Radiohead

I spent way too much money at Best Buy last night, but I don’t really feel bad about it. Frankly, I haven’t bought any useless crap in ages, so the idea of buying some DVD’s really appealed to me. And even though Radiohead told me not to, I bought the video collection EMI released without their input last year.

I wound up watching most of it whilst Susannah worked on a puzzle. It was really a trip down memory lane, since I hadn’t watched any Radiohead videos in ages. It got me thinking about early 1993, when I first heard them. “Creep” was getting airplay and I quite liked the song, so I bought Pablo Honey and absorbed it in short order.


Creep - Radiohead

All these years later, Pablo Honey is a pretty iffy record. It’s been eclipsed a hundredfold by just about everything else Radiohead had put out since. But at the time, it was a revelation to me. But I didn’t know very many people who were actually into them. To most people, they were a one-hit wonder in the making. So, I continued on, by myself. My Iron Lung. The Bends. Oh, yeah, then they got famous.

Of course, Susannah had to point a few things out. Firstly, that she was watching Sesame Street when Pablo Honey was released. I’d never really considered that Radiohead is actually an old band when put into the grand scheme of things. They really have been around a long time, but they still seem so new and fresh to me. Yeah, I was a kid when their first album came out. Then again, so was I back in 1989 when Nine Inch Nails released Pretty Hate Machine and I was a weird little 6th grader listening to that instead of New Kids On The Block.

Secondly, she pointed out just how exceptionally depressing Radiohead is. Again, that’s something I never really thought much about. I just know how much the songs affect me. How much they mean to me on a personal level. Radiohead has gotten me through some really tough shit. They did it again last year. I couldn’t help but well up a bit when “Fake Plastic Trees” came on. Some wounds never heal.


Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead

I guess everyone has those bands. Those bands that hit you right in the heart, no matter when they’re played. Unfortunately for me, I have hundreds of those bands. But last summer, when my world felt like it was coming to an end, Radiohead came to my rescue again. The usual songs did it for me. “Exit Music (For A Film).” “True Love Waits.” “Pyramid Song.” “Myxomatosis.” And this was when their last album, In Rainbows, started to really impact me.


All I Need - Radiohead

I guess I owe Radiohead more than they’ll ever know.