Radiohead Music Quotes

If I could be who you wanted, all the time

Recently, I've discovered Radiohead and find them to be quite good. So clearly, I'm some kind of musical retard. (Jonathan Ames, Middle-American Gothic)

As a rule, we don't like to feel to sad or lonely or depressed. So why do we like music (or books or movies) that evoke in us those same negative emotions? Why do we choose to experience in art the very feelings we avoid in real life? Aristotle deals with a similar question in his analysis of tragedy. Tragedy, after all, is pretty gruesome. […] There's Sophocles's Oedipus, who blinds himself after learning that he has killed his father and slept with his mother. Why would anyone watch this stuff? Wouldn't it be sick to enjoy watching it? […] Tragedy's pleasure doesn't make us feel "good" in any straightforward sense. On the contrary, Aristotle says, the real goal of tragedy is to evoke pity and fear in the audience. Now, to speak of the pleasure of pity and fear is almost oxymoronic. But the point of bringing about these emotions is to achieve catharsis of them - a cleansing, a purification, a purging, or release. Catharsis is at the core of tragedy's appeal.

Hannah leaned forward and reached for the dial. The radio hissed, shrieked and blasted a few bars of Mozart before finally settling on Radiohead’s Exit Music (for a Film). Hannah, delighted with her discovery, smiled and slumped back in her seat. She listened to Thom Yorke’s nasally vocals in silence for a couple of verses before joining in. Singing heartily and drumming away on her knees, she was like a ball of energy, and already I felt this energy permeating my own body. I felt as fresh and as happy as I’d been in months. Radiohead ended and became The Stone Roses, who in turn became The Killers. Finally, when they became the hourly news, Hannah rolled her eyes and turned off the radio.

I try to remind myself of how awesome downloading music used to be. Because now it's about as thrilling as ordering paper towels from Amazon. The more convenient that downloading became, the less fun it was.

sombre, anxious, melancholic, atmospheric, surreal, cold, lonely, cryptic, abstract, apathetic, male vocals, mysterious, dark, nocturnal, complex, mechanical, progressive, lush, disturbing 'Descriptors' - Radiohead - Amnesiac

The absolute success of these two movements is such that at this stage, "indie" and "yuppie" are meaningless designators. The yuppie aesthetic of connoisseurship has infiltrated everywhere and now there is only--for many of us--either luxury gelato or food made of chemical waste. Ikea, Martha Stewart, and Whole Foods make yuppiedom no longer a chic and extravagant choice but an enforced mode. It's either that or eat at a toxic toilet such as McDonald's. The indie aesthetic is likewise de rigueur. H&M, Urban Outfitters, and American Apparel sell the floppy "Brit on a holiday" look to all Americans. Radiohead and Arcade Fire music is blasted from speakers at stadiums. For many poor souls, there is no alternative to the alternative.

You float like a feather," sings Radiohead, "In a beautiful world." I've listened several times to the Radiohead songs, because it was nice of Raymond to say he heard a bit of them in what I sang. I'm not sure I hear it myself, but I am pleased and touched. Sometimes that's what you need, just a quick casual word of knowledgeable encouragement. Radiohead reminds me a little of the songs in Garden State soundtrack. Now, that's a soundtrack. They were all songs that Zach Braff liked, so he put them in his movie. And there's that beautiful moment near the beginning where Natalie Portman hands him the headphones and she watches him listen to the song and she smiles her huge, innocent Natalie Portman smile.

We have extremely different tastes in music. He likes Radiohead, and the kind of whiney hipster music that I don’t think Republicans are even allowed to listen to. And if we dare like it even a little, the band will be really insulted that any Republican is a fan and issue a statement that said Republican needs to stop listening and or using their music immediately.

Wood Music: A Playlist Foals, ‘Birch Tree’, 2015 Arnold Bax, November Woods, 1917 The Beatles, ‘Norwegian Wood’, 1965 Igor Stravinsky, ‘Berceuse’, from The Firebird, 1910 A Woodland Reading List William Boyce and David Garrick, ‘Heart of Oak’, 1760 George Butterworth, The Banks of Green Willow, 1913 ——, ‘Loveliest of Trees’, from ‘A Shropshire Lad’, 1911 Editors, ‘I Want a Forest’, 2009 Edward Elgar, String Quartet in E minor, Op. 83, 1919 ——, Quintet in A minor, Op., 84, 1918 ——, Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85, 1919 ——, Owls: An Epitaph, Op. 27, 1907 Keane, ‘Somewhere Only We Know’, 2004 Lindisfarne, Dingly Dell, 1972 Oasis, ‘Songbird’, 2002 Pink Floyd, ‘Careful with That Axe, Eugene’, 1969 Camille Saint-Saëns, ‘Le Coucou au Fond des Bois’ (‘The Cuckoo in the Depths of the Wood’), 1886 Pablo Casals, ‘El Cant dels Ocells’ (‘Song of the Birds’), 1961 Antonín Dvořák, Waldesruhe (‘Silent Woods’) for cello and orchestra, Op. 68, no. 5, 1894 Edvard Grieg, Lyric Pieces, Op. 43, no. 4, ‘Little Bird’, 1886 Franz Liszt, Legende S.175 no. 1, St Francis of Assisi preaching to the birds, 1863 Monty Python, ‘The Lumberjack Song’, 1975 Van Morrison, ‘Redwood Tree’, 1972 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, ‘Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja’ (‘The Bird- catcher, that’s me’), from Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), 1791 George Perlman, ‘A Birdling Sings’, from ‘Ghetto Sketches’, 1931 Pulp, ‘The Trees’, 2001 Radiohead, King of Limbs, 2011 Robert Schumann, ‘Jäger auf der Lauer’ (‘Hunters on the Lookout’), from Waldszenen (Forest Scenes), Op. 82, no. 2, 1850–51 ——, ‘Freundliche Landschaft’ (‘Friendly Landscape’), from Waldszenen (Forest Scenes), Op. 82, no. 5, 1850–51 Jean Sibelius, ‘The Aspen’, no. 3, ‘The Birch’, no. 4, ‘The Spruce’, no. 5, from Op. 75, ‘The Trees’, 1914–19 Trad., ‘The Trees They Do Grow High’ ——, ‘The Willow Tree’ The Verve, ‘Sonnet’, from Urban Hymns, 1997 Paul Weller, ‘Wild Wood’, 1993