Song · Pablo Honey era (1992–93)
Ripcord
A long drop with nothing to pull, and one of the songs that carried the 1993 shows.
Pablo Honeyalbum- 1993released
- 3:10length
1992–93
the cord you pull
A ripcord is the handle you pull to open the parachute. The song is built on its absence: somebody sold a thrill, flung out of an aeroplane at speed and dropped wherever it suits, with nothing to pull. Annie Zaleski, writing in Salon for the album's 25th anniversary, called it an abrasive song about hurtling into the unknown, driven by tense dynamics. Phil Witmer in Vice put it with “Prove Yourself” as one of the songs that burst into raging, squealing guitars every few bars.
Scott Plagenhoef was less taken. Reviewing the 2009 reissue for Pitchfork, he grouped it with three other Pablo Honey tracks as “run of the mill at best”.
1993
on the road
It was a fixture of the year the album came out. When Peter Paphides reviewed the band at ULU in London for Melody Maker of 23 January 1993, Yorke announced this song from the stage and “Creep” followed straight after. In February, the band opened for Belly at the Town and Country Club in London; the live recording from that night went on the “Pop Is Dead” single that May, with words that are not on the album version. At Edgefest in Toronto on 2 July, Kim Hughes of NOW Magazine watched Yorke wail and shake his hair through it on a revolving stage to a crowd of 4,500. Paul Moody's NME piece in September printed it, from a warm-up show at The Venue in Oxford, as “Ripchord”.
It was third in the set EMI filmed at the London Astoria on 27 May 1994, the show later released as Live at the Astoria.
1992–95
one hundred and thirteen nights
The archive has 113 performances, from the Mean Fiddler in Harlesden on 11 September 1992 to the E-Werk in Cologne on 28 November 1995. Fifty-six were in 1993. It opened the night once and closed it eight times. The longest gap in its run was 147 days, between Portsmouth Guildhall on 11 December 1993 and Seville on 7 May 1994.
2016
other voices
Michael C. Hall and Lena Hall, no relation, both of whom have been in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, sang it in rehearsal for Radiohead: Obsessed, a one-night show of the band's songs at the Carlyle in New York in March 2016; Vulture ran the footage.
on stage
Live at Reading 1994.· Nero Liveswatch on youtube →
Live history
| Times played | 113 shows |
|---|---|
| Live debut | Friday 11 September 1992 · Harlesden |
| Last played | Tuesday 28 November 1995 · Cologne |
| Closed the night | 8 times |
Nights played include broadcasts; opened and closed count gigs only. A cancelled night has no setlist. All setlist stats →
Tabs (1)
sources9
- Annie Zaleski, “Pablo Honey: Beyond ‘Creep’”, Salon, 23 February 2018.
- Phil Witmer, “The first song on Radiohead's debut album predicted their future greatness”, Vice, 22 February 2018.
- Wikipedia, “Pablo Honey”, for Plagenhoef's verdict (citing Scott Plagenhoef, Pitchfork, 16 April 2009).
- Peter Paphides, “Transistor Lovers”, Melody Maker, 23 January 1993.
- Wikipedia, “Pop Is Dead”, for the Town and Country Club recording and the B-side.
- Kim Hughes, Edgefest review, NOW Magazine, 8 July 1993.
- Paul Moody, NME, 11 September 1993.
- Wikipedia, “Live at the Astoria”, for the running order.
- Greg Cwik, Vulture, 20 March 2016, for the Hall rehearsal.