AIRBAG by RADIOHEAD
This song is about a car crash Thom Yorke was in with his girlfriend in 1987. She suffered whiplash, but he was fine. Says Yorke: "Has an airbag saved my life? Nah... but I tell you something, every time you have a near accident, instead of just sighing and carrying on, you should pull over, get out of the car and run down the street screaming 'I'm BACK! I'm ALIVE! My life has started again today!' In fact, you should do that every time you get out of a car. We're just riding on those things - we're not really in control of them."
Yorke: "So much of the public's perception revolves around illusion. That's what Airbag is about, the illusion of safety. In reality, airbags don't really work, and they go off at random."
Radiohead first began performing this song acoustic, and the working title was "An Airbag Saved My Life," which was a reference to Indeep's 1983 Dance hit "Last Night A DJ Saved My Life."
Guitarist Jonny Greenwood: "'Airbag' is a classic example of Colin and Phil saying, 'Let's make it sound like DJ Shadow.' But unfortunately - or fortunately - it doesn't, because we missed again. It's that thing of lumbering around in the dark, but still being excited by what we do. We're discovering these things for the first time rather than getting the pros in to show us how to do it."
This is the first song on the album OK Computer. The last song on the album, "The Tourist," is about reckless driving, which leads up to a car crash. Therefore, the album ends where it starts and makes a bizarre circle of death.
The original title of the song was "An airbag saved my life." During an XFM Acoustic Session in October 1995, Thom Yorke said this was the title of an article in an AAA magazine that came through the post.
This was built around a looped 3-second sample of drummer Phil Selway, who cited instrumental hip hop producer DJ Shadow as an inspiration. Selway explained to Humo magazine July 22, 1997: "How that man pastes rhythms to each other. The end result sounds a lot different than we intended by the way."
BLACK STAR by RADIOHEAD
Lead singer Thom Yorke: "This is about sex in the morning. It's the best time to have it. Especially if you have brushed your teeth before."
John Leckie, who produced The Bends, was away the day the band recorded this. The result is a more raw and improvised sound then the rest of the album.
According to Q magazine April 2008, this track was initially regarded as B-side material recorded by the studio's assistant engineer Nigel Godrich. However Godrich, who was to become the band's regular producer, bonded with the band and it was promoted onto the album after a playback.
ANYONE CAN PLAY GUITAR by RADIOHEAD
In this song Yorke heaps scorn on desperate wannabes who seek validation via Rock stardom.
According to Q magazine April 2008 everyone in the studio, from band to catering staff was roped in to play guitar. The track was then cut up and added to the arrangement.
This was released as a single prior to "Creep" becoming a hit and failed to chart.
Thom Yorke got the idea for the famous line "I wanna be Jim Morrison" after seeing Oliver Stone's movie The Doors. The line is meant to convey Yorke's dissatisfaction with the mythical status Morrison is given. This was made clear in the band's appearance at the MTV Beach House, where they played this song, and Yorke sang, "Maybe if I grow my hair I can become Jim Morrison," before shouting "Fat! Ugly! Dead!"
Jonny Greenwood played guitar with a paintbrush on this song.
Jonny Greenwood: "I never listened to guitar playing in any band, ever, I still don't, really. Worshiping guitarists is all buying guitar magazines. Anybody can play guitar, but writing songs is a far harder challenge. I'd rather idolize someone like Elvis Costello than I would Steve Vai."
OPTIMISTIC by RADIOHEAD
During live performances, Thom Yorke has sung this version of the chorus:
"You can try the best you can, you can try the best you can. The best you can ain't good enough."
Yorke revealed in 2003 that the song's chorus ("You can try the best you can. You can try the best you can. The best you can is good enough.") came from words of encouragement he received from his partner, Rachel Owen. He was worried that "nothing we'd done was releasable."
PROVE YOURSELF by RADIOHEAD
"Prove Yourself" was originally the lead track on Radiohead's first release in 1992, The Drill EP.
According to Q magazine April 2008, this was championed by Radio 1 DJ Gary Davies, who said: "I didn't know anything about the band - it just sounded great. Years later I bumped into one of the band, can't remember which one, and he said, 'You were the first person to play the record-not John Peel or the Evening Session.' It's very nice that he remembered."
