Enjoy discovering what makes this Brain musically tick!👇Good friend and October 13, 2026 Tune Tag guest, Memory Lane Records, squoze all the good-good out of Brain’s brain, recently, to these dazzling results:
So, this all happened as I imagine most, if not all, communication happened at the early part of this century: Exchanging notes on social media! Brain of J-Hawk (one of my favorite people extant) and I were tossing around collab ideas, or maybe just breeze-shootin’ on fave artists, on Substack’s social media hub, Notes.
I discovered he’d only ever heard ‘80s-era, radio-hit Genesis, and I told him I’ve only ever heard of Radiohead, but (to my conscious memory) had never heard them (but, as we do, had come to the conclusion that “they’re not for me”)!
So, here we are: Coming soon, we’ll be posting a collab where I send him my favorite ‘70s-era Genesis songs, and he reacts to them (and compares/contrasts them with the ‘80s Genesis he knows!), but now, this:
Brain: Whenever you are ready just give a listen to “Lift.” I don’t want to say anything about it, because I want your honest opinion, then I can fill in some details in my response.
Later, Brain intros “Lift”: This is a song that was recorded during the making of 1997’s OK Computer. It was kept off of the record, because the band felt it was too far in the direction of what they had made prior to OK Computer (e.g. 1995’s The Bends), and they wanted to break away from that. The song would virtually stay buried until their reissue of OK Computer in 2017 (OKNOTOK). I hadn’t heard this song until then and fell in love with it:
Brad, after listening to “Lift”: A medium-tempo song with prominent guitar, the hint of strings (synth?) and the mumbling singer. I get that Thom Yorke is our singing hero, here, in a band I grew to hate a dozen years ago when I frequented karaoke bars virtually nightly, and if “Creep” wasn’t croaked at least 84 times a night by 85 drunks, it sure seemed like it!
Brain is sending his songs one at a time, and he doesn’t know what I’m writing…so, plead with me, now, that he doesn’t send me “Creep”!
With high-concept music videos like this, I always wonder if this is what the songwriter(s) was conjuring when writing the song! If not, does he/she/they have to sign off on the video director’s (or whomever’s) vision?
With only a handful of lyrics I was able to decipher from Yorke’s marble-mouth (and, I admit being helped, only slightly, by the video), this is something about a guy who feels isolated as the world moves by him…a theme we’ve seen before, but, usually outside the confines of a lift (they’re British…I’ll make allowances).
I’m curious: Does/can anyone actually hum along to this song? Can anyone actually call this a “catchy melody”? Or, is it not supposed to be? Was this a single? If my musical POV was whelped in 1964 by seeing The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show at age 8 (and, it was), can you grok my melody hunger? Please tell me these guys will harmonize at some point and/or “force” me to sing along or want to sing the song long after the needle has made its inevitable rendezvous with the label!
Brain responds: The fact that Brad is already having trouble with Thom’s vocals is concerning. Out of the five songs I provided him, I thought “Lift” had the cleanest vocals of the five. It’s also one of my favorite performances by Thom. The melody was immediately catchy to me, to the point where it gets stuck in my head on loop (right now it is). I think I might be in trouble here...
After Brad’s first listen: A far more “traditional” and even—gasp—melodic turn, here, with a standard verse/chorus approach, which I appreciated. The angular electric guitar entrance seemed almost “obligatory” (from their POV)….what might happen if Yorke and gang actually fashioned something that resembled a tuneful ballad, unadorned with jarring electric additions that burst through the pleasantry? Could they possibly be bending to what they think their alt audience wants to hear?
I noticed there’s an acoustic rendering available (I’m also curious to see what kind of covers have been done on this song). Let’s see what happens here:
Brad continues: Pretty impressive, and I appreciate Thom’s Scarecrow/straw hair/thatched-roof look, here! And, who wouldn’t be taken by Thom’s thorough immersion into his song (5 people are credited…I’m guessing the band? Might this be Thom’s song and they always slap all names on ‘em?), which had a period of more-impassioned playing 2/3 through (at the point the electric part of the recorded version “felt the need” to intrude).
SecondHandSongs lists 14 covers of “(Nice Dream)” including (curiously) half-a-dozen instrumentals, proving it’s a “pretty song”! Here’s one, Brain….you can’t possibly have heard this!😁
Or, this, a more trad MOR turn…actually a string quartet, of all things! But, having a violin carry most of the weight sends us back to Thom’s guitar strings-approach, fittingly:
Brain responds: This is probably my favorite track off The Bends. It’s euphoric for the first couple of minutes. The song is another example of what I love about Thom’s voice. I do think it’s a preferred taste. The apex of his performance is after the bridge, where the tone gets dark. His vocal fades back into the song. This isn’t a result from producing, it’s all Thom.
It’s interesting to me that Brad asks what if the band “actually fashioned something that resembled a tuneful ballad.” This is pretty much the opposite of what Radiohead wants to be. You don’t get that sense so much at this point of their work, but at the end of the 20th Century, it is emphatically in the opposite direction of tuneful. I think that’s what I’ve come to love about them, is their music always has some form of uncomfortability that keeps me somewhat on edge and doesn’t just melt my being into a complete sense of comfort.
I wasn’t aware of all of the covers. Brad’s right: I had not heard the European Jazz Trio perform it. I think that helps reinforce how good the band is at composition and probably provides Brad’s ear drums a break from Thom’s voice!
Brad’s impressions: I enjoyed the tasty guitar playing, but I’m afraid Yorke loses me, on this one anyway, with his lazy, drawling mumbling that doesn’t seem to have more than a 3-note range throughout. I enjoyed the video (having played the “Operation” game with my brother in the ‘60s). I’m really anxious to hear what Brain (and anybody, really) finds redeeming in this song (at least that would warrant multiple listenings).
Brain’s response: I think it’s harder to enjoy this song without knowing where it sits in the sequence of Radiohead’s discography: It’s actually an outlier on ’01’s Amnesiac (and also 2000’s Kid A if you pair the two together). It’s a haunting song that really keeps the same tone throughout. I almost feel like Thom is standing over my shoulder when he sings it. I think I find it redeeming within the context of when it was released.
If it had been released on OK Computer or even 2003’s Hail to the Thief, I may not enjoy it as much. I do really like the fact that the music to this song was influenced by The Smiths. Ed even played the song (before release) for Johnny Marr who was “beyond flattered and quite speechless.” Hopefully that answers Brad’s question on why I find it redeeming!
Brad replies: I really appreciate all that info, Brain! It really does “fill in the blanks” quite a bit! I particularly love your “I almost feel like Thom is standing over my shoulder when he sings it” declaration. So brave and daring, I must say, and a feeling I know I have felt before (when listening to a beloved song), and I’m confident all our readers have, too! Nicely done!
I’m also gonna say that Brain’s been beyond patient and understanding with my first impressions. I know he appreciates that I’m not sugar-coating anything, but I also know he knows me well enough to know I’m not just “criticizing” for the heck of it!
I’m on record (and even some tapes!) as declaring that I love and respect all artists and their creations…at least the fact that they’re doing it! I’m not obligated to like this or that song or artist, and many I haven’t over the years, in all genres and musical eras….that’s a given for us all. But, Brain’s been beyond kind….well, that’s why we dig working together!
Brad’s first impression: Pretty piano figure, with a softer, better attempt at a trad ballad. An interesting electrified/grinding guitar “zap” throughout. Is that indeed a guitar? I enjoyed the harmonies, too…but, while “pretty” (sorry, R-headers…that may not be your chosen adjective for your fave band!), I’m still missing a real melody I can hang my hat on. Yorke’s falsetto is on display again, and it is quite pleasant-sounding! I’d have to look up the lyrics. I still can’t decipher what it is he’s actually saying!
Brain’s response: Okay, so Brad found Thom’s vocals pleasant! If you know me and the bands I listen to, coherent vocals are rarely a thing (I mean how much flack does Eddie Vedder get?). This is another uncomfortable song, musically, but when you sit down and read the lyrics and then find out Thom’s reasoning for this song, you really start to feel the tension.
Apparently, the band did a show in Oxford prior to 2003. The performance itself was very sentimental to the band. However, someone wrote a scathing review of the show that rubbed Thom the wrong way. Here’s a taste of the lyrics, Brad: “You had to piss on our parade. You had to shred our big day. You had to ruin it for all concerned. In a drunken punch-up at a wedding, yeah.”
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Brad’s first impression: The opening bass riff makes them sound like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, IMO! Is that Yorke singing? And, what’s he saying? What’s the point of calling it “The National Anthem”? Bringing in the horns only makes it sound more like pure cacophony. I would wonder what’s the point, short of wanting to tread into Captain Beefheart’s or Weather Report’s territory!
Brain’s response: My approach toward this sequence of songs was to keep moving Brad further into the true inflection point of Radiohead’s career. This song is from Kid A, which is the record that moved the band far away from mainstream and into the abstractness that they wanted to become.
The record is also where Jonny Greenwood shines the brightest: Jonny is a phenomenal guitarist and composer who began to incorporate a lot of new techniques into the band’s recordings during this time (2000). “The National Anthem” is quite simply a car-wreck. Thom and Jonny worked with a horn ensemble to perform free jazz to mirror the style of Charles Mingus’s Town Hall Concert, a 1964 live album:
I’m not surprised that Brad is completely snowed by what the point of this song is. I think that’s what the band was going for. Not only on this song, but the entire album of Kid A. I’ve probably turned Brad completely off to Radiohead by ending the list of songs for him to digest in this fashion. However, in all honesty, I think Thom Yorke would have done the same thing.
Brad’s recent reply: That’s such a perfect ending note, Brain….I love that it’s artist-related…you know I love that! And, I know you know Radiohead and Thom’s music and career well enough that I’d bet dough that your hunch is right…he’d have wanted, nay, demanded that “The National Anthem” be the fitting period exclamation point to put a sonic button on our first of two “1st Impressions”! Thank you, Brain!
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