Song · The King of Limbs era (2011)
Give Up the Ghost
Yorke first played it alone in Cambridge with a sample pedal, stacking loops of his own voice.
The King of Limbsalbum- 2011released
- 4:50length
25 feb 2010
cambridge
A year before the album, Yorke played a solo benefit at the Corn Exchange in Cambridge for Tony Juniper, who was standing for Parliament for the Green Party. When he announced it he said he did not normally get involved in politics, and then that it was hardly going to be Labour or the Tories, was it.
The student paper Varsity picked this one, which its reviewers called “Giving Up the Ghost”, as the best of the lot: Yorke worked a sample pedal on stage, looping a beat and his own harmonies over and over until it built to a huge crash. “Mouse Dog Bird”, later “Separator”, was in the encore.
2010–11
the record
On The King of Limbs it comes in on birdsong, straight out of the end of “Codex”. The core is an acoustic guitar played slowly, which Jon Dolan in Rolling Stone noticed Jonny Greenwood also using as a drum, knocking on its body. Under it runs a loop of Yorke singing a two-word plea not to be hurt; over it he sings the verses, at one point announcing he has had enough, and more Yorkes pile up behind, in falsetto, until Andy Gill in the Independent heard a disembodied choir. Mark Pytlik at Pitchfork called it a call-and-response and one of the album's highlights.
The most artful open-mic-night looping-pedal exercise known to man.
chris deville · stereogum, 18 february 2021
DeVille meant it kindly. For him and Ryan Leas at Stereogum, this and “Codex” were the album's dark night, with “Separator” coming after as the dawn. Alexis Petridis in the Guardian heard a sigh of submission.
2011–2018
the room coming back
The archive's first full-band “Give Up the Ghost” is the surprise set on the Park stage at Glastonbury on 24 June 2011. By the two Roseland Ballroom nights in New York that September it had turned into something else. Jonny sampled Yorke's live vocal and fed it back, and because the microphone was also picking up the hall, every pass brought back more of the room.
It's getting the room back, again and again and again.
thom yorke · rolling stone, 26 april 2012
Yorke was already wondering what that would do in an arena. He found out: fifty-three nights in 2012, 71 in all. It was gone for 1,281 days after Melbourne on 17 November 2012, came back at the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam on 21 May 2016, and was last played in Boston on 29 July 2018.
Two remixes came out on the TKOL RMX 12-inches in August 2011: Thriller's “Houseghost” on the fourth, with Illum Sphere's “Codex” and Shed's “Little by Little”, and Brokenchord's on the fifth.
the session
From the Basement.· Radioheadwatch on youtube →
takes(2)
Live history
| Times played | 71 shows |
|---|---|
| Live debut | Friday 24 June 2011 · Pilton |
| Last played | Sunday 29 July 2018 · Boston |
| Longest absence | 3 years · back on Saturday 21 May 2016 · Amsterdam |
Nights played include broadcasts; opened and closed count gigs only. A cancelled night has no setlist. All setlist stats →
Remixes & alternate versions (2)
- Give Up the Ghost (Thriller 'Houseghost' remix)
- Give Up the Ghost (Brokenchord remix)
sources12
- “Thom Yorke announces Green Party benefit gig”, NME, 10 February 2010, for the date, the candidate and Yorke's reason.
- Zing Tsjeng and Laurie Tuffrey, “Gigs: Thom Yorke at the Cambridge Corn Exchange”, Varsity, 28 February 2010, for the pedal and the loops.
- Andy Gill, “First Listen: The King of Limbs, Radiohead”, The Independent, 19 February 2011.
- Jon Dolan, “The King of Limbs”, Rolling Stone, 17 March 2011, for Greenwood's guitar.
- Will Hermes, “Radiohead's ‘The King of Limbs’: A Track-by-Track Breakdown”, Rolling Stone, 18 February 2011, for the vocal loop.
- Mark Pytlik, “Radiohead: The King of Limbs”, Pitchfork, 24 February 2011.
- Alexis Petridis, “Radiohead: The King of Limbs review”, The Guardian, 24 February 2011.
- Ryan Leas, “In defense of The King of Limbs”, Stereogum, 10 March 2015.
- Chris DeVille, “Radiohead's The King Of Limbs came out 10 years ago today”, Stereogum, 18 February 2021.
- David Fricke, “Radiohead Reconnect”, Rolling Stone, 26 April 2012, for Roseland.
- Jamie Fullerton, “Radiohead play ‘surprise’ Glastonbury show with sixth member”, NME, 24 June 2011.
- Wikipedia, “TKOL RMX 1234567”, for the remix singles.