Song · OK Computer era (1996–98)
Palo Alto
The song that lent its working title to OK Computer, then went out as a B-side named after a Californian city.
1995–98
silicon valley
It had two working titles, “Silicon Valley” and “OK Computer”. When the album took that phrase, the song became “Palo Alto”, after the Californian city at the centre of the valley.
It is set in a city of the future, where you meet the boss and the wife, everybody is doing very well and nobody has time for anybody. It leans hard into the album's worries about technology and corporate optimism.
Fifty-two seconds of it turn up between takes on the tape of a Dutch radio session at Bulletsound Studios in February 1995, more than two years before the album. It came out as a B-side to “No Surprises” in January 1998, then on Airbag / How Am I Driving?, and later on OKNOTOK.
the video
From the film Meeting People Is Easy.· NeonOsirisYodelwatch on youtube →
the record(2)
on stage(1)
Tabs (2)
sources3
- Wikipedia, “No Surprises” and “OK Computer OKNOTOK 1997 2017”, for the releases.
- The site's own catalogue note, based on Spin and fan archives, for the working titles.
- The tape of the 2 Meter session, 27 February 1995, on the Internet Archive (Radiohead_1995-02-27), for the fragment between takes.