OK Computer
In honor of Thom Yorke's birthday, let's take a deeper look at Radiohead's iconic "OK Computer" album.
Some recording took place at the historic mansion of St Catherine's Court in Bath
Although owned by actress Jane Seymour, the mansion was unoccupied, only used on occasion for corporate functions. The change of setting marked an important transition in the recording process as Radiohead left their original rehearsal space in Oxfordshire.
Romeo + Juliet
While the band was touring, Baz Luhrmann commissioned Radiohead to write a song for his upcoming "Romeo + Juliet" movie and gave them the last 30 minutes of the film. "When we saw the scene in which Claire Danes holds the Colt .45 against her head, we started working on the song immediately," said Thom Yorke.
Radiohead wrote and recorded 'Exit Music (For a Film)', which plays over the film's end credits but was excluded from the soundtrack album at their request, as they wanted to put the song on their own upcoming album. Yorke said it "was the first performance we'd ever recorded where every note of it made my head spin—something I was proud of, something I could turn up really, really loud and not wince at any moment."
Influences
The band had been inspired by everything from avant-garde jazz fusion to rock to even film scores. Yorke declared Miles Davis' 'Bitches Brew' to be the starting point for the record calling it "incredbily dense and terrifying".
Other influences included, P.J. Harvey, Elvis Costello, and the Beatles (specifically 'A Day in the Life').
The band drew further inspiration from the recording style of film soundtrack composer Ennio Morricone and the krautrock band Can. Yorke described both musicians as those "abusing the recording process".
Radiohead hoped to achieve an "atmosphere that's perhaps a bit shocking when you first hear it, but only as shocking as the atmosphere on the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds", accoridng to Yorke.
Not a concept album
Although the album includes recurring themes such as transport, technology, anti-captialism and death, "OK Computer" does not have a coherent narrative. Many music critics, journalists, and scholars, however, consider the album to be a concept album or song cycle and have analysed it as such.
Yorke said: "On this album, the outside world became all there was ... I'm just taking Polaroids of things around me moving too fast...It was like there's a secret camera in a room and it's watching the character who walks in—a different character for each song. The camera's not quite me. It's neutral, emotionless. But not emotionless at all. In fact, the very opposite." Yorke also drew inspiration from books, including Noam Chomsky's political writing and Eric Hobsbawm's "The Age of Extremes".
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The title "OK Computer" is taken from the 1978 radio series Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, in which the character Zaphod Beeblebrox speaks the phrase "Okay, computer, I want full manual control now." Yorke referred to the title as "embracing the future". The title 'Paranoid Android' is also taken from Marvin the Paranoid Android from the science fiction series.
Upon release...
Radiohead embarked on their "Against Demons" world tour to promote "OK Computer". The album launch commenced in Barcelona in 1997. "OK Computer" debuted at number 21 on the Billboard 200 in the U.S. It held the n umber-one spot in the UK for two weeks and stayed in the top ten for several more, becoming the UK's eighth-bestselling record that year.
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