A Short History of Radiohead and Letterman

On August 29, 1997, Radiohead played "Karma Police" to promote their new album "Ok Computer" - their first appearance on Letterman.

Big deal for me since Radiohead were my favorite band and the "Late Show" was my favorite TV show. That's why it always pained me that Radiohead hated either Letterman or his show, at least that's the impression I got.

Rewind back a few days earlier - August 26, 1997 - playing the Hammerstein Ballroom, and before playing "Karma Police, Thom remarks, "In two day's time, we have to do this song on a TV show called 'Mr. Letterman'... bullshit." That's it, simple and concise. Perfectly cryptic: no reasons listed, no explanation given.

Then we move forward to the day of the appearance. At the soundcheck on the Late Show, documented in the film "Meeting People is Easy." Thom tells the sound booth, "Twenty minutes to rehearse spinning a wheel and we don't get five minutes to play the fucking guitar?" Later, offstage he complains, "There [was] a guy on stage giving us shit." What he says after that has never been clear to me and the exact nature of the conflict is not explained to any degree that I can discern.

Fast-forward to 2003 and it's time to promote "Hail to the Thief." Radiohead go on the "Late Show" again to perform "2+2=5." The song ends and no handshake or communication of any kind.

Ah, but let's rewind to just before that... we gain more context by remembering the "Late Show" era we're in. This is during the period where Paul Shaffer is doing his James Brown bit. If you don't know, there was a running bit from 2002-2004 where Paul Shaffer would sing "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know" in the style of James Brown, even to the point of falling to his knees, getting covered in a cape, ushered away from the microphone, before throwing off the cape and returning to sing. The bit was made more elaborate by having guest cape operators who were celebrities. The apex of the bit was  the time when James Brown himself came out to do the cape. The full song was only for the theater audience (played during commercial) but the TV broadcast would come back in time for the cape part.

So Radiohead are on stage waiting to perform "2+2=5" and are confronted by this bizarre ritual. And it probably didn't help that the cape person that night was CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer. I doubt they know who that is. I don't believe they appreciated the joke. I seem to recall someone saying so in an interview later but I have not been able to find the source so it may be my own hallucination. Nevertheless, I challenge you to look at the expressions and body language of the band and decide for yourself . And, again, after the performance they avoid shaking hands with Dave or even acknowledging him. Significant? Coincidence? Thom's a big Michael Stipe fan, perhaps he's doing an impression.

Apparently someone agreed with my assessment that something was going on and thought to submit a question about it to BBC Radio 1 in an interview a few months later:

Mark: Right, James in South Korea, says: I saw Radiohead perform on David Letterman a few weeks ago, and they seemed a little annoyed by the whole thing, was there a reason?

Thom: (laughs) I'll tell you why, man

Mark: What was going on there?

Thom: I'll tell you

Mark: Well do, yeah

Thom: In order for Mr. Letterman not to break into a sweat, he has the studio at sub-zero temperatures

Mark: Does he?

Thom: Yeah

Ed: Yeah

Thom: So our hands went numb (laughs)

Lard: Ahhhhhh!

Thom: So there you go

So maybe it's that innocent, laughed off as a joke. Radiohead are a very tough band to figure out, it remains a possibility that I may be overthinking everything.

1997 and 2003 are the only two times Radiohead performed on the "Late Show."

But ever since 1997 (or 1998), when I discovered the Hammerstein ballroom quote, I've been wondering "why the hatred?" One might look at "Meeting People is Easy" and just assume they hated the show because they had a bad experience there. But the key here is Thom was complaining about having to go on the show before he was ever on the show. Another possibility, then, it may be just a matter of: they hated doing television appearances in general and Letterman just happened to be in the way. I'm certainly open to that possibility, they probably don't like TV. But then, they've also done Conan's show, Leno, Jool's Holland, Stephen Colbert and "Saturday Night Live" and I've never heard them complain about those, show disdain or avoiding shaking hands with the host. In fact, on Leno and SNL, they seemed delighted.

Reddit had a thought that could connect the dots. In a thread speculating on who the song "Talk Show Host" was based on, a redditor points out that Radiohead were big fans of "comedian" Bill Hicks, even dedicating their second album to him and Bill Hicks was famously censored in his last "Late Show" performance before dying of cancer in 1994. If this is the cause, it would completely explain why they hated Letterman and resented having to do the show sight unseen. I personally don't think it's likely. Remember: this is in the days where the different sides of the Atlantic had completely separate spheres of entertainment and the internet was still very nascent. I doubt they even knew who Letterman was, let alone knowing about the behind-the-scenes censorship controversy. [Footnote: years later, Letterman would air the performance in full and apologize to Hicks' mother.]

Another possibility: it may be a matter of timing; the band was in a bad place at this point and things were only getting worse. According to Yorke in a Rolling Stone interview, the band's all-time low point would come only two months after their 1997 appearance. Bad timing, bad mood... maybe.

But that's the history of my favorite band "feuding" (perhaps) with my favorite talk show host. It's always bothered me and the "feud" is made all the more irksome because it seemed to arise without a cause. My best guess is that their disdain for doing the show was a combination of being a famously temperamental band, resenting having to do TV appearances and the particular timing of August 1997. But that's only a best guess, and not very satisfying.

Radiohead - Lift (Live at Pinkpop)

This performance, officially released today by the Pinkpop channel, is from 1996. From this time, it would be another 21 years before this song would be officially released. But the official release would be a disappointment, in my opinion, because the studio version can't compare to this one perfect live version from 1996. 

Of course, I wasn't a fan of any of the long-awaited releases ("I Promise", "Man of War") so maybe it's just me.

The Haunting Balloon Boy Theme

Presented without comment.

Nintendo Released an Album in 1991

 In 1990 Bobby Brooks, a talent agent, died in a helicopter crash along with Stevie Ray Vaughan. To honor him, MCA Records released a Nintendo-themed CD ("White Knuckle Scorin'") that included a whole host of songs and artists that had absolutely nothing to do with Nintendo or video games in general.

The first song, "Ignorance is Bliss" by Jellyfish is the only Nintendo-related track. It's set within the Super Mario World... world. Sung by Bowser, he tells the kids not to read. It's a clever case of that reverse psychology - the kids ARE encouraged to read, you see! I'm not sure how successful that was, considering that the kids are already into video games - that's time not spend reading - and all the time spent listening to a song on a CD is just more time not spent reading. So...

From there on, not only does it have no connection to Nintendo games, check out the hot artists that the kids love: Crosby, Stills and Nash; Dire Straits; Roy Orbison; Britny Fox; Sheena Easton among others.

The Roy Orbison track deserves a drill-down. "I Drove All Night" is a previously unreleased track and was also released posthumously, as Orbison had died in 1988. Releasing his music on Nintendo CDs is probably what he would have wanted, I guess. The music video features black and white footage of Jason Priestly making out with Jennifer Connelly, which makes it all-time peak 1991, as far as I'm concerned. The video also features old footage of Orbison and "subtle background references to the Mario series and the album's title" according to Wikipedia. 

But does it contain subtle references? I see a sign that says "Princess" and a sign flashes on screen that says "White Knuckle Scorin.'" It's up there for about a tenth of a second, so I guess the claim is technically true. I guess. There's also a "Dino Dogs" sign that could be construed as referring to Yoshi. Seems pointless.

Having listened to the full album (time I could have spent reading, by the way), it just makes no sense. The artists are pretty stellar, the songs are generally good, it's just they don't belong together and the fact that they're released within a Nintendo context is just crazy.

Hey, I have an idea how you could make a CD with a collection of unrelated pop artists which would have a Nintendo/Mario connection AND it just so happens that my plan ALSO involves Roy Orbison.

As you probably remember, almost all of the Koopalings in Super Mario Bros 3 (and Super Mario World), were named and styled after some musician:

So there's your lineup. You've got your album right there. You're coming straight outta the gate with U2, then on to The Plasmatics, then some Iggy Pop, then Roy Orbison, then Motorhead and finally Beethoven. Then, since Bowser is the final boss, you can tack on the "Ignorance is Bliss" track. Going out on a bang. That's your absolutely absurd collection of bands/artists all on one compact disc that has the Nintendo label on the front. Sure, it'll appeal to no one but at least this one has a tenuous connection to Nintendo.

Music Video for Psycho Killer Released

 

Strange times. "Psycho Killer" was a song by the Talking Heads released in 1977. The official music video was just released today.

I'm a big Talking Heads fan and a big fan of "Psycho Killer." In the abstract, I'm not opposed to making a modern music video for it - I don't see the point, really, but not opposed. But I don't get this. The contrast in era between the music and video is too great, it's jarring. I think maybe it could be helped if you go for a 70s aesthetic, but I don't know. Certainly a better concept/story is called for, for such a classic song.

In Time (Vaporwave)

Does the vaporwave version improve upon Robbie Robb's "In Time?" Well, I think it's a lateral move but it's pretty cool and you can decide for yourself.

The Charismatic Voice - Virtual Insanity

 

I don't have any real opinions on Jamiroquai one way or the other but it's a nice trip back to the late 90's.

Oh, I do have one opinion, actually. It's amazing to me how all the elements of this video came together perfectly. You don't just have the concept but the "slipperiness" of the floor is combined with a great dancer who can make it amazing. And they didn't just combine the concept and the dancing and say "we'll improvise" - this is meticulously planned and choreographed. And how are we going to hide the edits? It's just in time for early CGI. Everything just comes together perfectly to make a hit video.

Burt Reynolds Made an Album

Sometimes when a celebrity's at the height of fame and fortune, the praise can be so momentous that they're convinced making an album is a good idea.

Such is the case with Burt Reynolds' in 1973 and the resulting album was "Ask Me What I Am." 

It's very much of-its-time, with the Folk-Country talk-singing style. With titles such as:

• The First One That I Lay With
• She's Taken A Gentle Lover
• I Didn't Shake The World Today
• There's A Slight Misunderstanding Between God And Man
• I Like Having You Around

Is it like Neil Diamond? You bet your balls it's like Neil Diamond!

The thing is, though: I don't hate it. It's actually pretty charming. 

For a complete "analysis" of the album check out the podcast "Billion Dollar Record Club" and their episode about it here.

Peter Schickele?

 The credit to this discovery goes to the "Why Are You Laughing" podcast, which you can listen to here.

In 1990, the nominees for the Grammy for Best Comedy Album were:

• Sandra Bernhard - Without You I'm Nothing
• Erma Bombeck - Motherhood: The Second Oldest Profession
• Andrew Dice Clay - Dice
• Sam Kinison - "Wild Thing"
• Peter Schickele - P.D.Q. Bach: 1712 Overture and Other Musical Assaults

Winner: Peter Schickele

In 1991, the nominees for the Best Comedy Album Grammy were:

• Bob Elliott & Ray Goulding - The Best of Bob and Ray: Selections from a Career, Vol. 4
• Garrison Keillor - More News from Lake Wobegon
• Various artists - The Best of Comic Relief '90
• Jonathan Winters - Jonathan Winters into the '90s
• Peter Schickele - P.D.Q. Bach: Oedipus Tex and Other Choral Calamities

Winner: Peter Schickele

1992, Best Comedy Album:

• Erma Bombeck - When You Look Like Your Passport Photo, It's Time to Go Home
• George Carlin - Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics
• Garrison Keillor - Local Man Moves to the City
• Jackie Mason - Brand New
• Peter Schickele - P.D.Q. Bach: WTWP Classical Talkity-Talk Radio

Winner: Peter Schickele

1993:

• George Burns - An Evening with George Burns
• Rita Rudner - Naked Beneath My Clothes
• Jonathan Winters - Jonathan Winters is Terminator 3
• "Weird Al" Yankovic - Off the Deep End
• Peter Schickele - P.D.Q. Bach: Music for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion

Winner: Peter Schickele

Peter Schickele won 4 times in 4 straight years, against a murderer's row of talent: George Burns, Jonathan Winters, Weird Al, Jackie Mason, George Carlin, Sam Kinison, Various Artists... this guy beat them all.

Have you ever heard of him? Have you ever heard of someone who's heard of him? Isn't this guy on the Mt. Rushmore of comedy? How did this happen? Is this guy the most critically acclaimed yet underrated comedian in history? Well, let's take a look at his act.

Okay, well that's not great. But it's also pretty visual and he got his awards from his "P.D.Q. Bach" albums. We need to examine those.

Wikipedia:

Schickele developed an elaborate parody around his studies of P.D.Q. Bach, the fictional "youngest and the oddest of the twenty-odd children" of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Okay, well I can't find his albums on youtube directly but here's one of the songs on an album:

Comedy?! Man, awards mean nothing. People still venerate them and I used to do that myself but they are literally meaningless.

Paul Shaffer: Behind the Music

 

A classic bit from the Late Show.

I watched this a million times on the Late Show website, back in the day. This is the first time I'm seeing it in actual video rather than the horror that was RealAudio/RealMedia over slow internet. Remember RealAudio?

The Charismatic Voice - No Rain

 

There is a thing that seems to happen often where a band will put an unusual "outlier" song on their album and that will be the big hit that everyone likes. People buying the album for that song, may be disappointed that the rest of the album is so different. And the band may feel the pressure of success and be forced to change their entire sound to satisfy expectations.

Such is the case with Blind Melon's eponymous album. "No Rain" is a complete outlier: rather than Country-tinged hippy rock, the album is mainly is bluesy, hard-ish rock, somewhat reminiscent of Led Zeppelin. Seriously. With the benefit of this hindsight, listen again to the vocals of "No Rain" and you will hear the Robert Plant in there.

I don't say that "No Rain" is one of the greatest songs of all-time but the music video for "No Rain" is one of the greatest music videos of all-time. So simple, so effective, so affecting.

Bob Dylan in We Are the World - Revisited

 Last year I jokingly posted this video.

A friend recommended "The Greatest Night in Pop," a documentary about the making of "We Are the World" and I have a theory about what's going on.

Quincy Jones was the producer for the song and when all the stars are assembled in their choir formation, he instructs them, if the song goes outside your range, don't make an attempt, don't sing a harmony, just stop singing. The idea is, there are so many voices, no one will miss any particular one so don't force it.

I don't think I can get inside Bob Dylan's head and predict what he thinks but it's possible that he thought, "There isn't a single note in this song in my range so I'm just gonna sit out."

The Video for L.A. is My Lady

There's a lot going on in the music video for Frank Sinatra's "L.A. is My Lady."

The song is yacht rock and the video resembles the Yacht Rock web-series. 

It features Donna Summer(?), James Ingram, Quincy Jones; Latoya Jackson is drinking with Dean Martin. Michael McDonald puts an orange in a grocery bag, the orange travels and disappears. There is an implied Michael Jackson but they couldn't get the real one, so they show archival footage. 

It's bonkers.

Happy Birthday Glenn Miller

  

Happy Birthday to Glenn Miller who was born this day in 1901.

When the G.I.s of World War II had a night on the town and filled the dance halls, they were dancing to Miller's "Moonlight Serenade" (above).

Glenn Miller was the first musician to make a gold record ("Chattanooga Choo Choo").

Having become a giant star, he served as a band leader in World War II. On December 15th of 1944 he boarded an airplane from London to Paris and was never seen again.

 

Patrick Stewart's Cowboy Classics

RIP Garth Hudson

The last remaining member of The Band, Garth Hudson, has passed away at 87.

Here is The Band (sans Robbie and Richard) performing on Late Show with the CBS Orchestra.

Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #2 (Laika)

Revisiting Arcade Fire's performance of "Neighborhood #2 (Laika)" on Conan. Of all the musical performances on Conan's "Late Night," this is my #2 all-time*. Perhaps I'm too easily impressed by chaotic percussionists and cute violinists. You decide.

Having loved this version, I listened to, and was disappointed by, the album version. The main key is this version's Talking Heads style vocals vs. the album version's distant bullhorn vocals. Plus, this has the live energy. The good news though is that the rest of the album is superb.

In 1957 the Russian space program launched a stray dog into space with no possibility of return. The dog's name was Laika.

* - In case you're interested, #1 was posted 8 years ago.

Christian Yacht Rock

  

First a summary of events from the Yacht or Nyacht Podcast(s) and then a personal anecdote.

On the Beyond Yacht Rock Podcast, Episode 99, they're listening to audience suggestions to determine, officially, whether the song is Yacht Rock. The suggestion is "Can't Stop Runnin'" by Roby Duke (above). The deck is stacked against it. They are decidedly anti-Christian and isn't Christian rock always lame? To top it off, the cover of the album, a photo of Roby himself, looks like this:

Rock Star.

But they listen to the song, and even with all these biases going against it, they are swayed that it is not just Yacht Rock, it garners a 90+ Yachtski score to be recognized as Essential Yacht Rock. They don't want to believe but the power of smooth music is undeniable and irrefutable. For the purposes of this narrative, it was like that clip where Susan Boyle goes on a show and everyone's like "Ugh, ugly people can't sing" and then she sings and everyone is shocked that ugly people can sing. It's just like that.

The floodgates are open. In the Yacht or Nyacht Podcast, Episode 35, they give "Seasons of Change" by Roby Duke an even higher score on the Yachtski Scale - 92.5 - another Essential song. In YONP Episode 58 it's Roby Duke's "All Lost" (below). The result is a lower score but still in the upper echelons of Yacht Rock canon. Finally, for completeness, in YONP Episode 60 they determine that Duke's "Dreams Alive" from 1989 is not Yacht.

"All Lost" and "Can't Stop Runnin'" are my personal favorites so those are the two I've embedded here.

  

And now a personal anecdote.

When I was a young teen, this one singer would sometimes visit my church to do concerts and/or lead the music in the service. I always especially enjoyed when he would make an appearance because he had such a relaxed, casual, somewhat goofy style. He was constantly talking, telling stories and making jokes, even at the expense of the music, if need be. He was like 60% singer with an acoustic guitar, 30% storyteller and 10% stand-up comedian. And when you're a kid in church, that's a really great break from the norm. The singer was Roby Duke.

The thing was, every time I saw him it was pretty much him with an acoustic guitar; he may have had a backing track sometimes but it was never a full band. Furthermore, I only saw him in church, I never investigated any of his albums. So how shocking it was to find that a small Yacht Rock podcast is listening to the "unknown acoustic guitar guy." And how much more shocking to find that he was not just a Yacht Rock artist all along but actually a Yacht Rock legend. Mind blowing.

Roby Duke's albums today are rare and seem to fetch hefty prices; some are apparently being imported from Japan. I learn from the internet that Roby Duke died in 2007. RIP.

The Charismatic Voice - Faithfully

 

It's a little Journey, come on.

While this is one of my favorite Journey songs (perhaps #2), I really hate the music video. It's part of a genre of music videos from the late 80s and early 90s about the dreariness of touring which was so repetitive as to become monotonous. Sitting on the tour bus, getting on and off of planes, occasional black and white footage, roadies hauling equipment - oh being a rock star is drudgery - isn't living the dream a nightmare?

I haven't been able to define the genre sufficiently because I never gave it a name and didn't collect enough examples. Motley Crue "Home Sweet Home" and Bon Jovi "Wanted Dead or Alive" both flirt with the genre but don't ultimately succumb to it. The genre-defining examples I had were Journey "Faithfully" and Genesis "Throwing It All Away." I think there are a million examples out there but I needed to do more research and never got around to it.

Oh, and I think my thoughts are independent here but just in case, the Beyond Yacht Rock Podcast has an episode that defines the genre "This Was Supposed to be Fun" which is songs about the difficulties of touring. But they're talking about a type of song and I was thinking of a type of music video.

Remembering Time Life Music Collections

 

Remember Time Life compilations? These were collections of music (120 unforgettable hits!), around some theme or genre, which came on (about) 10 CDs - or cassettes - or records. A long playlist of music isn't so special but specifically, here, I'm looking at the infomercials for the collections.

I've watched a few and the one above is my favorite. It overlaps the Yacht Rock genre pretty well and I love those laid back 70's vibes (70's and 80's).

My favorite aspect about them revolves around the live "presenters" they always have to have. All the clips of each song are like 5 seconds long but some of them get introduced by the hosts as if it's a radio DJ scenario. When you intro a specific song and then the clip of the song is over after 5 seconds it's like... that was so pointless.

A few other highlights:

The "Best of Soft Rock" (above) apparently comes from that specific time when music existed on the internet but not streaming. Part of their pitch is: buy the collection because, what are you going to do, download all these songs and burn them to CD yourself? Don't be crazy!

In "Summer Breeze" they seem to be taking advantage of the Yacht Rock resurgence. Apparently these are still going as of 2022 when music streaming is extremely available.

The one for "80's Music Explosion" features Belinda Carlisle as one of the "presenters" and her acting is a wonder of alien roboticness.

A few stray thoughts:

Do you think these could be a hit with the tiktok generation? If the song changes every 10 seconds, are you in that sweet-spot where they don't get bored? Is this the future of music?

These are great background entertainment for doing work, I find.