Friday 25 February 2011

I Wish I Was Special, You're So VERY Special

It's going to be hard to compete with Tom and Allison's posts this week (especially since Tom already wrote about the best Radiohead song, "Karma Police"). But at least my post is on time this week! Ack. Soon I'm going to be The Flake instead of The Yank.

Anyway...without further ado, I give you *drumroll* my favorite Radiohead song.

Rocking a mullet in my college dorm room
I discovered Radiohead during my first year of college. In high school, I had been able to survive my teenage "angst" by listening to R.E.M.'s Automatic For The People on repeat. But when I was a college freshman, my "angst" became something that Michael Stipe couldn't cure. I got into the band Muse because of their unique sound and cosmic, incomprehensible lyrics. On one fateful day in philosophy class, I was discussing music with the girl next to me. She was outraged that I loved Muse but had never listened to Radiohead. So she invited me over to her dorm for a listening party and burned OK Computer. Little did I know that this disc would not leave my CD player for weeks (those were the days when I still actively used a CD player).

Yes, I know, I was a bit late to the party on that. Eventually I caught up with the rest of the universe and listened to the rest of their stuff. It's all quite fabulous (in it's own melancholy sort of way, of course) but OK Computer will always be my favorite Radiohead album.

Shortly after I discovered Radiohead, I became a DJ on college radio. I actually had a show on Monday nights that ran for the duration of my college career and it gained quite the cult following. But in the days when nobody tuned in and I didn't know what I was doing, the show was everything you would expect from an amateur college DJ...

(A Radiohead song stops playing)
(A brief moment of dead air)
DJ Lauren: Um, yeah...that was Radiohead. Next is a song by...Radiohead.
(Another brief moment of dead air)
(Another Radiohead song plays)

I'm exaggerating a little bit, but probably not much.


But enough history lessons! Time for me to pick a song already.

Truth is, I'm a little bit torn on which song to pick. I'm so fascinated with OK Computer as a complete entity that I don't know which song to extract from it and call my favorite.

For inspiration, I did a little Wikipedia-based research and came up with this pretty great quote from Thom Yorke in regards to this particular album:

"The big thing for me is that we could really fall back on just doing another miserable, morbid and negative record lyrically, but I don't really want to, at all."

They say it's not a concept album, but it feels like one. There are a few tracks that seem to bleed into each other and complement each other. I think that's why I'm having a hard time picking a favorite.

I should probably just get off my OK Computer soapbox and talk about how "Creep" has been my theme song at various points in my life.

Cliche? Yes. But I've already told you all about loving Radiohead in college and overplaying them on my college radio show and being unable to pick a favorite track on OK Computer because I love them all so very much. I guess you can't really get much more cliche than all of that.

And I think everybody has felt like this at some point in time:

But I'm a creep
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here?
I don't belong here


At least, I know Tom and Allison have felt like that at some point in time. After all, I think that was the song that started this whole blog collaboration.

I don't currently resonate with the lyrics as much as I have in various moments of the past, but it's still a great song. It's got all the right elements - Thom Yorke's haunting vocals, elegantly placed profanity, the way it plods along and builds into a driving anthem for angst-ridden youth everywhere.

Yeah, "Creep" gets an A+. Just keep all razor blades out of reach when you listen to it.

Ah, I'm beginning to get tasteless. I think that's a sign that I should wrap this up. So (if you've made it this far through my ridiculous rambling), I wish you all a happy Friday and hope everybody has a fantastic weekend! Peace.

- The Yank

Embarrassing propaganda I made for my radio show in college...I think I was over my Radiohead phase and in the middle of my eurodance phase...Also, I look 12.

1 comment:

  1. I'm glad you picked "Creep" - nice way to wrap up Radiohead week.

    I think it would be fun to program a radio show and just have someone else do the talking. I'm not a good speaker.

    Also, "Everybody Hurts" wasn't enough for you in college? Oh Michael Stipe...

    Anyways...great post! Woo!

    Now back to other random topics next week...which are still to be determined.

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