Song · In Rainbows era (2007–09)
Reckoner
The coda of a different song, finished fast, and named after something else entirely.
In Rainbowsalbum- 2007released
- 4:50length
2006
the tail of another song
There was an older, heavier song called “Reckoner” and this is not it. What became the record grew out of a coda the band wrote while working on “Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses”, and it kept the name while the song it came from went its own way and was released years later.
Unusually for this band, they liked it immediately and finished it quickly after cutting a demo.
People [were] all over the house, shaking things and getting this groove going, then chopping it up into little pieces and putting it back together. It was a lot of fun.
nigel godrich · rolling stone, 27 april 2012
Falsetto over clanging percussion, a wandering guitar line, piano, and strings arranged by Jonny Greenwood. Yorke has said the guitar figure is a nod to John Frusciante, “in my sort of clunky ‘can't-really-pick’ kind of way”.
the word
saint peter, apparently
Colin Greenwood pointed out that a reckoner is a biblical figure, Saint Peter doing the counting at the gate. Yorke said he had no idea, and that he had deliberately let the melody pull the words along rather than think about them.
Kind of a love song… Sort of.
thom yorke
He has also said the line “because we separate like ripples on a blank shore” is the centre of In Rainbows, with everything on the record either leading to it or moving away from it.
2008
the stems, again
After doing it for “Nude”, the band put the separated stems of this one up for sale on 28 September 2008 so anyone could remix it, with the entries hosted and voted on at their own site. James Holden, Flying Lotus and Diplo each made one. Those sales pushed the song to 74 in Britain and 21 on the Bubbling Under chart. When the fan video competition came to pick a winner they could not, so four semifinalists each took the full $10,000, one of them for this song.
NME later called it one of the best tracks of fifteen years, and Pitchfork put it among the songs of the decade.
2001–2025
on stage
The title was on stage before this song existed: the archive's first entry is George, Washington, 23 June 2001, from the earlier version.
the video
The official promo, made by Clement Picon.· Radioheadwatch on youtube →
takes(3)
Live history
| Times played | 181 shows |
|---|---|
| Live debut | Saturday 23 June 2001 · George |
| Last played | Tuesday 16 December 2025 · Copenhagen |
| Opened the night | 8 times |
| Closed the night | 8 times |
| Longest absence | 7 years · back on Wednesday 5 November 2025 · Madrid |
First played live in 2001, 6 years before it was released.
Nights played include broadcasts; opened and closed count gigs only. A cancelled night has no setlist. All setlist stats →
Heard in (1)
- ChokeThe band donated it; it plays over the closing credits.
sources6
- Thom Yorke and Ed O'Brien, interview, BBC 6 Music, 19 November 2007.
- Simon Vozick-Levinson, “The making of Radiohead's In Rainbows”, Rolling Stone, 27 April 2012.
- “Radiohead on In Rainbows”, XFM, 28 January 2008.
- Tom Engelshoven, “De prijs van Radiohead”, Argo Media, 17 December 2007.
- Matthew Solarski, “Diplo, Flying Lotus remix Radiohead's ‘Reckoner’”, Pitchfork, 23 September 2008.
- “Radiohead: In Rainbows”, Pitchfork.