The Radiohead Discography Thread V Creep onto My Iron Lung

[GentlemanofDread]

This first post meant to be both Drill and Pablo Honey, but I've misplaced my Pablo Honey notes for the moment so I'll just start with Drill EP, Pablo on Saturday and do it like that. Let's begin, shall we?

The story with Radiohead begins like most rock stories in the UK. At a school. This one begins at the Abingdon School in the mid 80s. Thom Yorke and Colin Greenwood were in the same year,  Ed O'Brien and Phil Selway a year above them and Jonny Greenwood two years below his brother. The first incarnation of the band to be called Radiohead rehearsed on a friday weekly. What did they call themselves? 'On A Friday.'  Jonny Greenwood started out as a Harmonica Player, then Keyboards befor graduating onto lead guitar.

Everyone but Jonny off to University, to finish by 1991 and recorded their first set of demos (that I am not sure is listenable to) entitled Manic Hedgehog and they entered the Oxford music scene, doing some shows in the local pubs and taverns that caught the eye of Chris Hufford, co-owner of Oxford's Courtyard Studios, who with his partner,  Bryce Edge, became their managers and have been till the end of this day.

A Chance meeting at the music shop Colin Greenwood worked lead to the band signing a six album deal with EMI, who requested that they take a name change, which the band agreed to. That's how, after taking the name from a Talking Heads song, the band known as 'On A Friday' became Radiohead, and that's how their first EP was released..

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Drill EP (1992) Recorded in February, 1992, released 5th May 1992

Track Listing
1."Prove Yourself" (demo) - 2:32
2. "Stupid Car" (demo) - 2:25
3. "You" (demo) - 3:22
4. "Thinking About You" (demo) - 2:17

Recorded in Courtyard Studio in Oxon, it was done very quickly. In fact, when the demos were recorded, the band was still known as 'On A Friday' and wouldn't change their name till the next month. Despite only a run of 3,000 CDs when this EP was first released, it hit debuted on the UK charts at number 101, with some assistance from BBC Radio 1 host Gary Davis, who gave the band their first national radio exposure when he played Prove Yourself on the Radio.

These are 4 rough songs, 3 of which would make it to Pablo Honey with recorded , but the best of the bunch I think is Prove Yourself, with the most polish to it. Notable I guess, is the one song that wouldn't make it to Pablo Honey, Stupid Car. The first of a few songs about Thom Yorke's distrust of cars after being involved in a crash with his girlfriend, it's the worst of the songs on this demo EP, but it's written by such a young band at this point, it's excusable. Thinking About You made it from "Manic Hedgehog" to this EP to Pablo Honey, making it one of the oldest songs in Radiohead's discography.

You is alright in demo form, but I'm a bigger fan of the version will see on Pablo Honey (come Saturday!) which I do apologise for not including on this first post.  I'm hunting up and down  for those notes, but I did promise Radiohead on Wednesday, and so, here's the first EP.

[KevShmev]

I haven't listened to Radiohead much in a while - still one of my favorites, but it is never easy finding time for all of my favorites - but I will be following this for sure. 

[Sacul]

Damn, that EP isn't available on Spotify . But found it on YT - I hope the quality's good. Will posts some thoughts on it tomorrow.

Will definitely follow this thread

[Mladen]

Following! 

Haven't listened to this EP, but I'll comment on the studio albums. Interesting notes about the early days. 

[PuffyPat]

count me in.

[Kotowboy]

Like most people I became aware of the band with Creep. But It wasn't until John Peel - or Mark Radcliffe started playing The Bends songs on Radio1 that I took notice.

Sorry for jumping ahead again.

[hefdaddy42]

I'm not a HUGE fan of Radiohead, but I'm just so glad that another Discography thread is starting that I will definitely be following!   

[Kotowboy]

Not heard Pablo Honey but heard plenty from it.

Loved The Bends. Appreciated Ok Computer but didn't love it.

Enjoyed Kid A - but not as much as the two previous albums.

Hated Amnesiac and everything since. But i'll still chip in where I can.

[Zantera]

Kid A, Amnesiac and In Rainbows are their best albums by far IMO. But overall their discography is pretty great. Pablo Honey is nothing special, but the rest is decent or better.

[Podaar]

I'm gonna follow and listen along with this thread but I don't think I'll have much to contribute. I'm a complete Radiohead virgin.

[Kotowboy]

I'm gonna follow and listen along with this thread but I don't think I'll have much to contribute. I'm a complete Radiohead virgin.

Check out The Bends first. Then Ok Computer.

[Podaar]

Thanks KB, but I think I'll just go along with the thread and have a few listens to each record as they're presented. I'll watch out for those as they come up!

Nothing really stood out to me on my first listen. The melancholy vibe of the songs is a bit off putting to me but I'll give it another go in a little while.

[Kotowboy]

I'm a huge fan of melody and The Bends almost certainly has all their catchiest songs on.

The title track especially. Black Star and Fake Plastic Trees

[PixelDream]

I like all of their stuff aside from Pablo Honey. Pretty much equally as every album provides something crucial to their body of work. Gun to my head: In Rainbows.

[Outcrier]

I like many of their songs but, when talking about the albums, i only really love In Rainbows and the live rendition of TKOL.

[Sacul]

Gave it a listen, and thought it was quite good! Not as great as their later albums, but quite a nice EP. I specially dig the vocals and the shoegaze-y guitars.

[hefdaddy42]

Listened to the EP, not bad!  Definitely not what I was expecting!

[Lolzeez]

Quite a decent EP and a nice start to the band. Also,following. 

[GentlemanofDread]

Drill sold poorly, in probably no surprise to anyone. In come actual producers, who have worked with Dinosaur Jr and Buffalo Tom. Enter into the scene, Paul Kolderie and Sean Slade. The team assembled,

Before Pablo Honey came out, and I mean 5 months before, the first song was released as a single, a little song known as 'Creep'.  Written by Thom Yorke whilst at  Exeter University, it was stated by Jonny Greenwood to be  inspired by a girl that Yorke had followed around who showed up unexpectedly during a show by the band.  During warm up sessions before recording the album, the band spontaneously started to play 'Creep' and Thom Yorke described it as their Scott Walker song. What did this mean?  To the eyes of the producers, Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie, this meant it was a cover and so they continued onto actual recording other songs..

(An aside: After convincing them it wasn't a cover.. Radiohead got sued successfully for plagiarism over 'Creep'due to similarities to "The Air That I Breathe", a song recorded by the Hollies in 1973.)

Which went poorly. The band, producers, the staff were falling out when Slade and Kolderie request that Radiohead play 'Creep', which was recorded in one go and drew out applause from everyone. After informing Kolderie that the song wasn't a cover, he made the case to EMI that it should be the band's lead single. So it was. How well did it do?

Awful. In the UK, it sold 7,000 copies and was banned from Radio 1 for being too depressing. Whilst the song floundered and failed, the band finished up recording the album in the autumn, but between then and the album coming out in Feburary.. 'Creep' was finding success. Where? Israel, where  DJ Yoav Kutner played the song non-stop and it soon became a national hit. Quickly, tour dates were set to take advantage of the success. In San Francisco, California radio station KITS had also added the song to their playlist and now Radiohead's name was being spread just as Pablo Honey came out..


Pablo Honey (1995)
(All songs credited to Radiohead except Creep due to the successful lawsuit by The Hollies.)
1.   "You"  3:29
2.   "Creep" (Radiohead, Albert Hammond & Mike Hazelwood) 3:56
3.   "How Do You?"  2:12
4.   "Stop Whispering"     5:26
5.   "Thinking About You"  2:41
6.   "Anyone Can Play Guitar"  3:38
7.   "Ripcord"  3:10
8.   "Vegetable"  3:13
9.   "Prove Yourself"  2:25
10.   "I Can't"     4:13
11.   "Lurgee"     3:08
12.   "Blow Out"  4:40

Pablo Honey starts off with two songs that are very strong on my personal opinion and then it dips in quality and doesn't recover untill 'Prove Yourself'. 'You' and 'Creep' are two fantastic songs that show off a uniqueness to the band. 'You', certainly is a great way to open this album and highlights the strengths of Radiohead. The three guitarists, the vocals of Thom Yorke and twisting things slightly.. It's a great way to open the album and then you go right into 'Creep', which strikes pretty hard and the discord between the rest of the album is impressive.

Then the rest of the album is.. very early 90s alt music? It's not bad but some of it doesn't come through well, but certain songs certainly catch my ear at times. For some reason,  'Anyone Can Play Guitar' stands out the most for this, sticking around in my head even though I can't touch my finger on why exactly. 'Prove Yourself', love both the demo version and the version on this album, but I think this version might just the better one.

For me, the low light of the album might actually be 'Vegetable', if only because it just didn't make a lasting impression on me once. I had to seek the song out to listen to it.. and nothing. Just, didn't register on me at all. This album is a good debut album (probably one of the better debut albums) at least, nothing dipping into what I call 'bad', but it's possibly the weakest album Radiohead put out. Some of the.. innovation that they would be known for had come through properly yet. But it was a good start, to say the least.

[orcus116]

You is probably my favorite Radiohead song. I think the live versions are better than the album versions, especially the one from Itch.

[KevShmev]

I didn't care for Creep much when it first came out, and I still think it's just okay.  I didn't become a Radiohead fan until the summer of 2005 (IIRC), and Pablo Honey was the last album of theirs I listened to.  It has a handful of good songs - You, Stop Whispering, Prove Yourself, Blow Out and Thinking About You - but nothing I consider notable.  The leap in quality they made on the next album is pretty crazy. 

[Zantera]

Album as a whole is kinda mediocre. You is the standout, really great song. Creep is good, but I've never been crazy about it. It's a solid single, especially for a debut album, but I wouldn't rank it among my favorite Radiohead tunes.

[Mladen]

This is an odd record. Half of the songs are truly excellent (even Creep, overplayed as it is), the other half ranges from mediocre to pretty weak. How do you and Stop whispering are probably my least favorite Radiohead songs. Overall, Pablo honey is solid for what it is - a pop rock debut. I enjoy spinning it once in a while, but it's still their least good album.

[Lolzeez]

The first two tracks are quite good but the album as a whole is really a mixed bag. Eh...

[Outcrier]

Creep is the standout track here imo but, like Zantera said, i wouldn't rank it among my favorite Radiohead songs either.

[hefdaddy42]

I liked Creep when it was released, but it gave me the impression at the time that they would be another one-hit wonder, and I never heard another single from the album, which reinforced that idea in my mind.

So, long story short, I didn't get this album until much, much later, after Radiohead had established themselves as a musical force which wasn't going anywhere any time soon.

On listening to it again, I find that it is good but uneven.  Creep remains my favorite song here, but I fully admit that it may be due to nostalgic bias.

[GentlemanofDread]

When Radiohead hit the US for a tour in 1993, MTV had 'Creep' in heavy rotation and that lead the band touring the US quite a fair bit. In fact, towards the tail end of the tour, Radiohead was on the close of collapse. They were playing songs they hard recorded two years prior, feeling stuck in a timewarp, endlessly going around the US. Tensions were also remarkably high, as the band felt smothered by both the success of "Creep" and the mounting expectations for a superior follow-up. Off they went to Australia and the Far East to escape, but again they were haunted by their success. In 1994, they released a response to their thoughts that they were ''the sharp end of the sexy, sassy, MTV eye-candy lifestyle.', an EP known as..


My Iron Lung EP (1994)
"My Iron Lung" – 4:36
"The Trickster" – 4:40
"Lewis (Mistreated)" – 3:19
"Punchdrunk Lovesick Singalong" – 4:40
"Permanent Daylight" – 2:48
"Lozenge of Love" – 2:16
"You Never Wash Up After Yourself" – 1:44
"Creep" (Acoustic) – 4:19

The title track, "My Iron Lung", is the pure comment on the situation Radiohead had found themselves in, ("this is our new song / just like the last one / a total waste of time / my iron lung"), caustic, self-reflexive lyrics displaying how they really felt. This EP is the start of the evolution of sound that the Band would experiment with the post-'Pablo Honey' sound, aiming for layering experimental guitar sounds. Look at 'Punchdrunk Lovesick Singalong' and the Sonic Youth homage 'Permanent Daylight' for the best evidence for this.  'The Trickster', my second favourite behind 'My Iron Long' is a more heavy song of the bunch.

'Lewis' is musically a sequel to the song 'How Do You', and it's the weakest song on this EP. I can't really stand it too much, but I do like 'Lozenge of Love' uses unusual tonality and lyrics taken from Philip Larkin's poem "Sad Steps". It's a good acoustic track, and really works well. Ending on an acoustic version of Creep is.. interesting. Start with a song bashing 'Creep', end with 'Creep'. It's my favourite version of the song too, so it's a very strong EP all in all. The reason why I didn't pair this EP with The Bends is simply, all but 'My Iron Lung' don't appear on The Bends, and some of these songs are strong experiments to warrant some discussion.

[KevShmev]

I like this EP a lot.  To me, it is a big upgrade over the debut.  The majority of these songs get regular rotation with me when I am in a Radiohead phase, most notably Lewis (Mistreated) and Permanent Daylight.

[Mladen]

Wow, I bumped into this CD a lot of times in various shops but never bothered with it. I honestly didn't even know it's an EP, I thought it was just a single. There are so many songs on here that I never heard, better fix that ASAP.

[Mosh]

My Iron Lung is such a great song and far superior to Creep. Not sure why Creep still gets played and this song is mostly forgotten.

[Zantera]

Haven't really checked the EPs out to be honest.

[KevShmev]

My Iron Lung is such a great song and far superior to Creep. Not sure why Creep still gets played and this song is mostly forgotten.

As much as I love their music, I haven never been a big fan of My Iron Lung. The lead guitar has that kind of annoying alt-rock tone, and I can never get that past that; plus, the chorus is just noisy.  I know that opinion is heresy to a lot of Radiohead fans, but there it is.

[Mladen]

I've always considered that song to be a really solid deep album cut, it's not that much of a hit single. It doesn't have that simplicity that Creep has and it's nowhere as catchy nor touching, so it's not surprising to me that it wasn't as popular as Creep.

[Zantera]

It's not one of my favorite Radiohead songs, but My Iron Lung is much better than Creep.

[Podaar]

I like this EP much more than the previous two...and I'm not really sure why. It could be that it sounds a lot like the kind of music my son's band was playing in the early 2000's--especially the vocals--so I get a youthful night club vibe from listening to it that's really fun.