Song · The Bends era (1994–96)
Killer Cars
A song from a morning's fear of a car crash that the band liked enough to consider for The Bends and could never settle on an arrangement for.
early 1990s
the morning after
Thom Yorke woke one morning convinced his partner had been killed in a car accident, and wrote this. It sits with “Stupid Car” and “Airbag” among his songs about dying on the road.
1993–95
three times over
The band first played it in Oxford in February 1993, and liked it enough to consider it for The Bends, but could never agree how it should sound, and it was released three times over. An acoustic version recorded live at the Metro in Chicago in 1993 went onto the reissued 12-inch of “Creep” and the Japanese CD Itch. The studio version, all guitars and percussion, went out as a B-side on the “High and Dry” and “Planet Telex” single in February 1995, and the slower “Mogadon Version”, with a newscast mixed into it, closed the first CD of “Just” in August 1995.
Outside Japan, where it was an extra track, nothing of it went on The Bends except its drums. The loop that “Planet Telex” was built on was cut up from an early version of this song.
4 oct 1995
denver, without the van
On the morning of 4 October 1995, the day their American tour with Soul Asylum was to open, the band's van was stolen from outside a Days Inn in Denver with most of their equipment in it. Yorke and Jonny Greenwood went on at the Ogden Theatre that night anyway, just the two of them on rented gear, and the setlist on file from that night is “Killer Cars” and “Creep”.
on stage
Live at Club Citta' 1994.· Nero Liveswatch on youtube →
the record(1)
on stage(5)
Live history
| Times played | 34 shows · 1 of them Thom Yorke solo show |
|---|---|
| Live debut | Saturday 20 February 1993 · Oxford |
| Last played | Wednesday 30 May 2001 · Verona |
| Longest absence | 2 years · back on Monday 19 June 2000 · Monza |
First played live in 1993, 2 years before it was released.
Thom Yorke, solo 11 July 1993 San Francisco
Nights played include broadcasts; opened and closed count gigs only. A cancelled night has no setlist. Thom Yorke’s solo nights are counted and marked as his; the openers, closers, longest absence and chart are Radiohead’s own. All setlist stats →
Tabs (1)
sources6
- The site's own catalogue note, based on fan archives.
- Mac Randall, Exit Music: The Radiohead Story, and Answerphone 01, the W.A.S.T.E. fan-club booklet, 1995, on the “Planet Telex” loop.
- This site's own preserved 2003 lyrics pages, for the Metro recording, Itch and the newscast.
- The “Just” CD single, Parlophone CDRS 6415, 21 August 1995, for the Mogadon Version.
- Capitol Records, media release, 6 October 1995, for the stolen van and the night in Denver.
- The site's live archive, for the Denver setlist.