The Story of Radiohead's Best Song
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- Опубликовано: 1 окт 2024
- watch my latest video, it's the best thing i've ever made: • Finding Peace in Tears...
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i'm a fucking idiot, i got acoustic/electric mixed up with analogue/digital and it PISSES ME OFF. i also got the key signature wrong because apparently i'm a dumb dumb internet boy who hasnt been a musician for almost twenty years. please forgive my mistakes.
this is my favourite song of all time and i hope this video has done it justice
sources:
• (2006/10/21) BBC 2, Th...
• Bird Singing Sound Eff...
• Radiohead - No Surpris...
• Video
• Radiohead Meeting Peop...
• Nature Plants Leaves B...
• Storm Clouds Forming -...
#Radiohead #HowToDisappearCompletely #ThomYorke
please watch my other videos thank you
nah
This is the only video I've ever player twice on RUclips. Love the song and love what you've done here.
Whilst your other vids may be great, they just don't appeal to where I am in life right now.
Play to your strengths brother.
ok😀
“i’m not living, i’m just killing time” hits way harder i think especially for how much more subdued it is
that’s in true love waits
Favorite lyrics on a moon shaped pool. When you hear it you feel exactly how he feels singing it.
@@okcomputerwhatever4690 And it changes depending on which version of TLW you listen too!
@@danny7906 Written at the same time as Kid A actually, pretty interesting
Is that not what we're all doing? Isn't living, killing time?
You say the listener is left exhausted at the end. I'd argue, that if you're in pain, you feel soothed at the end. Radiohead songs are "sad", yes. However, listening to them somehow "validates" my experience. I feel as if the music is telling me that what I am living through is real, its ok and Im not the only one, even if I am alone. Through that validation, comes an underlying peace. The blissful feeling akin to a cool towel on a scorching day.
Yes it's quite a cathartic experience
Catharsis
It might sound strange, but I find radiohead soothing
I feel the same. It's like a hand on your shoulder and a voice saying it's okay to not feel okay.
I think mileage may vary from one person to another. I struggle with anxiety (and I'm starting to wonder if depression too), and this track makes me feel so much existential dread. The whole listening experience is almost unbearable, even at the end when the built up tension "resolves". I still adore the track, but I wish the last minute or so could be extended for another 30 seconds at minimum.
'It's over. Suddenly, everything is in its right place.'
nice
couldn't help myself with that one could i?
It's funny because everything in it's right place is my theme song for when shits out of control and I'm depressed
We have the same pfp
@@binnebambaronn5047 bruhbgh
@@benjaminfowler4513 it's my regular listen every time i'm having a mental breakdown.
I grew up on Radiohead, being a male and experiencing sexual abuse with an adult at age 11, it was all I had, I was the class clown, I was seemingly the happiest kid and made everyone laugh and got in trouble constantly. Having this song, this band IMO the greatest band on this planet, was what keep me from ending myself. I was able to surrender and disappear completely into my emotions and feelings. At that age, I was seen as a victim, everyone I knew found out, people used my experience and made it their own and talked about it without my consent, I just wanted to be swallowed whole and return to source. I would come home after school and cry whilst I listened to my beloved Radiohead, the only one that understood what I was feeling. So haunting, so painful, so beautiful and poetic. I am so happy that life brought me to them because it carried me, yes, in perpetual sadness but alive and well. Thank you Radiohead for sharing your pain, it carried and shaped me. I love you so much.
I hope you find happiness soon, you deserve it
Sending you love and continued healing ❤
Thom wrote more than a few songs that basicaly saved my live...It makes the odd side of myself seem like the most natural and beautiful thing...
@@luispinheirodosmontes7219 because it is
Wow...just...wow. I'm a muscian. At 58, and after 2 failed careers - one as an architect, another as an academic. I didn't start playing seriously until I was 51. Last year I recieved a diagnosis that explained everything - the anxiety, the depression, the suicidal thoughts, and my lifelong status as an outsider who was bullied and abused every step of the way by almost eveyone. Most horribly by my own mother. In ways impossible to describe with words.
Last year I learned that I'm autistic.
Music was my only refuge, and when I discovered Radiohead, I had the same reaction as you ShivAgni. It was a revelation. Another whole level of understanding and connection. I knew I wasn't alone.
My mother died recently. My tormentor. The monster under my bed is finally gone. I gave a concert a few days after getting the news. It turned out to be the greatest performance I've ever given. "How to Dissapear Completely" is one of it's most imporatnt songs, because it describes how I coped with the repeated traumas inflicted by my mother as a child:
Dissociation
I'm not here
This isn't happening
When something so terrible happens that it's beyond comprehension, the human psyche dissociates from reality.
Or mine did anyway.
The song itself as I arranged it isn't especially difficult to play from a technical standpoint for me. But from an emotional standpoint, it's always devestating, because I'm reliving the worst moments of my life. I wear dark glasses to hide the tears that stream involuntarily from my eyes. My voice almost breaks as I sing the words....
...and when it's over, I'm healed.
But that's not the most amazing part. I used to be afraid to play the song for audiences because it was so dark. It took so much out of me. I felt so exposed and vulnerable. But I played it anyway one day - mainly because I was doing a 4 hour gig, and was almost out of songs to play!
How to Dissapear is again, "easy" (technically) for me. I know it by heart because it so perfectly describes how I survived.
So I played it.
...and a couple of young guys - teenagers - applauded as I finished... Teenagers. That's how I know if I should add a song to my regular repertoire: If teenagers and children like it, it STAYS. Because they haven't had their souls crushed by the world yet. They still know what's important and real.
You can hear and see my performance of How To Disapper Completely here on RUclips if your interested: ruclips.net/video/6KScHf-t26U/видео.html
The world is such an awful place in so many ways, especially for those of us who are different. If it wasn't for music, and artists like radiohead I'd truly be lost....or worse.
That Dublin gig in 1997 was such a treat, Massive Attack and Radiohead were amazing. Unforgettable was at the end of an fantastic Radiohead set, when it was supposed to rain that day and didn’t, Tom came back on stage to play an encore and said this is for it not raining today and played high and dry. As soon as he started playing, it started raining. Unbelievable.
wow. this sounds absolutely amazing
Saw them 4 times but they never played H&D. Very jealous.
a similar thing happened at their Atlanta show during their Hail to the Thief tour which I was lucky enough to attend. The whole night it was dry, and during Paranoid Android, when Thom starts singing 'rain down...', it started raining. I burst into tears and uncontrollable laughter. Absolutely beautiful.
That’s amazing
@@user-gp5kh5tu4k bro you saw them 4 times, i dont even know if they will get back together for a tour
So happy he is alive... Must be difficult to pass through all that pressure.
Você por aqui? Legal saber que compartilhamos esse interesse
Olha só quem está aqui hehe
damn
i lol'd
é nois
As someone who experiences depression and disassociative episodes, How to Disappear Completely is the first song I've ever heard that captures my exact feelings of feeling alone and not really part of the world around you. The tense strings in the back of the mix. The absolute apathy that the lyrics are delivered with. The way how when you listen to it you feel weightless. Fucking amazing song.
I feel so sorry for your depression and disassociative episodes but just hold on, it's going to be better, trust me... I've experienced this as well and it took me a long time to get out of this state of mind, but was worthy! :)
Same. Maximum sympathies and respect. (For anyone in a similar position, I found the idea of Complex Trauma and its treatment very helpful for finding a way towards recovery).
That is the beauty about music, can help you, understands you when nobody else can, pure magic, just feelings floating away
Penderecki ?
I wish noone ever had to feel this way but it is impossible and I have felt it too. You'd think that after time you'd get used to it, maybe it'll pass, maybe you'll just find something to distract yourself with, but when it hits - it hits suffocatingly hard.
KID A came out as my marriage was falling to pieces. I worked alone all day and listened to the album constantly. My home life was a nightmare and I completely lost any feeling of self worth I hung on for dear life because I couldn't conceive of a situation where I wouldn't be there with my daughters. The music, the lyrics even the cover art resonated perfectly with how I was feeling and it became the soundtrack to my eventual collapse. I couldn't listen to it for years and then a couple of years ago I passed Cobb records on the way hone and bought ok computer and Kid A. I was fine until I got to this track and then I had to park up because I was crying so much I couldn't see where I was going.Life is good now but I think I learned that there are some things that you shouldn't expect to get over. You go on for sure but you are changed forever.
you're incredibly strong. I look up to you.
it's incredible how songs can affect us in such a deeply miserable time. i was in one of the darkest mental places i've ever experienced when i found this song and it dragged me through the next six months. i'm glad things are better now friend
Imagine still doing these long comment section confessions in 2021.
@@NameLess-ks4fi Your sarcasm does you no favours.
Nor does it assist anyone else.
@@NameLess-ks4fi we don't have to imagine, they are happening. And ones like this are gold to some. They are releases. What's the harm? I dig it.
Imagine people still putting people down for emoting in 2021.
I used to listen to Pink Floyd's "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" the 17 minute edited version, along with "How To Disappear Completely", as I fell asleep. So magical.
We’re the same
Me too mate 😭 bruv i always wonder we're all so different yet so same
Two amazing tracks. You have good taste my friend!
I'm a metal head. Thom Yorke is the greatest songwriter of my generation. Such a heavy, heavy song.
I'm a Californian. Radiohead are one of my favorite bands. Great music
@@Broql-md4hf Why do people musically limit themselves like that
cum
Agree 100%
Metal head here too. But radiohead changed everything, now I'm focusing on writing and trying to learn most of Thom's music
How to Disappear Completely has always given me a vibe of depression and longing for normality.
It hits to close to home for me as my anxiety and depression led me to completely distance myself from all of my old school friends and when I finished 2 years ago I let them leave me behind, and now I wonder how much fun I could’ve had if I got stuck in a bit more
@@Adam-ro8vj I'm 32 now, and I grew up absolutely idolising this album and Radiohead. Yes me and me friends smoked weed and dropped lsd in woods and attics etc, and talked about pretty much everything spiritual and literal you can think of. I still speak to some, but not others - life is very much like that.
Your friends though - just give them a call mate. They'll love to hear from you, I Guaran-Fucking-Tee it. Humans are like that.
I was gna cut off my msg there, but I hope this may help you:
Something an old GF told me some 8 years ago. She's a Dalkey girl, and no stranger to the woes of men (having 2 older brothers). She once told me one night, that it is absolutely Essential to have music in your heart and head that makes you upset. Music that makes you cry. Music that makes you FEEL.
It clears the pipes - be it veins, lungs, eyes, ears or mouth. Being able to make yourself sad, every now and again, is the most immense release when you wake up the next morning. And brother, she was right. The smile you have that next morning after such build up.... well.... I suppose you know but don't know the "trick" to it.
Life is heavy, and has never been easy, but there is true joy to be had. And to enjoy the joy you must learn to enjoy the sorrow.
I hope you do well for yourself mate. And hope you absorb this message that I keep close to my heart every single day. X
@@Truffle_Pup I appreciate you for taking time to write that and I couldn’t relate more to what you’re old girlfriend said.
There was a group of about 7 of us going into secondary school as close friends and we made school our bitch so to speak. For 5 years the best day of our lives was always the next one. I don’t know when it started , overtime I convinced myself they didn’t really like me and i distanced myself to avoid being hurt. At some point I’d like to explain that to them.
I have a few friends in my village and i have fun with them (smoking bud,drinking,football etc). but i always wonder what might’ve been and I feel like I’ll never truly grasp that the past is dead and buried
@@Adam-ro8vj man that was spooky msg, you almost write like myself 10 years ago.
You sound like you're still a young lad, and to all young lads (like I was once upon a time... wait, I still am right?) I'd say get yourself somewhere Away from the norm.
Granted, we are living in a period of history where travel and movement is not ideal, nor allowed per se, but weathering storms is one thing that we all have inside us.
Trust, that shit is true!
I'm from a small village myself, and I left when my mum took my sister to Australia. Amazing how "home" can change into the "surface of Mars" once that happens.
I don't like giving advice ,so I won't.
All I will say brother is... It's worth doing it on your own.
And remember what my ex gf said, music is there for all emotions. "Venting" your sadness is damn useful every now and again, but also focus on the mornings after... It's almost like weeping a wound. When you wake up smiling the day after, you'll understand.
Much love X
@@Truffle_Pup much love g ✌️
How to Disappear is the one Radiohead song that I NEVER listen to. Every time, and I mean every time, I hear it I cry. I cried just now hearing clips of it in the video. This song hits on something in me that feels like absolute suicidal despair. It breaks my heart. It is a beautiful song that perfectly, at least to me, captures the misery machine that is a a deep deep depression. I love it and I hate it. It's the only song I've ever heard that affects me in this way.
SAME
Yup, like that feeling of everything closing in on you. Glad you’re still here.🖤
I did not realize that about myself. I mean I don't cry when I hear it but I sure do avoid listening to it because it perfectly feels the way it's name indicates. I think of disappearing, which is not even accomplished by simply dying. The desperate feeling of not being able to disappear haunts me probably the most when I hear this song.
Yes 100 times. Footsteps by Pearl Jam is my personal kryptonite.
Yes, it always brings tears.......
‘How to disappear completely’ & ‘nude’ have been competing in my head for my favorite Radiohead song for at least 10 years now... this song is a masterwork
Fade out😭
Pyramid song
Fake plastic Trees
weird fishes
How to disappear completely and no surprises >
This song means more to me than any other song. It may seem very "childish" to some, but here's my story: When i was about 16, I can truly say i fell in love with a girl. I quickly realized it wasn't just going to be some highschool hook-up. No matter our differences, i kept falling deeper and deeper into love & emotion. It lasted about 4 years, spending every waking moment with someone. We became helpless romantics, even though we were so different and had so much confliction, until she snapped one day, and called it quits. For the first half of my senior year, while everyone was having the time of their life, I was alone. I knew my friends weren't going to stay when we graduated, and i lost all love i used to feel. All i could do was listen to this song with my headphones in through the whole winter. I'd just stand around during lunch and brunch listening to this just wanting to give up. Eventually, after an incredibly dark winter, i found my way out. I always reflect on this time period. things are better now.
Im glad things are better for you mate. Heartbreak is the worst but we just need to remember a new day and new better people will come. When we least expect it. Take care homie
It's crazy to say this but...I believe this album came out the worst of my childhood abuse had truly began. When I felt the most at that time in my life, "I'm not here. This isn't happening." Hauntingly brilliant and beautiful.
lmao kid ive been alone my entire life
Its better to have ur heart broken that always being alone
You had brunch?
it's my fave radiohead song too. never knew any of this. awesome vid do more!
thank you so much for your kind words 💚
Same
think it's about time to say something. holy fucking shit. when i posted this video i thought it'd have a chance to be 'successful' because radiohead are so popular, but this is unlike anything i could've possibly imagined. 12,000 views (and rising quickly), 1,400 hours of watch time, and a ridiculously high like ratio. i never ever thought i'd have a video that reached this many people.
thank you all so, so much for watching and thank you for all your kind words. i read every comment and each one makes me smile. i will be back with more content eventually, so watch this space.
quality content, you deserved it
Keep up the good work! Gotta love that youtube algorithm for bringing me here.
@@guitardude231 the algorithm is shining on me, it's true. this time last week, this video had less than half the views it does now
Thank you very very much for bringing this masterpiece under everyone's attention with this great video! You got yourself a new subscriber :-)
deserves way more
Thom Yorke bears his soul on his sleeve and is the embodiment of what a real musician should be. If humanity is ever judged I vote Thom as one of our main advocates.
Yeah. Not some showboat who poses with a guitar in his hand and promotes more than he makes (as in creating songs as an artform).
He is also incredibly short.
@@standinsilence ???????
Amen
@@kjl3080 YOOOOO Kj i'm a huge fan
yes i know the ondes martenot is an analogue instrument, i managed to get analogue and digital mixed up with electronic and acoustic leave me ALONE
it's okay, i love you.
Super squid man
Lol
It's ok, nobody is perfect. Until this day I have difficulties to hear the difference between Cello and Ondes Martenot in this song but I don't care. Just like Thom said: is the most beautiful thing they ever did. My favorite song of all time.
just keep saying, "I'm not here..."
My first memory of being moved by a piece of music was laying at a lake as a little boy, my dad gave me his discman with Kid A on it. I am convinced, in that moment, it rewired my brain in some way and defined my taste in music, or art in general. That story doesn’t sound particularly interesting so I never told anyone, but that album has a special place in my heart.
Also: I want to say “In rainbows” changed the music industry.
In/Rainbows is my favorite Radiohead album with OK Computer being a close 2nd.
"Reckoner" was for a long time my go-to song for getting lost in meditation after smoking a second or third bowl.
almost all their albums did it actually
Yeah, but the Pumpkins did it first. The free album thing.
Am absolute masterpiece. I saw them on tour for that album and still to this day thinking of witnessing that set live gives me chills.
I've seen them a few other times, but that show was so special.
I was listening to Kid A on my way into work on 9/11/2001. How to Disappear Completely had just started when I shut off my vehicle and went into work, so it was the first song I heard while driving home that terrible day. Listening to it while seeing all the sad, confused faces on my way home will be etched in my memory forever.
i'm so sorry you had to experience that, but i'm glad the song has stuck with you
Wow, I had the same experience.
I remember leaving DC that day and the lyrics "whose in a bunker? Who's in a bunker? Women and children first" Really effecting me.
@@RicArmstrong I imagine most of us Radiohead fans were still obsessed with Kid A when 9/11 took place since the album was less than a year old.
Listened to it when the high school let us out after watching the scene all day on the tvs. My family was out of town, just remember me a friend with the news on the tv on mute and this on the CD player.
Yes, I remember listening to Amnesiac and feeling similarly.
I had no idea about his vision of the Glastonbury set being a disaster, very insightful and enjoyable to watch and learn about, great video!
thank you so much! i'm so glad you enjoyed it!
I never knew that either
"Strobe lights and blown speakers"
I never truly appreciated Radiohead as I should've until a year ago when I finally decided to step out my comfort zone of music and listen to a song other than Creep. I'm so glad I decided to give their other songs/albums a chance and I only regret that I never did it sooner.
Trigger Warnings: It's amazing that he chose this song from the album Kid A. In the early early 2000s after I had gotten this album so much bad had happened. This album and this song was what I was listening to after my boyfriend had disappeared. After he came back he had checked himself into the hospital and was put into the psychiatric ward. I was alone in our apartment feeling more alone than ever all while I was blamed for his depression and all that was going on. It was a freezing cold and bleak January and then I got extremely sick not knowing what it was. I went to emergency and when I was asked if there was anyone for them to contact I told them my boyfriend was in the psychiatric ward. Then as I writhed in extreme pain on the table they sent a man in who treated me like a criminal. That I was faking the pain to just be close to my boyfriend. Finally through the pain I was able to say to him something along the lines of " Do you really think that I am faking throwing up bile??" They kept me in emergency for a bit and then sometime late a nurse was shocked and indignant that I was still there because I had supposedly been released. I was scared but I got up out of the bed. As soon as I stood I knew something wasn't right. I got dressed and got my things. I got a taxi home all the while knowing I was better off at the hospital. As soon as I was at my apartment door opening it I had the extreme pain in spasms. It continued for weeks with me on the couch constantly. I couldn't eat or prepare myself anything. The only thing I ate was crackers for weeks and water. When I was finally taken somewhat seriously by my boyfriends family his aunt who had been a nurse brought me packages of electrolyte solution believing I had a bad flu. I continued to be alone and in pain sleeping when I could and waking up from the pain. The pain was enough that I had to make noise. I got better but it came back again and this time when my boyfriend had been released from the psychiatric ward. While I was sick and alone the nurses told him to not leave to come help me and he listened to them which I was angry about. But when I started getting sick again not long after I started feeling better I was at emergency again. This time they admitted me to the hospital and did many tests. They even gave me my own room. The way they treated me the second time I always thought they did because they were trying to cover their asses to not be taken to court. I had had an ovarian cyst which was positioned in such a way that my uterus had prolapsed to the left and everything was blocked. And it was positioned in such a way that it had been hard to see when they did the ultrasound. After I was kept in the hospital and I was clear to go home I may have listened to this album and this song sometimes but when I did it just brought back too many of the horrible, dark and stinging feelings that were still quite fresh. Since then I haven't listened to it. Watching this video was the first time I had heard this song since then and it takes me back more than twenty years to a time that oddly enough had been the biggest nightmare of my life even after living in a broken home with a very severely mentally ill mother. I love Radiohead but I know I have avoided listening to this album for a reason. It expresses the feelings of a human soul that usually can never be expressed in words. The intense grief of aloneness, isolation, rejection, of being let down by life, of abandonment and of being unloved and hated and blamed. This song was majorly triggering for me and now I have to do what I can to process it as I have all my life. I wish and pray for peace on everyone who found themselves and their pain in this song the way that I have.
Oh fuck. A Radiohead video pops in my feed and therefore I now have to return to binging the shit out of them, staying up later than I should, and thinking sadder than usual thoughts.
Hearing Ideoteque as a 17 year old completely steered my musical interests in a new direction
Thank Aphex Twin.
@@thescriptwriter824 drukqs is my gamertag :D
@@Charlie1821 It's a great album. He's influenced an entire generation of electronic music, including Radiohead from Kid A onwards, and Thom York's solo stuff. He's a special talent, hope to see him live someday.
@@thescriptwriter824 100% I grew up in Asia, so didn't discover him (along with A LOT of music) until I moved to the USA for university. Getting to hear so much new (to me) music at 18 was almost too much lol
@@Charlie1821 I know the feeling....In my 40's now but back in the day when dance music was really growing and happening, no internet, no smartphones, cultures emerging slowly and influential, old school Autechre playing in warehouses and open feilds whilst everybody danced, high as birds and life was the only thing that mattered.....Man, times have changed.
Great stuff man
hi rob
thanks a lot my guy!!!
hi rob
hi rob
@@kaizenweisz2120 hi Ron
Fun Fact: This song was the inspiration for Micheal Stipe when he wrote the lyrics for REM's song titled "Disappear" off their brilliant REVEAL album. On a band break Stipe ended up at some type of rave event somewhere in the world during his travels. Upon finally being recognized by someone he was asked: "what are you doing here?" Stipe replied: "I came to disappear."
For so long I couldn't listen to this song because I would cry or it would take me right back to painful teenage years when I just wanted to disappear. I'm in my 30s now and I just listened to the full song after watching this and closed my eyes and hugged teenage me. This song now can remind me of how far I've come too.
Thank you for this incredibly thoughtful and well done video.
Right in the feels. Same.
hey man, ik it’s been a year, but i hope you’re doing well. i’m glad you finally confronted the demons of your past and grew to love your old self. i’m currently in that process right now. glad you’re here and i’m proud of you bro
I love how the bass line seems like it shouldn't work at all but just dances around the strings like its taunting them.
the bassline is amazing, it doesnt change at all except for in the chorus when thom sings 'i'm not here, i'm not here'. it then immediately goes back to the same line. colin really outdid himself on making something so simple sound so excellent
@@TalkingWithTom dont agree with it being simple, at least from a harmonic perspective. it starts on a major7th and circles all the way down in both chords this whole song contains. always admired how it could work in this meandering way
The bass line is a fine example of "ostinato". Pure genius!
@@chrisschmier8744 I also agree it isn't simple, and I'll add another level, it maintains a presence that is steady but watchfully meanders. Like a very important supporting actor in this play of Thom's mind...the good friend off to the side watching closely for anything they can do
The strings on how to disappear are the most haunting I've ever listened to. It really catches you off guard and doesn't let go. I love the comparison of the instruments with the water/tidal wave.
jonny really really outdid himself didn't he? the strings are absolutely genius
Have you listened to Scott walker? I think 'its raining today' was an influence for jonny on this song
@@ralph9182 exactly what i was thinking, definitely an influence. Scott Walker being a big name in the UK and someone with amazing avant-pop arrangements, and the very similar dissonant string drone in the two songs.
Listen to don aman by slint
I’ll never forget the first time I heard this song and the way those strings made me feel. I was on a flight by myself just at/after sunset, so the sky was beautiful but a little dark and eerie feeling. Those strings hit me in a way I can’t describe- but I know you know. I also have reoccurring dreams about tidal waves coming for me, so it’s amazing to learn that this song is inspired by that. Ugh.🖤
Discovered this album yesterday, became a radiohead fan.
Oh wow.
You have so much enjoyment ahead of you!
It's a lifeling thing being a Radiohead fan. They're music really fits with a covid and isolating digital world
I envy your position there is a lot to be appreciated
I profoundly recommend you to listen Phantom Thread - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, it is composed by Jonny Greenwood, a big part of Radiohead it is alive right there. The film is amazing too, written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.
“Welcome to the party, pal.”
I was there at that gig in 1997. I'd been dumped weeks before. It was the usual story: I liked her, she didn't like me. Which was disappointing because she spent considerable time telling me she did like me, which is how we ended up together.
One of the first things I bought her was Radiohead's The Bends. The instant classic. I thought she'd be as into that idea of being isolated, together, as I did but I was wrong. It was an omen for me because if she didn't like that then it was hard to imagine that below the powerful emotions I was feeling that underneath it all we really had anything in common, or that we really knew each other at all.
Weeks later we split up and I was alone and I started telling friends I wanted to go to Glastonbury. It was pretty sad because I was going to continue living that relationship in my imagination. I hitched there across England alone feeling the experience would be cathartic and I remember standing in the crowd in the rain watching their famous 1997 Glastonbury concert in a huge crowd but all by myself. Thom shouted at the lighting engineer to turn the light onto the crowd se he could see us.
It definitely felt like being part of something. Thom made it clear it meant something to him, and the crows made it clear it meant something to us, and it meant something to me. It was felt, it was meant.
During No Surprises a fireworks display started far in the distance in I have never been completely sure if it was part of the gig or it just happened that way.
All I had to do after the concert was finished was work out how to get home. I had left the people I'd hitched with in a car in the queue to get in realising I'd be faster walking than they would be and I was ready to do it by myself. I never saw those people again after I got out of the car.
My dad died from COVID-19 last year. I was not able to be next to him during his last days. I was far away with episodes of depression and anxiety. I kept having this song in my head every time I woke up thinking this is not happening to me and my dad. I had this song in my head for more than a month. I was able to listen to it months later without crying. Every now and then I cry listening to it. It is just the perfect song to describe how I was and how my dad ended up. It is a beautiful sad song.
I have the same experience and I cry to this song too. It always feels surreal.
"Let Down" gives the same feeling to me. This bittersweet sort of motif that can give one hope somedays, or just let someone lose it other days. I would put it on par with How to Disappear.
Let Down is my personal favorite RH song. Brilliant.
Agreed, except I much prefer Let Down to How to Disappear Completely.
@@threeminuteshate It's in my top 5 Radiohead songs. For sure an excellent track!
OK Computer is by far their greatest album, the ones that followed are vastly overrated IMO. Let Down is an amazing song!
I absolutely love Let Down. It’s one of my favorites. Somehow, it gives me a feeling of hope.
omg this just makes me want that kid a 20th anniversary even more, great video
god, me too. i'm really glad you liked the video!
unfortunate
It's criminal that they didn't do something for the 20th anniversary.
Kid A changed me in a way Ok Computer didn't.
Great video, thanks,
@@greenvelvet They just released a bunch of Kid A Mnesia stuff last week! Guess they didn't forget after all.
I tend to have dissociative episodes and panic attacks quite often, and whenever somebody asks how it feels, recommending this song is my go to. It perfectly describes it, and has honestly weirdly helped me out with knowing other people have it similar to me in some sense.
So do I! This is exactly what I do, too. People seem to get it.
❤️
Used it for my class project on Dissociative Disorders to try explain what it's like to my high school
I am just now starting listening to radiohead, and this is exactly what I will be doing from now on. It really describes the (non)-existential crisis I am feeling in those phases perfectly.
How have I missed this until now.
Idioteque is a fantastic song that no one talks about. That whole song makes me feel empty. Idioteque sounds like the death of innocence.
It’s one of their most popular songs
When I was waiting in line to see Radiohead in 2016 I told my friend if they play How To Disappear, which is my favourite RH song, I would cry. And to my surprise, they did. And from the first note, tears were rolling down my face. It was almost an outer body experience. There is just something depressingly beautiful about it. It gives me a feeling I can’t explain
I don't understand how this video doesnt have more views ! This video is so well done and I actually learned something I never knew about HTDC, very good job dude !
ah man this kind of comment makes me well up, thank you SO much for watching and your kind words, you have no idea how much i appreciate it
@@TalkingWithTom no problems man , stay safe and have a great day !
@Steve Sad to see someone with such a bad behavior as yours , nobody is waiting for you at home right ? I feel sorry for you :( you must've had a bad day ^^
Kid A is my comfort album. I disassociate very badly and putting this record on always helps me ground and come back. Thom will never know how much he's helped me
I always thought it was clever how they kept the acoustic guitar distant and cavernous in the mix, while Yorke's vocals sit front and center. It really gives you the sense that Thom is watching himself up on stage, narrating as a Radiohead tune plays softly in the background. It ties in with the track's themes of stress induced dissociation beautifully.
I was a 7 year old boy when I first heard Radiohead. Now I am a 28 year old woman. Radiohead helped show me I don't have to conform to other people's expectations or standards. Only my own. Amazing video.
You aren't a woman. It's OK to feel like you're a woman, but that doesn't make you one.
What?
@@ANOTHERVERSIONOFTHETRUTH-jh3hi 'kinda limp brained question is that?
hey fellow lgbt radiohead enjoyer :D
that's gay
It’s worth noting this song was written while on tour for OK Computer. I heard it performed in April 1998 and it was fully formed all but the string arrangements. I knew it would be a standout of the next record when I heard it.
Thought this song was depressing enough but watching this just makes it hit even more, you really did an excellent job on making this video and I love the passion behind it.
thank you so much!! it is depressing but i think there's a beauty to it as well. such an intimate reflection of thom yorke's trauma is really something beautiful to behold, i think
Definitely agree on that, there’s a reason why I love Radiohead’s more depressing songs like “Street spirit”, “Exit music (for a film)” and “Videotape” where there is this ethereal feeling of beauty mixed in with the dark dreadful undertones with the band’s instrumentals or the effective use of Thom using his vocals to convey emotion through a song using harmonies whilst the band takes centre stage on an song.
For "depressing" see "Emotionally uplifting"
Did Thom steal the h from jonny?
The title came from a book Richey Edwards of the Manic Street Preachers had in his possession before he (successfully) disappeared. He, too, wanted to create art for art's sake and was shaken and disillusioned by the stardom byproduct. This song always spoke volumes to me because of my constant bouts of depersonalization, something most people will experience a few times throughout their life, and a small sad smattering of us will have to deal with All The Time.
It feels fitting that two of the most iconic indie musicians of the 90s had such an influence on this song from another iconic musician.
Agreed. This song is basically the anthem of dissociation. Which is a hell of a thing.
That's my favourite Radiohead song as well. It helped me to cope with anxiety and depression couple of years ago.
Every time I was desperate and alone, I listened to "How to Disappear Completely" and sang the chorus together with Thom, "I'm not here, this isn't happening", like an escape from that horrible reality, crying like I have never did before.
At the end of the song, I felt like all the pain and suffering was gone and I could be at peace for a moment. For some reason, even if I didn't know about the story behing this song, I knew it was something familiar, something that I experienced before in a certain way.
The pandemic brought me to my lowest point. I was extremely alone and suicidal, and this song was the soundtrack 😣😞😞
There is so much low~quality dross on RUclips, that when you encounter a video such as this - that has had so much thought and care and love put into it - that it feels truly special and is a warm joy to watch.
fantastic video. really captures the eerie feeling of how to disappear. one of my favorite songs by them.
thank you so much!!!
Before She Even Finish The Sentence!
"How To Disappear
Completely!
Thom Yorke has saved my life too many times. I adore him and his strength for continuing to help keep people alive like me
What sets Radiohead apart from every other band, to my mind, is the way that they can take intensely personal experiences and, rather than recounting them for catharsis, they go a step further, abstracting away the personal story, but leaving intact its more universal underpinnings for any listener to empathize with. This is a great example of their ability in that regard; you would never know the story behind How to Disappear without some explanation, but you always knew that feelings the song conveyed. They happened to be Thom's at the time, but they belong to all of us at one time or another.
I have a pretty destructive combination of mental health diagnoses. This band in many ways has narrated my journey in navigating my life and has literally been the soundtrack. When this album came out I was at a climax of self destruction. I was having episodes of dissociating and when I would come back to the world it was to this song most often. I have never really felt myself or my life reflected in anything around me. I see myself in this song, especially at that time. I see my struggle to find any semblance of stability. I was burning far too brightly. It's amazing the power of seeing yourself. The relief of shared experience. I would like to believe that this music is at least partially responsible for me being able to claim any sense of self and worth and stability I have today.
Radiohead songs are what get me through those bad days. Not to sound too cliche. I don't derive some deeper meaning from them. They just have always been oddly pleasant to me.
The song is not in D major, although it does seem that way. D acts as a VI chord, it's in F# minor
Does it really mean anything for it to "be" in D major?
@@jumpinjohnnyruss yes. That defines the song harmonically, what chords will sound familiar, dissonant, how the musicians feel it, what scales are used...
@@jumpinjohnnyruss you're right, you can technically write any piece in any key you want, but for the sake of convenience people choose the most obvious key most of the time, and consider the song to stay in the same key unless there is substantial reason to change it up. Tbh How To Disappear is difficult to qualify because of all these dissonant notes, it is in F#m but the modes keep changing etc
@@jumpinjohnnyruss no problem. I am by no means an expert myself
It's important that we realize just how bad rockstars have it. People think that just because a person gets on stage in front of as many people as possible and performs night after night, when all they really wanted was to be in a basement by themselves strumming their guitar to a song that only they like. They never wanted money, fame, and recognition. So when they get all those things "they never wanted in the first place." it makes them so miserable. Kind of makes you thankful you don't have to suffer the way Mr. Yourk has all these years.
Maybe one day he'll make enough money so that he can stop having to perform and just buy a cabin in the woods and strum his guitar to a song that only he gets.
wow bro this is gold you should be a stand up comedian
I'm living the dream! 😄
I’m p sure a lot of singers do it for the fame and simply love performing for the fame lmao
@@SarahDale111 LOL
I don't think it's anywhere near Radiohead's best song, but I'm glad that it's Thom Yorke's favourite song if that's what got him through.
wow, how does this well arranged, perfectly paced, and well-researched video garner only 8.6k views??
thank you so much!!! we're getting there, the algorithm is being kind to me at the moment so hopefully we'll hit 10k soon :)
@@abelmarinjr 60k now lol
Almost 300k now.
Really hope YT doesn’t take this down. They’ve been taking down peoples videos due to copyright. This is wrong, channels like yours are needed as they provide information on questions we may have about music. Cheers to you for this. Awesome song choice and awesome video
i'm optimistic about my chances. demonetised of course, because every video on this site is, but that doesn't matter to me. i hope it gets to stay up too. thank you so much for watching!
It's devastating for music teachers who have been advocating for analysis to understand theory, especially in jazz circles. But honestly artistic analysis is part of art. Interpretation is part of art. To stifle that is to stifle the piece it's self.
"How to Disappear Completely" reminds me of driving curvy, foggy Missionary Ridge with my partner in crime, Jaimie, before the bottom dropped out. Melody's not dead, but those times are. Things disappear. Rarely completely.
This is prolly my favorite Radiohead song as well. Excellent video. Props!
Hearing the story of the song actually shocks me, because the song felt like a coping mechanism for me since the first moment I heard it, the song calms me down immensely, and the line "I'm not here, this isn't happening" didn't feel like a line born from dissociation directly, but rather as a mantra for oneself when pressure and anxiety are too much, and when that pressure and anxiety are washed away, you get the beauty at the end of the song. At least that's what I've always gotten from it
I find this song more relaxing than sad because of this and I don’t think a lot of people relate to that. It reminds me that things will pass, in a little while i’ll be gone. that line relaxes me
This is honestly a brilliant video. I appreciate the song so much more now that I know the music represents Thom's tidal wave dream. Thank you for making this incredibly insightful video.
thank you so much! it's such a masterpiece of metaphor in song, and i'm so glad i managed to convey that to you :)
This song got me through the last year of a prison sentence where I was completely isolated because of covid. Before making judgments, I was in for selfdence and the other guy came of worse. Origanaly I did six years. That last year I got Kid A from the library and played it on my guitar and sang it to myself. It helped me alot.
I’m glad you’re doing better James. I would hope most don’t judge you for the sole basis that you served time. Many who end up in prison do so from mistakes and spurs of the moment that others could easily find themselves in as well. As someone who also finds solace through music, I can relate and respect what you’ve been through, and am glad you’re in a better place for yourself. Keep striving for happiness, it is far from hopeless. Happy holidays
My brother is in prison right now for something he didn’t do. I’m glad you managed to get through it man. I can’t imagine how hard it is.
Great critique - though I would also point to Colin Greenwood’s cyclic, subtle, propulsive bass line - it’s SO important. And when the release comes, listen to where he goes. Thanks.
There’s a bit of irony here. Radiohead made the decision to strip away convention while writing Kid A yet the song that Yorke wants to be remembered for is the most “conventional” one on the album. I think it just shows that as much as you try to escape it, you’re forever tied to your roots. Great video, by the way.
Whole Kid A album is from another world. Nothing like it ever created by humans before.
sorry if it has no correlation with the subject of the video.
My beginning in music came when I first heard Linkin Park when I was about 5-7 years old. Then I got to know electronic music, I went from Dubstep to Drum And Bass, then to House and techno, to commercial and underground music, Synthwave, among others.
Suddenly I remembered a game: Minecraft, and the music of it
I started researching about his music and who made it. As a result of Google, C418 appeared, and from that day everything changed for me.
I got to know environmental and minimalist music; later for things in life I met vaporwave (actually I already knew it only that I did not give it importance),
and finally listen to the name of a style: Experimental
I started out by listening to Kiasmos, Christian Löffler and Tycho.
Suddenly I hear an unknown name:
Radiohead ...
I had never heard it and when I heard the first albums, I passed by, then I listened to Kid A and I was fascinated, I had not heard similar sound.
From there I also met Animal collective.
My main influences to dedicate part of my life are Radiohead, Animal collective and C418.
Right now I am saving to buy equipment to produce.
it's amazing how our tastes evolve and progress isnt it? i first found kid a when i was midway through a bit of a breakdown and i just needed something to take my mind off it
kid a was like nothing i'd ever heard before, and how to disappear especially just made me lose myself in the music
thank you for sharing your story!
Bro that's one insane ride from rock and metal music to experimental IDM.
Matt Gaarn, I’ve subbed and look forward to hearing your future creations if you upload them onto RUclips
@@sharmalarm surely between 2021 - 2022 I will upload my first EP to Soundcloud or RUclips
@@untiposinidentidad5245 sweet! I’ll keep my eyes peeled. Thanks man! all the best!
even after playing kid a dozens and dozens of times, every video i’ve seen about this song in particular really enhances it for me. great video!
thank you so much! i'm so glad you enjoyed it :)
This is a stunning, beautiful video. Radiohead fans everywhere are shedding a gentle tear and feeling an inner smile. You put a lot of care into this and it shows. Thank you!
Side note - please try to be kinder to yourself if you can. I've been down that road of self depreciation and perfectionism and it's not worth it. I make mistakes in every video I publish too. It's ok, it's human.
This video encouraged me enough to take the plunge and dive into Radioheads discography, and there are NO REGRETS. All I want to say is THANK YOU.
I really didn't love this song before, but your description leading up to that moment of bliss at the climax of the song made me reevaluate it, and it literally instantly grew on me.
I just LOVE that disturbing sound effect at the beginning which gives the song uneasy vibe and I love how it ends at the climax moment at the end of the song, it fades into calmness and harmony, that final moment brings so much hope I don’t know why
ee_eeeeeexxxactlyyyy
Might be inspired by Scott Walker's "It's raining today". Thom Yorke has said it's one of his favorite songs of all time.
@@gustavoprado2597 you’re a legend bro, thank you
It is a masterpeice like a lot of radioheads work.
I discovered this song at a very difficult and frightening moment in my life. I would play it on a loop, before sleep, over the course of about 6 months. I remember luxuriating in its mysterious melancholy, which seemed to help me to settle into and accept my own state of mind. How amazing it was to later learn that this was Thom Yorke's favourite record. I still return to it. I always will. Great film. Thank you.
Same here🙌
I downloaded kid a and heard how to disappear while entering a depressive period on the way home from school and was brought to tears, I’ve never felt such a connection - every lyric summed my situation up and it became my favourite song then because it was there when no one else was and the climatic end has me in tears every time I listen- the song single handedly made me a massive radiohead fan and i fell in love with them at that first listen- its awesome
I'm literally looking at the river liffey now. Love Kid A, my favourite album of all time.
I remember the first time I heard this song, it stopped me in my tracks. I was dealing with so much and to hear the words, "this isn't happening", floored me. The song right after it is a wonderful compliment to the song as you are trying to come down from the intensity of "how to disappear" before you take the trip thru the rest of the album. This whole album is a masterpiece, but then again, what album have they done that isn't one. If you ever listen to it with good headphones and good toke of the ganja, it will be an amazing experience.
Radiohead has always evoked so many different emotions for me. I don’t have the musical education to really put into words the reasons why, but you said it perfectly. I will never get sick of their music and I’m so grateful they share it with the world. I wish I could express my gratitude to them, and tell them just how important their music has been in my journey coping with depression, anxiety and ptsd. We all have moments in which we have to tell ourselves“I’m not here, this isn’t happening.”
It's ok. Being musical educated is overrated. All that maters is that you can feel it. They know ;)
It's not "the only song to be anywhere near conventional" on Kid A. "Optimistic" also falls into that category.
Ondes Martenot isn't digital. The voiceover confuses "digital" with "electronic"
Still a video well done, whatever the errors.
@@davidvschoor Lol
I think The Pyramid Song is his best work.
I like to imagine that the feeling of release one must get from death, is what this song sounds like to me. And that a human being managed to transform this abstract feeling into a song, is reason enough to want to stay alive sometimes. Bless his damn heart!
Wow, this is a really good video!
thank you so much! i'm so happy you enjoyed it :-)
I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here, but Grant Gee's tour film "Meeting People Is Easy" is an amazing document of the stress Thom (and the rest of the band, of course) was feeling during the OK Computer tour. It also features an amazing soundcheck performance of "Exit Music." If you haven't seen it, find it!
In rainbows is a masterpiece, ok computer is too. But kid A is simply not from this world, we don't deserve such an album in whatever the hell this "life" thing is
Dudes literally played Glastonbury with no monitor….and it sounds great, no one knew. Absolute legends
Sometimes you yearn to be invisible, and sometimes, if invisible to society too long, you become ambivalent about what it means to be visible. I have always found this piece to be haunting and beautiful.
This has been my favorite song for 20 years. Almost choked me up to know it's Thom Yorke's favorite too.
The feeling that comes over me when he sings "strobe lights and blown speakers / fireworks and hurricanes" is something I can't even begin to describe
I don't think I know a band as ballsy as Radiohead. Every album they've made has been different and innovative in some way. It's hard to just lump them into one genre.
I am a huge music lover and Radiohead is on a level all its own. My absolute fave.
I want it to be the last thing I hear on earth.
this song has gotten me through points where I thought it was all over. I've always had such a deep connection to it, but hearing the story behind it just makes it all the more important
I was so glad when Thom said that because How to disappear completely was always my favourite Radiohead song. The first time i heard it i remember thinking this is very horroresque at the beginning, quite scary then the vocals came in and i imagined to be a song through the view of a ghost going wherever it pleased etc... but as time went on and the more i listened to it, it becomes almost a soundtrack to the feeling of memories and passing moments, its very sad but theres something warm and comforting in itself. I always thought itd be great as my funeral song but i think it would just destroy everyone emotionally. So i'll go with Highway to hell instead.
Wow. It's already my favourite song but this video made me love it even more.
thank you so much, fish smell bad
That “rhythm is king” line was supposedly the inspiration for TKOL too!
I was at that gig in Dublin there was no sign Thom was under pressure. They were awesome everyone at that gig bought OK computer as soon as it released unless they were deaf.
When Radiohead did their Kid Amnesia exhibit with Epic Games, I enjoyed pretty much all of it, it was haunting. But of all of it, my single favourite scene was floating through the space with How to Disappear completely, not only for the visuals but how they remove large parts of the haunting strings, leaving that feeling of being empty and not there. You keep imagining the screeching violins and yet, they just aren't there.