The everyone LOVES radiohead thread!

[zeb]

Yeah, that arrangement of Videotape was definitely suboptimal.

[Wendy Carlos's Twin]

What do you mean by "what they did to Videotape"? I love that song -- is it wildly different from an earlier version or something?

Oh yeah. Some people prefer the album version, including the band themselves, but they are all full of shit.

[Wendy Carlos's Twin]

Reading those quotes from Thom makes me wonder what the fuck is wrong with those guys, seriously. He cried the first time he heard the album version? So did I, but for the opposite reason. To be more specific about my own personal experience, the first time I heard the LIVE version of "Videotape" (from an audience recording), I had an emotional response like nothing else. I had tears in my eyes. My jaw was on the floor and I was completely blown away. I immediately called my friend, and said "This is Radiohead's masterpiece. This is the song that is going to make them all-time legends."

So you can imagine my disgust when I heard the final album version. I was waiting for the perfect finale, and what I got was some kind of sparse, cold, ramshackle thing with all the emotion sucked out of it. I was totally crushed. They totally sabotaged the whole thing, and I've never forgiven them for that. They overthought the damn thing, second guessed themselves and totally fucked it up. Thom was right from the beginning. It should have been the best song on the album, and it turned out to be the weakest!

[stip]

In Rainbows is basically the perfect distillation of everything that is Radiohead.

this makes no sense to me

I've never taken to In Rainbows as it struck me as the most generic sounding radiohead album - a record full of songs that sound like radiohead standards. A more consistent listen then hail to the thief, but none of that albums brilliant highs, let alone what you can find on ok computer and the bends

[LoathedVermin72]

In Rainbows is basically the perfect distillation of everything that is Radiohead.

this makes no sense to me

I've never taken to In Rainbows as it struck me as the most generic sounding radiohead album - a record full of songs that sound like radiohead standards. A more consistent listen then hail to the thief, but none of that albums brilliant highs, let alone what you can find on ok computer and the bends

nevermind i love in rainbows now

[stip]

[ridleybradout]

Reading those quotes from Thom makes me wonder what the fuck is wrong with those guys, seriously. He cried the first time he heard the album version? So did I, but for the opposite reason. To be more specific about my own personal experience, the first time I heard the LIVE version of "Videotape" (from an audience recording), I had an emotional response like nothing else. I had tears in my eyes. My jaw was on the floor and I was completely blown away. I immediately called my friend, and said "This is Radiohead's masterpiece. This is the song that is going to make them all-time legends."

So you can imagine my disgust when I heard the final album version. I was waiting for the perfect finale, and what I got was some kind of sparse, cold, ramshackle thing with all the emotion sucked out of it. I was totally crushed. They totally sabotaged the whole thing, and I've never forgiven them for that. They overthought the damn thing, second guessed themselves and totally fucked it up. Thom was right from the beginning. It should have been the best song on the album, and it turned out to be the weakest!

I actually don't mind the album version, but that's probably because I didn't hear the superior early live arrangement until a while after IR came out.

There's a very talented guy called Pawel Osmolski who put together 'studio' versions of unreleased Radiohead songs (using Thom solo recordings etc and his own instrumental overdubs), including the original version of Videotape - well-worth checking out: https://soundcloud.com/pawel-osmolski/s ... ad-remixes

As for KOL, I think KD hit it on the head when he called it the perfect 'minor record'. I've always thought of it as a collection of a few years' worth of ideas, a kind of compromise to the 'we're done with the album format' comment of 2009. I honestly thought they'd continue the drip-feed of singles they started with 'These Are My Twisted Words', but I'm glad we got a proper album in the end (plus a couple of double A-sides to boot).

[gardenparty]

Videotape certainly could have had a little more impact on the recording but I don't hate the version on the album. Though, I wasn't as familiar with the Bonnaroo recording

I remember being crushed with the album version of "Motion Picture Soundtrack" when I first heard it. I was expecting a larger full band version of the live recording that was going around and they just stripped everything I liked about it. At the time Kid A came out it was a little more shocking than it would be to me nowadays


As for 4 Minute Warning, I love the version on IR2 but I've never heard the original. Will need to check that out.

[pnjguy]

glad to see they still have the ole fastball.

[Chris_H_2]

Reading those quotes from Thom makes me wonder what the fuck is wrong with those guys, seriously. He cried the first time he heard the album version? So did I, but for the opposite reason. To be more specific about my own personal experience, the first time I heard the LIVE version of "Videotape" (from an audience recording), I had an emotional response like nothing else. I had tears in my eyes. My jaw was on the floor and I was completely blown away. I immediately called my friend, and said "This is Radiohead's masterpiece. This is the song that is going to make them all-time legends."

So you can imagine my disgust when I heard the final album version. I was waiting for the perfect finale, and what I got was some kind of sparse, cold, ramshackle thing with all the emotion sucked out of it. I was totally crushed. They totally sabotaged the whole thing, and I've never forgiven them for that. They overthought the damn thing, second guessed themselves and totally fucked it up. Thom was right from the beginning. It should have been the best song on the album, and it turned out to be the weakest!

I saw them twice on the 2006 theatre tour here in the states where they debuted a lot of the material for In Rainbows. I remember thinking how incredibly awesome that version of Videotape was. When I heard the slowed/stripped-version that they included on the album, I was really disappointed. I hated it. Hated. It. Still do.

[tragabigzanda]

[Wendy Carlos's Twin]

It seems to me that everybody who heard the album version FIRST thinks it's better, or just as good. I don't get it. It would be like seeing the live debut of "Paranoid Android" (and it sounds just like the final version) and then the album comes out and it's a fucking piano ballad with clicky, out of sync drums. It's a brilliant song regardless, but it's a shadow of what it could have been.

[pnjguy]

I heard Videotape first at Bonnaroo in 2006. I thought it was okay, but it was still better than the album version. I really don't like the song in general.

[Kalevi]

It seems to me that everybody who heard the album version FIRST thinks it's better, or just as good. I don't get it. It would be like seeing the live debut of "Paranoid Android" (and it sounds just like the final version) and then the album comes out and it's a fucking piano ballad with clicky, out of sync drums. It's a brilliant song regardless, but it's a shadow of what it could have been.

This is the first I've heard of the 2006 version. I think it is superior to the album cut. They have different effects on the listener though.

[zeb]

with clicky, out of sync drums

I hate them so much.

[zeb]

[tragabigzanda]

[RussellManiac12]

What do you mean by "what they did to Videotape"? I love that song -- is it wildly different from an earlier version or something?

Oh yeah. Some people prefer the album version, including the band themselves, but they are all full of shit.

I don't know...This is good and all, but it doesn't accomplish much different from the studio version, to my ears. The intensity ramps up more in the second half of the song, but I think that might have fallen flat on the album, after heights of Bodysnatchers and Jigsaw.

I can't say I prefer one version to the other, but I think the studio cut is a better fit as the album closer.

Guess i'm full of shit, because I prefer the album version - one of my favorite Radiohead songs. This version almost sounds like a mashup of Videotape and Jigsaw Falling Into Place.

[Norah]

What do you mean by "what they did to Videotape"? I love that song -- is it wildly different from an earlier version or something?

Oh yeah. Some people prefer the album version, including the band themselves, but they are all full of shit.

I don't know...This is good and all, but it doesn't accomplish much different from the studio version, to my ears. The intensity ramps up more in the second half of the song, but I think that might have fallen flat on the album, after heights of Bodysnatchers and Jigsaw.

I can't say I prefer one version to the other, but I think the studio cut is a better fit as the album closer.

Guess i'm full of shit, because I prefer the album version - one of my favorite Radiohead songs. This version almost sounds like a mashup of Videotape and Jigsaw Falling Into Place.

Bag o' dicks here also hates when people think that the album cut of Motion Picture Soundtrack is any good.

[Birds in Hell]

I love the album version of Videotape too, though I'm one of those people who hadn't heard the earlier live arrangement first. I think it's perfect.

I'm not really a fan of bombastic Radiohead, I don't find The Bends and OK Computer to be very interesting records. The most incredible thing about the band to me is that they managed to develop an interesting sound relatively late into their career.