Thom Yorke: “The beauty of The Bends is that it ever got made”

Thom Yorke tells the Houston Press that the beauty of The Bends is that it ever got made, after what the success of “Creep” did to Radiohead. “Just” is the new single, and Radiohead open for R.E.M. at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion on Friday and Saturday.

The 'Creep' thing really shook us up. We thought, 'This is going to kill us before we even start.'

Thom Yorke¹

Things spun out of control, he says, just as the band were about to make their second album. Nobody would have taken a request for another single seriously, and the money coming in did not make up for being dismissed. Colin Greenwood says people knew them only as the band who did “Creep”, which he reckons may not even be the best song on the debut.

Our whole attitude was to scrap everything and start from scratch. To be honest, praise was what we were looking for.

Thom Yorke¹

The Bends is winning over critics who used to pan the band, the paper says, though it has yet to sell in big numbers. When the album was done, Yorke says, he got up every morning, put it on over breakfast, and for two or three weeks did nothing but listen to it.