Song · OK Computer era (1996–98)
I Promise
They played it fourteen times in 1996, then forgot it so completely they thought the tape was lost.
OK Computer OKNOTOK 1997 2017album- 2017released
- 4:00length
1996
fourteen nights, then silence
They played it for the first time at the Fillmore in San Francisco on 27 March 1996, and several times more that year on the Alanis Morissette tour. Bootlegs went round. Then it went into the OK Computer sessions and out of them again: the band decided it was not strong enough.
Ed O'Brien suggested in 1998 that they re-record it for the next album. By the time In Rainbows was out, he was saying they had given up on it.
the song
orbison, or joy division
Strummed acoustic guitar, drums like a marching band, Mellotron underneath. O'Brien heard Roy Orbison in it; Yorke heard Joy Division. NME called it Radiohead at their most direct, right before they stopped being direct for two decades. The words are a run of promises listed off one after another, with the loneliness and paranoia of the album they belong to but none of its machinery.
2 jun 2017
rediscovered
It premiered on Steve Lamacq's show on BBC Radio 6 Music on 2 June 2017. Lamacq said the band had believed the recording lost and were happy to have found it again. That day it went up as a download for anyone who had pre-ordered OKNOTOK 1997 2017, with a video by Michal Marczak: a night bus through Warsaw, one of the passengers an animatronic head. NPR read it as a film about what the OK Computer tour did to the singer.
Pitchfork made it Best New Music, and guessed that if it had come out in 1997 it “might've been inescapable in dorm rooms, at open mic nights, and wherever else sensitive guys with guitars are found”.
jun 2017
played again, 21 years later
They put it back in the set in June 2017, the first performance since 1996.
What a bunch of nutters we were, and probably still are… One of the crazy things we did was not release this song, because we didn't think it was good enough.
thom yorke, on stage, june 2017
the video
The promo, directed by Michal Marczak.· Radioheadwatch on youtube →
takes(2)
Live history
| Times played | 17 shows |
|---|---|
| Live debut | Wednesday 27 March 1996 · San Francisco |
| Last played | Tuesday 4 July 2017 · Manchester |
| Longest absence | 20 years · back on Wednesday 7 June 2017 · Oslo |
First played live in 1996, 21 years before it was released.
Nights played include broadcasts; opened and closed count gigs only. A cancelled night has no setlist. All setlist stats →
Tabs (1)
sources5
- Marc Hogan, “‘I Promise’ by Radiohead”, Pitchfork, 2 June 2017.
- Jazz Monroe, “Watch Radiohead's new ‘I Promise’ video”, Pitchfork, 2 June 2017.
- Noah Yoo, “Watch Radiohead play ‘I Promise’ for first time in 21 years”, Pitchfork, 7 June 2017.
- Robin Hilton, NPR, 2 June 2017.
- Jamie Milton, “A guide to the unreleased tracks on Radiohead's OKNOTOK”, NME, 5 May 2017.