Radiohead - Check Out This Beautiful Acoustic Set

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Michael Griffiths

Rock n' Roll Doggie
Joined
Jun 10, 2000
Messages
3,925
Location
Playa Del Carmen, Mexico
After clicking on the link, click on "99x music", and then click on, "x on demand":

http://www.99x.com/

This is simply gorgeous...especially 'Subterranean Homesick Alien', about 17:50 into the set. From what I gather, it's circa 1995. Radiohead at their most intimate. Amazing.
 
Last edited:
Haha, during 'Subterranean Homesick Alien', Thom says, "I want to call it 'Subterranean Homesick Alien', and Johnny wants to call it 'Uptight'...and you'll see why." Haha, classic.
 
Wow!
Thank you so much. That was fantastic! "You" was my personal favorite. The whole set just sounded so perfect. It reminded me of why I used to like Radiohead so much. Is it just me or has Thom's voice deteriorated over the years? He sounds much, much better in this recording than in recent ones.
 
Tom in Boston said:
Wow!
Thank you so much. That was fantastic! "You" was my personal favorite. The whole set just sounded so perfect. It reminded me of why I used to like Radiohead so much. Is it just me or has Thom's voice deteriorated over the years? He sounds much, much better in this recording than in recent ones.

I haven't heard this acoustic stuff yet, but when I first became a Radiohead fan, for quite a while I was only familiar with their post-Bends work. When I finally got The Bends, I was so impressed on how different and melodic and smooth Thom's voice sounded. They both sound great to me, though.
 
It's wonderful--I listened to it awhile back. The fact that they sound as good stripped down & acoustic as they do when all the mad scientists are at work with all the layering and texturing, etc., says a lot.
 
Last edited:
I'm being nitpicky here, but this isnt exactly 'acoustic'. There's an electric guitar playing in many of the songs.
 
Michael Griffiths said:
Yes, but it's very minimilistic electric guitar...which I LOVE...especially the arpeggios during 'Lucky'. So nice.

Hope you enjoyed it at least.

Oh yeah, I loved it. It was awesome. I wasnt complaining, just saying.

Thanks for letting us know about it.
 
A little late, but thanks for posting the link! Very impressive.

I was a little surprised to hear them start the set with Street Spirit. A few days ago I was looking up Radiohead lyrics at followmearound.com and came across this bit about the song from Thom, who mentions they usually play it towards the end of a show:

"'Street Spirit' is our purest song, but I didn't write it.... It wrote itself. We were just its messengers... Its biological catylysts. It's core is a complete mystery to me... and (pause) you know, I wouldn't ever try to write something that hopeless... All of our saddest songs have somewhere in them at least a glimmer of resolve... 'Street Spirit' has no resolve... It is the dark tunnel without the light at the end. It represents all tragic emotion that is so hurtful that the sound of that melody is its only definition. We all have a way of dealing with that song... It's called detachment... Especially me.. I detach my emotional radar from that song, or I couldn't play it... I'd crack. I'd break down on stage.. that's why its lyrics are just a bunch of mini-stories or visual images as opposed to a cohesive explanation of its meaning... I used images set to the music that I thought would convey the emotional entirety of the lyric and music working together... That's what's meant by 'all these things are one to swallow whole'.. I meant the emotional entirety, because I didn't have it in me to articulate the emotion... (pause) I'd crack.... Our fans are braver than I to let that song penetrate them, or maybe they don't realize what they're listening to.. They don't realize that 'Street Spirit' is about staring the fucking devil right in the eyes... and knowing, no matter what the hell you do, he'll get the last laugh...and it's real...and true. The devil really will get the last laugh in all cases without exception, and if I let myself think about that to long, I'd crack. I can't believe we have fans that can deal emotionally with that song... That's why I'm convinced that they don't know what it's about. It's why we play it towards the end of our sets. It drains me, and it shakes me, and hurts like hell everytime I play it, looking out at thousands of people cheering and smiling, oblivious to the tragedy of it's meaning, like when you're going to have your dog put down and it's wagging it's tail on the way there. That's what they all look like, and it breaks my heart.
I wish that song hadn't picked us as its catalysts, and so I don't claim it. It asks too much. (very long pause). I didn't write that song."

Sorry for the length, but...wow.
 
I've read that somewhere before. It's seriously serious, isn't it? Thom means business here. Well, either that or it's all bollucks. He seems very convincing. I hope he's wrong though. It scares me to think he might be onto something.
 
The other day, I heard a most beautiful live rendition of Letdown.
 
Back
Top Bottom