Thom Yorke - Genius or Lunatic - YOU DECIDE!

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

financeguy

ONE love, blood, life
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
Messages
10,122
Location
Ireland
"I sound like a loony. But there's an awful lot of shadows and malignant forces that are pulling strings at the moment. It's barely human, it's something that's coming from somewhere else, and that is impossible to control.....if you meet a famous politician - it's like shaking hands with thin air. The tornado has nothing in the middle. The gloaming to me is exploring this unhealthy darkness, which it seems it's impossible to counteract."

Thom Yorke, interviewed by NME, explaining the sub-title "The Gloaming" of the Hail to the Thief album.
 
I've decided you need to cram in some more Radiohead related threads. That will be fun. :hyper:
 
I think he's a little bit of both, actually. Just like the band. And that's why I love him and Radiohead so much.
 
He is a fricken genius, but some of the things he expresses in his lyrics and some of the things he says "like that quote you just mentioned" are insanely lunaticious. He's both, but I guess all of us can relate to that at some points in our life?
 
I know that this is way beyond heady, but if anybody's interested in what Yorke is indirectly referring to, then he or she may want to read a few things which I'll suggest. The basic ideas about which he's speaking are firmly rooted within the Post-structuralist discourse which still all but dominates philosophical and theoretical work done by thinkers the world over. He's not crazy (at least not because of this particular quote), he's just talking about things (in VERY vague ways, I admit) which like 99% of people haven't even heard of, let alone been able to understand. Anyway, here you go. I warn you to only seek this stuff out if you're REALLY looking for a challenge; very rewarding work, but some of the toughest and most abstract works you'll ever come across.

Walter Benjamin: "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"

Jean Baudrillard: "The Precession of Simulacra"

Michel Foucault: "Discipline and Punish"

There's a lot more, but this is all I can think of off the top of my head. So, yeah. Let me know what you think if you're inexplicably dedicated enough to give this shit a whirl. Have fun, boys and girls.
 
Last edited:
He isnt a genius based on that quote. Thom is a very skilled musician and thinker... although I dont think he is a genius, or a lunatic. I would desribe him more as simply intriguing.

I concour with the post above me on U2.
 
he's a rock and roll star trying too much to like he's not. that interferes too much with the great creativity (sometimes genius) that he and/or radiohead have.
 
Back
Top Bottom