It's a tale as old as time. In the mid-70's, a man with access to a Moog synthesizer made an album for plants and didn't actually sell it, but rather gave it away with the purchase of plants. But then 40 years later it was rediscovered and released for sale. The above video tells that story, the story of Plantasia.
A youtuber, David Hartley, tells the tale of how The Beatles' "A Day in the Life" came to be.
You can see more footage of the night of the orchestral recording in the official music video:
Mick Jagger was there but that's not as interesting as the fact that Mike Nesmith was too (2:34, 3:33). The Monkees were a huge influence on The Beatles.
One thing I've heard that isn't covered is that at the end of the song, while the piano is vibrating, you can hear the air conditioning of the Abbey Road Studios kick in. But that may be a myth, I don't know.
I was quite sure that I posted this in 2020 and I was quite sure that the video was taken down and that the link on my blog needed to be corrected, once a substitute was found. So here is the substitute, even though I now see no evidence that I ever posted it in the first place. Having memories of false posts is an annoying problem.
This is The Hu, a Mongolian metal band who are no longer new but put your mind back to 2020 and they were pretty new. The mixture of Mongolian throat singing with metal rhythms, plus the utilization of the Morin Khuur (horsehead fiddle) within a rock context is, if nothing else, extremely unique, you have to admit. What a tremendous and unexpected East-meets-West mash-up.
Of the songs of theirs that I've heard this is the only one that really hit me hard. It rocks.
Now let's all agree this post is real and definitely exists now.
An artist that performs songs written by others is just as talented as an artist that writes their own songs.
This is an impossible argument. It is an argument that I would never agree to. There is no way that Beyonce is on the same artistic level as Billy Joel.
And yet, Polyphonic probably makes as good an argument in the affirmative as anyone can make. It's actually impressive... and certainly worth considering.
You might find this useful: "Christmas Music From Another Room - Relaxing Christmas Ambience with Muffled Christmas Music." I suggest putting it on in the background as you wrap gifts or cook or generally go about your day. I'm loving it.
Obviously this AI, but Radiohead did perform "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" which you can find here. This was part of a livestream before there were livestreams. I was listening live, which is to say, I was in a buffering loop and getting 1 second of video every minute or so.
In considering posting "King Harvest" (the alternate version) for this day, I thought, "Can I really post that video again?" I thought I had reposted it a million times, I felt I had. But a cursory search shows I've somehow never posted it. I don't get it.
It surely deserved to be posted every Fall.
What sets the alternate version apart is the guitar solo. The high note goes up to the line that separates music and noise and possibly crosses it. The puncturing ringing in the ears underscores the feeling of the song: pain, suffering, hopelessness. The playing is on the edge just as the man in the song is on the edge.
Polyphonic guides you through a full history of music videos. I find the research, knowledge and editing to be so impressive.
Above you will find the series from the beginning and going to near the end of the MTV era. It is at that point - the early 2000s - where I personally lose interest. If you're interested in watching the full history/series, you can find that here.
Warren Zevon has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and David Letterman was chosen to be the ... what's the term for this - inductor? He was inducted by David Letterman.
Aside from the fact that this is a great Summer-to-Fall transition song, I just noticed recently that one of the guys in the band is wearing a Penn State shirt. I did some research to try to figure out what the connection is between a British band member and Penn State and I found absolutely nothing.
Last known photo of this guy
Plus, at 2:44, Joe Strummer narrowly avoids getting run over.
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.
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.
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.
