Song · Hail to the Thief era (2003–04)
Paperbag Writer
Its words come from text posted on radiohead.com in the Kid A years, before there was a song to sing them in.
sep 2002
los angeles, then london
Thom Yorke made the music in Los Angeles, and the band added the drums back in London, Colin Greenwood told Zoë Ball on Xfm the week the single came out. It is a fractured, sinister piece of funk with strings scraped across it. The words come from the satirical text the band had posted in the Kid A-era section of radiohead.com.
2003
the b-side
It came out on 26 May 2003 on the “There There” single, the first of two new songs behind the title track, with “Where Bluebirds Fly” after it. Both had already turned up on the internet about a week before. It was collected on Com Lag the next year, and Anthony Thornton, reviewing that for NME, took the title as a nod to “Paperback Writer” and pointed out that the music has nothing in common with it.
2009–13
yorke's other band
Yorke took it on stage in October 2009 with a new band of his own, with Flea on bass, Nigel Godrich on guitar and keyboards and two percussionists, at the Echoplex in Los Angeles and in the encore at the Orpheum. Once they were Atoms for Peace they kept it in the set. It came in the encore at Roseland in New York in April 2010, and it was the song they ended on at the Roundhouse in London on 25 July 2013. At the Austin City Limits festival that October it was the only Radiohead song they played.
on stage
Live at The Echoplex 10-02-09.· Rock Is A Girl's Best Friendwatch on youtube →
the record(1)
on stage(2)
sources6
- The site's own catalogue note, based on Wikipedia's article on the song and fan archives, for Los Angeles and the website text.
- Xfm, The Zoë Ball Show, 28 May 2003, as relayed by this site's news desk that week (“Three of Radiohead confirm ‘Go to Sleep’ as the next single on Xfm”), for Colin Greenwood on the recording.
- This site's news archive, “Radiohead's ‘There There’ enters the UK chart at number four” (1 June 2003), for the single; “NME gives Radiohead's Com Lag 7 out of 10, Pitchfork 4.0” (5 April 2004), for Thornton; “Thom Yorke's band with Flea plays its first show, at the Echoplex” (2 October 2009) and “Thom Yorke's new band play The Eraser at LA's Orpheum” (5 October 2009), for 2009.
- “Thom Yorke dodges ‘exploding manholes’ to kick off Atoms For Peace dates in New York”, NME, 7 April 2010, for Roseland.
- Chal Ravens, review of Atoms for Peace at the Roundhouse, Fact, 29 July 2013, for the closing song.
- “ACL Live Shot: Atoms for Peace”, The Austin Chronicle, 7 October 2013, for Austin.