A live reaction to one of my daughter's favorite bands.. Radiohead! This is my first time hearing this song, not sure what to expect. Like & Comment what song you would like me to react to next!
The uncompressed version deserves a listen or their latest video on youtube which is a performance of this song from 2001 that is gorgeous with strings, brass, and much more
Fun fact about this song, the drummer nearly lost his mind practising it because he didn’t know how to enter and fit his tempo with the song. He eventually decided to forget everything about rhythm and beat, and felt his way through the introduction by using Thom’s (the singer’s) voice and the piano as a reference.
Your daughter has excellent taste in music! I didn’t like Radiohead when I was introduced to the band back in the late 1990s because I had just listened to "Creep" (sorry, Creep fans!), but then a friend showed me OK Computer, and everything changed. My brain and heart just connected to the melodic magic of Radiohead. They have been my companions since then. I even like "Creep" now, especially Pau’s Villarreal version 😉, and all of Thom Yorke's alternative projects. Please bring more Radiohead and The Warning ⚡️. Have you heard of Dead Can Dance? If you ever read this comment, I would like to suggest “In the Kingdom of the Blind the One-Eyed Are Kings”. It has vibes reminiscent of "Pyramid Song".
Their drummer, Phil, said he plays in straight 4/4. I play drums and that makes sense to me. I think maybe 8/4 playing a little loosely between the downbeats feels better. I can’t speak for pianists, however. Radiohead is often rhythmically complex, yet accessible. I’d love watching a trained ear reacting to their song Weird Fishes/Arpeggi.
Agreed...That makes sense... I'm hearing straight quarter note beats with some really odd placed anticipations that makes me feel like it might be a more complex time signature. Its those anticipations that give it that jagged feel.
But if you really wanted to go crazy, you could consider it to be four bars of 11/8. But I know my brain would explode if I tried to think of it that way.
Radiohead are masters at their craft. I’ve seen other people familiar with music theory or music math get completely complexed with their music. It’s like they’re doing something alien to what people understand about music.
Which one, there were two, three if you include the backing band(which became Klaatu). The original silver-Beatles was pre 1968 eventually replaced by the dung-Beatles. Starting with Paul in Aug.66 who was sacked and replaced by (Sgt) Bill Campbell from Billy Pepper and the Pepperpots.
you and your daughter are very cool sir! and you have great ear for harmony. and about the confusing rhythm, its just a really weirdly divided 4/4 haha.
Thanks! I transcribed the chord rhythm in a short vid. The phrase can be thought as 5 bars of 4/4 and one bar of 2/4 or two bars of 11/8. Either way it keeps a steady quarter note pulse throughout.
2 bars 3, 1 bar 4, 2 bars 3 . Builds a pyramid. Four triangle sides and one square base. I believe the piano is pushed half a step forward which is why it gets weird as the drums come in and reveal the true rhythm. Been a while since I thought about this and may be off but there are several good videos on pyramid songs weird time trickery. @@ErolReacts
ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-P8aSFj6zdx0.htmlsi=r3hTtp4JJ97J5K9C it's a fascinating song. I was wrong in my original reply but close.
Your daughter recommended my favorite song of all time. For being able to play it on my piano, I gave up counting the tempo and instead play by feel. I strongly recommend “Everything in its right place”, a song that was apparently written by Thom Yorke in the same week as “Pyramid Song” and which is another mind-bending experience in effective musical expressionism via unusual time signature (10/4), quirky chord progression and shrewd production.
I would to hear your thoughts on, "There, There" by Radiohead or "Separator" by Radiohead A couple of my favorites from their massive discography full of hidden gems!
Get some Nick Cave inside you. From incredibly visceral, to the most sublime, beautiful. "The Curse of Milhaven" for visceral. "Into my arms" for beauty + honestly, the latest 3 albums are probably "deeper" dives - I really struggle with them, not because they're "bad" albums, I just find them heart-wrenching, full of grief and it's not often I'm in the mood for that frankly. They ARE superb albums, Cave's stayed at the peak of his songwiting and dealt/is dealing with his personal tragedies with incredible dignity. It just shines through those albums and sh*t - I'm just not equipped to deal with them emotionally.
Sat down to dinner, what did I eat? Black-eyed peas, swimming in gravy I saw the music video for Pyramid Song, on MTV or VH1, one of those cable stations. That was the first time I heard Radiohead and loved it.
Some radiohead songs are just too good for this world, things like Fake Plastic Trees, Jigsaw Falling into Place, Nude and more are so good. Great reaction though! Really nice video!
Listen to Let Down next. They begin the song with a guitar in 1 time signature layered over the song's other time signature. Very creative and uniquely Radiohead.
My favourite Radiohead songs change often, but this is my top choice. Has all of my favourite aspects of Radiohead: piano driven, the cinematic tone, mood, atmosphere, and Jonny’s string arrangements. That first verse is just incredible: Jumped in the river and what did I see? Black-eyed angels swam with me A moon full of stars and astral cars All the things I used to see All my lovers were there with me All my past and futures And we all went to heaven in a little row boat There was nothing to fear and nothing to doubt Can’t listen to it very often, not because I would tire of it, but it’s one of those songs that has an effect on me every time. Ethereal, haunting, evocative, beautiful.
I think its 8/4 where the ride cymbal plays the downbeats. The piano chords are played in groups of 8th notes with a pattern of 3,3,4,3,3 after 8 beats it resolves. But if you listen to the drums the 8th notes are swung and the piano locks in with the swung drum rhythm (basically 8th note triplets), a lot of the piano chords land on the second note: tri-PE-let. So maybe the 3,3,4,3,3 (8th notes) is more like a 5, 4, 6, 5, 4 (8th note triplets) if your counting the 8th note triplets. But its easier to just think of it as swung 8th notes of course. I'm not a drummer so correct me if in wrong of course.
Technically it's a slow 4/4 clave rhythm. Ixi music opened my ears to that. But it has been pointed out that it can be counted as a repeated 33433. Four triangles and a square make a pyramid.
radiohead were very influenced by an unknown band called Cardiacs - go check out "Sing to god" (you could go earlier (80s when cardiacs first started, but sing to god was their last album two decades later)
Yep, that girls got great tastes in bands! This is a stand out track on a less than amazing album, in my opinion. LET DOWN is one of their bests songs ever!
IIRC the drum beat is in a syncopated 4/4 but the piano and melody part is longer by a quart so the down beat hits different "piano down beats" in a pattern of bars. Some times syncopated, sometimes in sync.
Should’ve said the video distracts me from the music… Not detracts. Sometimes when you’re trying to really focus on the music, the visuals get in the way. At least for me.
@@ErolReacts fantastic! Thanks for this. If you want an interesting one time-wise, see what you make of their track Videotape. More to it than perhaps initially apparent.. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-stOYrPNGXFw.htmlsi=D16odArEZpbu0_7-
Exaxtly! Of course I don't know the background on this tune, but it sounds like the drummer was trying to fill the time with a kind of free jazz swing beat since it was impossible to play any kind of back beat to that chord figure.
You'll notice that Radiohead is notorious for composing in extremely unusual structures both in terms of timing, and melody. But unlike a lot of prog-rock or art-rock bands, it's not "for its own sake". Their music still conveys intense and vivid emotions, but via some really trippy and unorthodox writing sensibilities.
Thanks! I added a little short vid with my analysis of the time. I’m hearing five bars of 4/4 and one bar of 2/4. Total phrase is 22 beats long. Could technically be thought of as four bars of 11/8 as well. But, yeah, steady 1/4 note pulse throughout.
@@ErolReacts The piano has a bossa nova clave pattern. Nothing else. 4/4 makes a lot of sense but it's hard to hear because there's a lot of syncopation. Here's a great analysis: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZRl4LkcSGSs.html
The type of music that haunts you for a few minutes after it goes away. Radiohead is Gen X's Pink Floyd. You should try some Tool. They are Gen X's Led Zeppelin. ✌️☝️🫶 Suggestion: Tool "Lateralus"
