Song · On a Friday / pre-Pablo Honey (1986–92)
Happy Song
Before they were Radiohead they wrote a song called “Happy Song”, and it is.
1988
on a friday
It belongs to the years when the band rehearsed on Fridays at Abingdon School and took their name from the day. It is bright and quick, with a marimba running through it.
2006–2021
the tape surfaces
It reached the internet in January 2006 with “To Be a Brilliant Light” and “Sinking Ship”, three songs from a 1988 tape that came out through a fan site. All three are on Gripe, the six-song cassette that sold at Omega Auctions for £6,000 in January 2021. Thom Yorke drew its inlay, which credits three alto saxophonists, Raz on lead and Liz and Charlotte Cotton. Guitar.com says the tape was made at Woodworm Studios in Oxfordshire while the band were still at school, in 1987 or 1988, but Yorke's own note on the back puts its three newest songs in 1989, and this is not one of them.
the video
A recording of a song they never released.· Bafalo Soldjawatch on youtube →
sources3
- The site's own catalogue note, based on Stereogum and fan archives, for the marimba.
- Spin, “Early Radiohead Demos Leaked”, and NME.com, “‘New’ Radiohead songs appear online”, both 3 January 2006, for the leak, the 1988 date and the Friday rehearsals.
- Cillian Breathnach, Guitar.com, and Sam Willings, MusicTech, both 24 February 2021, for Gripe, its inlay and saxophonists, Woodworm Studios, Yorke's note and the sale.