Song · A Moon Shaped Pool era (2015–21)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief
Eleven words of title, none of them sung, and five nights on stage in 2016.
A Moon Shaped Poolalbum- 2016released
- 5:03length
the rhyme
cherry stones and buttons
The title is the counting rhyme, run all the way to the thief. The first four trades were grouped together as early as William Congreve's play Love for Love in 1695; James Orchard Halliwell collected a version in the 1840s that was used for counting buttons, and it has been used to count cherry stones and daisy petals as well.
None of it is in the song. The words are about holes all over coming alive at once, the lonely and the things that prey on them, and something people light fires to keep away crawling out on its belly, needing only a yes to come in. Birds keep to the trees, fish go deep, and a voice asks to be come to before it is too late.
2014–16
dub and a string coda
The strings are the London Contemporary Orchestra, conducted by Hugh Brunt from Jonny Greenwood's arrangement and recorded at RAK in London. Greenwood told NPR that summer what those sessions are like for him.
Our string days are just the most exciting days to record.
jonny greenwood · npr, 4 august 2016
Jon Pareles in the New York Times listed what is in it: strings, electronic percussion, a distorted synthesiser. Will Hermes in Rolling Stone heard Greenwood's love of dub, the thing he had shown off on the 2007 compilation Jonny Greenwood Is the Controller: Yorke's voice sliding in and out of the reverb, the percussion switching between electronic and acoustic, and at the end “a huge string coda receding over static”.
Nina Corcoran in Consequence called it an electronic sigh and heard resignation in those closing strings. Jamie Milton in DIY gave the credit to the arrangement, and said that without Greenwood's orchestra it would have been “a slow-burning meander”.
2016
five nights
It was in the set from the first night, at the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam on 20 May 2016, and Daniel Kreps, reporting the show for Rolling Stone, picked it out as one of the best things on the new record. That night it came in the first encore, and it did the same at Le Zénith in Paris on 23 May and the Roundhouse in London on 27 May. On 28 May, the last of the three Roundhouse nights, it moved into the main set.
Then 59 days without it, and one more: Madison Square Garden in New York on 26 July 2016. That is the whole live history, five nights in the archive, and it has not been played since.
on stage
Live at Paris.· elephantbaciwatch on youtube →
takes(2)
Live history
| Times played | 5 shows |
|---|---|
| Live debut | Friday 20 May 2016 · Amsterdam |
| Last played | Tuesday 26 July 2016 · New York |
Nights played include broadcasts; opened and closed count gigs only. A cancelled night has no setlist. All setlist stats →
sources8
- Will Hermes, review of A Moon Shaped Pool, Rolling Stone, 10 May 2016, for dub and the string coda.
- Bob Boilen, “All Songs +1: A Conversation With Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood”, NPR, 4 August 2016, for the string days.
- Nina Corcoran, review of A Moon Shaped Pool, Consequence, 11 May 2016, for the electronic sigh.
- Jamie Milton, review of A Moon Shaped Pool, DIY, May 2016, for the orchestration.
- Daniel Kreps, “Watch Radiohead Debut ‘Moon Shaped Pool’ Songs in Amsterdam”, Rolling Stone, 20 May 2016, for the debut.
- A Moon Shaped Pool album credits (XL Recordings, 2016), for the orchestra and conductor.
- Wikipedia, “A Moon Shaped Pool”, for the RAK string sessions and, citing Jon Pareles in The New York Times, 8 May 2016, the instrumentation.
- Wikipedia, “Tinker, Tailor”, for Congreve, Halliwell and the counting.