Tag Archives: spirit

#1297: Radiohead – Street Spirit (Fade Out)

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On Radiohead’s The Bends, there’s a theme about the fear of getting old that shows it’s face throughout the record. On ‘Bones’, Thom Yorke sings about not wanting to be “crippled and cracked”. On ‘Fake Plastic Trees’, he talks about gravity always winning in reference to aging women who went through plastic surgery in the 1980s. Thom Yorke would have been 25/26 when working on the lyrics for the songs that would make up The Bends. But even then, I think it’s fair to say he might have been going through some existential crisis of some kind at the time. I think as we all do when we get to that mid-20s period. And closing the album off is a song about a thing we all know is certain in life. Death. The track is ‘Street Spirit (Fade Out)’, one of the group’s most sombre numbers which also happens to be one of their most popular too.

When it comes to me, well, I think I first came to know about the song when its music video played on MTV2, or one of those alternative music video channels, back in the 2000s. In between 2003 – 2007, when the band were on a bit of a hiatus, a Radiohead music video showing up on those places was a regular occurrence. Probably because the band were known to have some of the coolest of those types of media. The video for ‘Street Spirit’, with the whole manipulation of time thing going on in its scenes, was cool to witness to the small kid I was at that time. Thought it was so cool, in fact, that I tried to find the video online, which in a pre-YouTube world was very hard to do. Can only imagine what it must have felt like seeing something like it in 1996, when the song was released as a single. The track may be one of the band’s darkest. But man, if it isn’t catchy in its own uniquely bleak way. When that opening, circular guitar riff gets going, it’s very hard to stop listening to everything else that follows.

In the first verse, Thom Yorke depicts an image of a helpless figure feeling closed in by the houses that surround them. The second sees him referring to a machine that can’t communicate “the thoughts and the strain [he’s under]”. This got me thinking, maybe he’s talking about his guitar. Maybe he was really going through some things at the time. Or maybe he’s taking a point of view of a general machine used by an employee somewhere. After which he suggests we unite and be people of the world before we all end up underground. And in the third verse, he brings up imagery of cracked eggs and dying birds screeching through their lasts breaths. I did mention this song was bleak, didn’t I? Despite all this, the music is extremely infectious. You’ve got the riff I talked about in the last paragraph, but then there are the “Ah-na-na” vocals during the instrumental breaks. And then there’s Yorke’s actual vocal take, which just soars over everything. He changed up the way he sang from OK Computer onwards, so to have that Pablo Honey/Bends era style finish on this track is a massive way to go out. All very morose, but a lot of people love it, including myself, to the point that, if given an opportunity, there will sing it even louder than Yorke at a live performance. Like in the one below.

#1215: Noisettes – Sister Rosetta (Capture the Spirit)

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Another Noisettes song beginning with ‘S’. Not so far after the last one too. Funny how it goes sometimes. You won’t write about a song by a band/artist for a long while, and then before you know it you’re writing about two in almost quick succession. The last one was ‘Scratch Your Name’, a fine, fine song, I’d advise you to listen and maybe read what I have to say about it. But now it’s time for ‘Sister Rosetta’ to shine. Like ‘Scratch Your Name’, ‘Sister Rosetta’ was another track from the band’s debut album to be chosen as a single. It got its own music video, which I’m sure I would have seen on the TV at some moment in time. I can’t remember watching it as much as the singles that came before. But when I did catch the video on those brief occasions, it was always a good time.

The track is an homage to American singer-songwriter Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who pretty much invented rock and roll. I wish my grandma was as cool as this. But more thoroughly, the lyrics explore the personality of a lady who frequently partakes in nights out in London with the song’s narrator. The narrator describes the good times they have together, making note of the synergy between the two characters, complementing each other “like Satan and Christ”, and I think the chorus sees the narrator wanting something more to happen in this relationship. What it is isn’t explicitly stated, but a capturing of the spirit must occur in order for the narrator’s questions to be answered. The verses are carried by an old-timey rock ‘n’ roll feel, suitably reflected by the swing dancing choreography in the video, before transitioning into the blistering punky choruses. They close out the song, just when things start to feel a little out of control, with singer Shingai Shoniwa bringing proceedings to a halt with a sudden shriek.

If you listen closely to the song via the video, you’ll hear that the rumbling noise at the song’s end sort of cuts out quite abruptly. That’s because, on What’s the Time Mr. Wolf?, the audio carries through right into the following track ‘Bridge to Canada’ – the first Noisettes song I wrote about on here so many years ago. Seeing as this is the last Noisettes song I’ll be writing about on here, it feels good to somehow tie them all together. Some people reading this may recognise ‘Sister Rosetta’ as a song that was featured in a Twilight film. It seems the track was re-recorded for its inclusion, and I have to say…. I don’t like it all that much. Sounds so much tamer in comparison to the original. But, you know, that’s just my opinion. Hear it out for yourself.

#1164: Kanye West – School Spirit

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Hey, look, it’s another Kanye West song on here. I’m think in the today’s world, we can all come to agree there’s no saving the guy. He’s just needs to lay low for a while. He’s said and done some stuff over the past six/seven years that has definitely skewed the way I used to gauge with him as a listener. You’ll still have those dedicated followers, for sure. Me, I tend to look more from an uninvolved distance. But there was a time when I was excited for a new Kanye project, and things from his part were coming from a relatively good place. And where better to capture that than with a song from his first album. Been 20 years, you know.

The College Dropout came into my sister’s possession back in 2004. Got the feeling it was for her birthday or something. I have memories of just being around the house and hearing it play out loud on the speakers. Some songs stood out more than others to the nine-year-old boy I was, and I can distinctly remember ‘School Spirit’ being one of those, particularly its ‘Alpha step, Omega step…’ hook and the harmonised humming vocals that appear at points during its duration. But it probably wasn’t until a few years later, think about 2008, when I properly listened to it engaged rather than in passing. Had a YouTube channel where I just uploaded albums, and I needed to upload some content, so I got to know The College Dropout a lot more around that time. That YouTube channel doesn’t exist anymore, by the way.

Kanye details his disillusionment with the educational system in this one, pretty much giving the background behind why he became the titular college dropout in the first place. He was going to pursue his own dreams of becoming a world-famous artist, something he felt he couldn’t do in the time he wanted if he was sticking around in college, and leave behind the hangers-on who would still end up in a dead-end job even with the highest level of degree. It’s nothing cynical though, the whole track is delivered with a sense of humour. West flows over an old-school beat made by himself, sampling Aretha Franklin in the process. Franklin didn’t want Kanye swearing over her material, so any curse words that appear in the track are distorted and flipped around, almost to a comical level. Luckily, you can find the uncensored version of it online without much hassle.