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Jonny Greenwood puts ondes Martenot on Radiohead's “How to Disappear”
Jonny Greenwood came up with an ondes Martenot part for “How to Disappear” on Thursday 2 December, the night after Phil Selway recorded the song's drums, and Ed O'Brien calls it outrageous. The ondes Martenot is an early electronic instrument, from 1928, and Jonny tried it on “Optimistic” in rehearsal in August.
multitracked it sounds like the string section from mars.
Ed O'Brien2
In the same entry O'Brien apologised for the long gap in his radiohead.com diary and promised one every day from now on. Over the past six weeks or so tracks have had to be finished in new ways, and until the week before, the band had not played together in one room since Thom Yorke's birthday in early October.
The song is being demoed for an orchestral arranger, because Jonny wants to use an orchestra but not in the usual way). By the end of Thursday Colin Greenwood and O'Brien had finished their parts while Yorke worked in Pro Tools and Cubase in the other studio. The demo sounds fairly complete, with a strong arrangement and a driving rhythm track; good for a demo, O'Brien reckons.
On Friday the band played “I Will” live, then decided the version they recorded in Copenhagen had something to it, the feel of that time without its baggage. They redid the loop on it, and Yorke played drums before singing.
thom even played some great drums and proceeded to do the vocals. he hasn't sung like this for a while
Ed O'Brien2
Yesterday O'Brien arrived to find Selway on drums and Yorke on a Rhodes playing “Cuttooth”, and joined in on guitar for an hour; it is three chords, which suits what he calls his very limited music theory. Then the band went back to “You and Whose Army” to try an idea Yorke and Jonny had been pushing, three-part harmony with a very low bass part. O'Brien likens it to the Inkspots. He worries about sounding like a slick 1940s vocal group but doubts they could ever be slick. It sounded all right, the rest of the song better.
In the small hours Yorke was still compiling his vocal for “I Will”. it's 2am and this is his idea of fun and relaxation
2
Ed O'Brien's diary, 2 to 8 December 1999
| No. | Date | Working title (as written) | Work |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thu 2 Dec | how to disappear | Jonny's ondes Martenot part, multitracked; Colin and Ed finish their parts; demo fairly complete |
| 2 | Fri 3 Dec | i will | Played live; back to the Copenhagen version, loop redone, Thom on drums, then his vocal |
| 3 | Mon 6 Dec | (unnamed track) | Colin's funky bass part; band play together in the evening |
| 4 | Tue 7 Dec | cuttooth | Phil on drums, Thom on Rhodes, Ed joins on guitar for an hour |
| 5 | Tue 7 Dec | you and whose army | Three-part harmony with a very low bass part |
| 6 | Tue 7 Dec | i will | Thom compiling a vocal at 2am |
| 7 | Wed 8 Dec | cuttooth | Played again; better than the day before |
| 8 | Wed 8 Dec | follow me around | Arranging in Pro Tools |
| 9 | Wed 8 Dec | egyptian song | Vocal, piano and drums tried; sounding OK |
| 10 | Wed 8 Dec | keep the wolf from the door | Tried too late in the day; needs Thom's rant |