I think Thom is an underrated guitarist. To play that constant picking pattern on a 12 string while singing this like he does is harder than he makes it look. IMO
This is one of the easiest beginner songs to play and sing over. This is like one of 3 songs I can play on a guitar and as it's so simple picking that you can sing over it without thinking, never leave second fret.
Love that you’re going back for more Radiohead! Super impressive for how close you got to the arpeggiation on the first few go-arounds with the descending melody around A minor. You’re spot on that they don’t do E7 until the very end too. It’s the closing track on “The Bends” and gives a strong resolution after floating with A minor and E minor for the rest of the time.
There is a lot of flotsam and jetsam on the net, but when you see someone articulate, approachable, modest, talented and humourous it is a breath of freah air. Thank you Michael
I'm not a reaction guy normally but stumbled on a couple of in rainbows and Lisa hanniigan/rice reactions and really loving your work. I don't play but you explain what I love so specifically and accurately on a different level to anyone else in this genre, you teach people why the love what they love. To boot with genuine enthusiasm love and very good recording quality. Genuine love for music, love you man, make me wanna learn
Same! I don't recognize the show or venue they were on. I've seen Thom & Jonny do acoustic together before but not this song. Stripped down and gorgeous
We got him hooked! Radiohead are and will always be my all time favourite band, just because of the variety of everything over their musical career. Check out Pyramid Song - it's not guitar-based, but it has one HELL of a time signature and a wonderful drifting ethereal sound that you'd dig.
@@effjay8970-I get what you're saying. I liked the first album a lot. Then when I was hearing the new stuff off second album the first few times I was thinking like "it's okay, nothing too crazy special", but then something happened and it started to click. I just let it play through a couple times while I was working and now I've almost completely worn it out. I had to stop listening to it for a couple weeks because I didn't want to completely ruin it for myself. There's only one song I might sometimes skip and that's the last song "You know me", which has actually grown on me a bit as well. I wouldn't give up on it, unless you've given it a fair shake and it's just not your thing.
Yes. It’s on purpose. And they know what they’re doing. They’re from another planet and I’m so glad you are experiencing some of it for the first time. I wish I could!
Thom York is a friggin god of music.... I'm 43 now and I was listening to his brilliance when I was 15 yrs old... Radiohead put me to sleep every night. All time fave band 🎶💜🎶💜 7:28
Yes it’s on the album. Thom’s vocal leading is the greatest thing about Radiohead in my opinion. And honestly why I listen to all things Thom Yorke more than just Radiohead
So glad you did this one! I agree that the studio version is far more complex, but this version really hits home how insanely hard it is to play and sing at the same time, especially notes that long. The more Radiohead from you, the better. And yes, it is pronounced that way ;)
Radiohead is my favorite band. They are prog-rockers like Primus, King Crimson, Yes, and Rush with the emotional accessibility of The Smashing Pumpkins and The Smiths. And they touch on ethereal unexamined feelings like The Cranberries and Sigur Ros.
hey could you name some of those eastern sounds in his songs? I'm eastern so they've never really stood up to me up until now and I wanna investigate further
You would have fun breaking down "just" by radiohead. Thom was convinced Johnny was trying to throw as many chords as possible. One of their heavier songs as well and i think you'd enjoy it. It's a polar opposite to street spirit and from the same album.
Their best 2 puncher is Exit music for a film followed by Let down on OK Computer. Those 2 songs perfectly resolve each other. Gotta check out that song combo bros !!!!
Let down is my favorite song, because of the album placement and when I grew up. Wierd Fishes is thier best song. And I am ok that these things are different
You know, I highly, highly recommend, maybe not for a reaction video because those two pieces are mainly made up of orchestral music and the latter is super long, a personal back-to-back listen to Burn The Witch, from their latest album A Moon Shaped Pool, and then to Jonny Greenwood's own Popcorn Superhet Receiver (where he originally came up with the idea for the percussive pizzicato on the strings that later made said song so punchy and contrasting with the rest of the otherwise mellow and borderline depressive - albeit extremely beautiful and touching - album, even by Radiohead standards, which is already saying something). I know this might sound a bit pedantic, but it is what it is: the main thing to bear in mind about Radiohead, especially their latest stuff, is that, sure, there's a lot of Thom Yorke's own lyrical, melodic and harmonic genius in the mix that makes them sound like, well, Radiohead, but the “brains” of the operation, likely the one who made many of their songs into the kind of reaaaaally complex, interweaving deal you've recognised in your first two react videos is actually Greenwood, a certified orchestral composer (mostly for soundtracks, but also standalone pieces like the one I mentioned). Case in point: I recall you saying that you likely had to process each instrument separately, as the “groove” wasn't exactly in sync, and that's no accident; their songs are constructed more like orchestral scores, and I'm pretty sure that if you looked at any of them in full score versions, you'd quickly and visually *see* the patterns and, to quote the Tool song, figure how the pieces fit right away. ;) Also, regarding your curiosity about how they went and still go about composing their stuff, you can compare and contrast their last couple of albums including and since OK Computer (their magnum opus, only equalled or bested by In Rainbows, and it's no accident that the first suggestions you got were from the latter) with their *massive* 18 MiniDisc archive leak, which they promptly edited to avoid copyright infringement (there were quite a few samples of material like snippets of soundtracks and whatnot) and put on sale, because that's how they roll. 😂 In those, it's extremely interesting to listen to Thom just fooling around with the guitar, while singing some ersatz, incomplete or otherwise deprecated lyrics, thus witnessing popular and beloved songs being born in real time, and also to piece together how some core ideas were eventually split into several different songs, reused, renamed, repurposed, flipped backwards, rearranged, etc. Only a band with such musical chops could so blatantly reuse material and, yet, turn it all into a certain “sound” and “feel”, without ever devolving into outright self-plagiarism. It boggles the mind, really. Anyway, because I couldn't finish this comment without a couple of actual reaction suggestions, I would go next with a few songs that go quite heavy and interesting on the guitar and which I greatly appreciate: Just, also from The Bends just like this one, and Electioneering, Paranoid Android (frequently compared, and rightly so, to Bohemian Rhapsody), Lucky (sounds a lot like something out of a Pink Floyd album) and The Tourist (with probably the most beautiful Picardy-like cadence I've ever heard in any piece of music, Classical or Rock, ever, repeated twice for good measure and closing the album in a completely obvious but still chilling note), from the unavoidable OK Computer.
Thank you for this. I always think of Street Spirit as Radiohead’s ‘Echoes’. Like that Floyd album, great album, but that last track paves the way for what’s to come. Interestingly, Thom says this is the most hopeless of Radiohead songs lyrically. He’s right, all doom and gloom and all too real. Ironically it adds to its ‘harsh’ beauty.
Radioheads use of half steps, especially the bass line in nude, but with his vocals here and numerous others songs always give me such a vibe. Idk if they just do it better or why no one can figure it out but it’s so tasty every time Radiohead does that. Thanks for saying so mike! Love to feel vindicated 😂
i believe ed, the other guitarist came up with the riff for this song, but hes not there for this one also you should do bodysnatchers from the basement if you do any more
Thom wrote the riff. Ed said in his Guitar World interview for his solo album Earth: "Those [folky] parts were the kind of thing that Thom would come up with - he’ll have written the song on his guitar so the rhythmic or plucky bits he would play. Street Spirit is the only thing I can think of that he wrote but I played." I'm surprised that's the only thing though! Although just after that he said he didn't know how he ended up playing it because Thom usually plays those kinds of parts, so perhaps it is the only thing Ed plays that Thom wrote.
I don’t play any musical instruments but I love your reactions to Radiohead, I know it’s magic but seeing you explain their spells as a fellow guitar wizard is all the confirmation I need, keep up the great work
The full band versions are even better. There's some cool backing vocals, the drumming sounds like a ticking clock and Jonny also plays the synth with the end of the guitar (while playing the riff).
Always love to see your excitement at the nuances musicians use! Appreciate your work and your sharing it with us. Looking forward to more Radiohead down the road.
One of my favourite songs, off of one if my all time top5 albums. The Bends is amazing from start to finish but this is one epic track to finish on! Thanks Michael... Love seeing people discover this stuff☺️
Man I invite you to look up Thom Yorke's live performance of The Clock. He never struck me as a great guitar player but that performance.. he's just fully committed, it's magical.
Just perfect performance for the situation , great insights , stuff I’ve been listening to for decades without realising how the simple is made captivating ❤
love this particular performance . was lucky enough to see it when it first came out. this is the version that I share with people that havent heard it
Please do the Studio album version of this beautiful song next, and compare the two, you’re missing so much from the full album version, the piano, the backing vocals, please! 🙏💚
This was one of the first songs I ever learned, even before I really got okay at chord changes because the chord shape is the same, but just down a string. I loved this song from the moment I heard it. Not the most complicated song to play, but still beautiful after all these years.
I have been saying for years that, for my money, tracks 9 through 12 on "The Bends" (Bullet Proof - Black Star - Sulk - Street Spirit) form the best 4-song-finale of any studio album I've listened to - which probably has something to with why that album is in my top 20 ...I would, however, love to ponder any arguments...
Hallelujah! ❤ Wait.... Why this version?? You can hear the guitars too on the record version...Also the third guitar is missing here, cause Ed is not here. And the bass... And the beautiful drums... Sigh...And yepp, trust me, they know what they are doing. Really really missing the third guitar though!! Please please please do the original.
@@kevinhuizenga6793 There must be a billion live clips of this song. I know of a few very good ones that are not acoustic, but has the whole band. It's like listening to 40 prosent of the song and 60% prosent of the guitar riff
I don’t believe they use E7 until that one time in the outro Michael… they certainly don’t on the studio recording. That E7 is specifically used only that one time in the outro (or should I call it “fade out”? 🤔😜). This has always been one of my favourite Radiohead songs. Ironically the guitarist who was the one who actually wrote that arpeggiated chordal riff is the only one of the three not on stage for this performance 🤔😉
How was this not a great vocal performance?? Anyway... thanks for this loving your reactions! You should check out Thom and Johnny's other band "The Smile - Bending Hectic" definitely not for everyone but very interesting! ☺️💕
Loved this performance. Would love to see a Let Down breakdown before too long; Ive loved that song for decades now and would love to understand more about why musically the dual guitar lines are so affecting
You nailed it with your connection to Pink Floyd's Set the Controls... You need to deep dive Radiohead for sure. My favorite band of all time by a long shot, and that's saying a lot.
I like how the requester said this was not a good performance from Thom... if this is his B tier, we've been spoilt by greatness for too long. Mesmerizing
They said this wasn't one of Thom's best? Then they just didn't know what they were talking about at all, it's one of his best performances of this song, to ever exist
I hope you get into some more deep dives on Radiohead. Their stuff is hard to wrap my head around because of all the guitars but I hope you do some rockers like Just or The Bends just so I can really know the licks and riffs.
I'll just pop this hear for you. Thom Yorke and Radiohead were hugely inspired by seeing this man live. I believe Thom said something about him giving them confidence in their sound on The Bends "Its okay to do that" (be vulnerable). Jeff Buckley, an underrated guitarist, because that voice is so much. But always blows peoples minds in him technical complexities: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KOjP1d8WzIg.htmlsi=L3dFZr65e9xF5hrI
