:50:00.000-07:00

rows of houses all bearing down on me
I can feel their blue hands touching me
hold these things into position
all these things will want this world

and fade out again
and fade out

this machine will, will not communicate
these thoughts and the strain I am under
be a world child form a circle
before we all go under

and fade out again
and fade out again

cracked eggs, dead birds
scream as they fight for life
I can feel death, can see it's beady eyes
all these things into position
all these things we'll one day swallow whole

and fade out again
and fade out again

immerse your soul in love
immerse your soul in love