Song · OK Computer era (1996–98)
Exit Music (For a Film)
Written for the last thirty minutes of Romeo + Juliet, it went by courier just before the final mix.
OK Computeralbum- 1997released
- 4:24length
1995–96
the commission
Luhrmann approached the band while they were touring The Bends with Alanis Morissette, and sent them the final half-hour of his film. They started as soon as they watched it.
When we saw the scene in which Claire Danes holds the Colt .45 against her head.
thom yorke · humo, 22 july 1997
Yorke tried working Shakespeare's lines into it and gave that up; what he wrote instead summarises the story from a distance, and comes from something much older.
I saw the Zeffirelli version when I was 13 and I cried my eyes out, because I couldn't understand why, the morning after they shagged, they didn't just run away. It's a song for two people who should run away before all the bad stuff starts.
thom yorke, july 1997
The title works both ways: music for the exit credits, and the exit of the two people in it.
1996
a stone staircase
They recorded it at St Catherine's Court. The reverb on the vocal is the building: Yorke sang it on a stone staircase. He compared the opening, one voice and an acoustic guitar, to At Folsom Prison. Mellotron choir and other artificial voices come in underneath, and then the drums and a bass through a fuzz pedal arrive and flatten everything. That climax was an attempt at Portishead, done, as Colin Greenwood put it, “stilted and leaden and mechanical”.
It was the first performance we'd ever recorded where every note of it made my head spin, something I was proud of, something I could turn up really, really loud and not wince at any moment.
thom yorke · mojo, july 1997
The finished tape reached Luhrmann during the last days of the final mix.
We were doing the final mix, where you can no longer put new music in. Just as we were mixing the credits sequence, we had another song in there, suddenly this guy runs into the studio in London, where we were recording, with a tape that said ‘From Thom, to Baz, I hope I'm not late’.
baz luhrmann · abc, 7 june 2018
1997
kept off the soundtrack
It is not on the Romeo + Juliet soundtrack album. They held it back for OK Computer, released in Britain on 16 June 1997. The Cinematic Orchestra, the Easy Star All-Stars, Vampire Weekend and Kelly Clarkson have all covered it since.
1996–2025
on stage
First played in London on 10 October 1996, seventy-two times in 1997, and of the archive's 305 nights it has closed twelve. It was still there in Copenhagen on 16 December 2025.
on stage
Live at Pinkpop 2001.· Pinkpop Archivewatch on youtube →
explained
The classical turns in the harmony, and the Mellotron choir before the climax.· ixiwatch on youtube →
videos(2)
Live history
| Times played | 305 shows |
|---|---|
| Live debut | Thursday 10 October 1996 · London |
| Last played | Tuesday 16 December 2025 · Copenhagen |
| Closed the night | 12 times |
| Longest absence | 7 years · back on Wednesday 5 November 2025 · Madrid |
Nights played include broadcasts; opened and closed count gigs only. A cancelled night has no setlist. All setlist stats →
Tabs (3)
Heard in (3)
- William Shakespeare's Romeo + JulietPlays over the closing credits. It is not on the soundtrack album.
- Black MirrorPlays over the ending; it began as the temp track, and the band let it stay because they liked the show.
- Westworld
sources8
- “Radiohead: the album, song by song, of the year”, Humo, 22 July 1997.
- Caitlin Moran, “I was feeling incredible hysteria and panic…”, July 1997.
- Mark Sutherland, “Return of the Mac!”, Melody Maker, 31 May 1997.
- Jim Irvin, “Thom Yorke tells Jim Irvin how OK Computer was done”, Mojo, July 1997.
- Stephen Dalton, “The Dour & The Glory”, Vox, September 1997.
- Harry Wylie, “Radiohead”, Total Guitar, November 1997.
- Baz Luhrmann, interview, ABC, 7 June 2018.
- Bryan Wawzenek, “Radiohead give star-crossed lovers their ‘Exit Music’”, Ultimate Classic Rock, 12 May 2022.