Radiohead

The director of the “Just” video had been working on a short story about a man who lies down in the street one morning for no stated reason, and the crowd that gathers wanting to know why. The more he listened to the song, the more it fitted, and Thom Yorke says it is something the band could not have arrived at in a million years.

They wanted it because they were tired of the form. Pop videos were dated 20 years ago, Yorke says, and anything that drags life into a dead medium, subtitles included, is worth doing.

The MTV piece, from 1995, also carries a short interview about The Bends. Asked about its reputation as a desperate record, Yorke calls it a positive one, if only because it got made when it might easily not have been. He is pleased there was no hit single from it, since they got a hit album instead, and would far rather be known as the band who made The Bends than the band who made “Creep”.

What “Just” is about, he offers without much confidence, is taking responsibility and not blaming anyone else when a person has wrecked himself.