Song · Hail to the Thief era (2003–04)
Paperbag Writer
Written in Los Angeles and finished in England, with lyrics lifted from the band's own website.
sep 2002
los angeles
Yorke wrote the music in Los Angeles in September 2002 and the band finished it at home: a fractured, sinister piece of funk with strings scraped across it. The title puns on “Paperback Writer”, and the joke is the only light thing about it.
The words come from the satirical text the band had posted in the Kid A-era section of radiohead.com, which makes this one of the few Radiohead songs whose lyrics were first published as web copy.
It came out as a B-side to “There There” in 2003, and later on Com Lag.
on stage
Live at The Echoplex 10-02-09.· Rock Is A Girl's Best Friendwatch on youtube →
sources1
- The site's own catalogue note, based on Citizen Insane and Wikipedia's article on the song.