Author: Radiohead
Title: There There
Copyright: 2003 All Rights Reserved
[56k]: URL:
http://boss.streamos.com/download/capi001/radiohead/therethere/audio/therethere_da56.asf
[100k]: URL:
http://boss.streamos.com/download/capi001/radiohead/therethere/audio/therethere_da100.asf
Author: Radiohead
Title: There There
Copyright: 2003 All Rights Reserved
[56k]: URL: http://boss.streamos.com/wmedia/capi001/radiohead/therethere/audio/therethere_da56.asx
[100k]: URL:
http://boss.streamos.com/wmedia/capi001/radiohead/therethere/audio/therethere_da100.asx
These words held up by Stanley Donwood during the Dec 18 2002 webcast (see “paper signs”) give a pointedly political cast to the album’s title. These words, among many others (for example, “I am in hiding / I’m not coming out / until I’m ready / turn off the light / before you go” and “Hello my name is / worm buffet”) were held up to the camera.
Radiohead has announced that Hail to the Thief, their sixth album, will be released on June 9 in the UK and June 10 in the US. The title overtly alludes to (and overtly subverts) “Hail to the Chief,” a song traditionally played by the United States Marine Band as the Presidential march. The following is excerpted from the U.S. Marine Band web site:
“Created for a stage adaptation of Sir Walter Scott’s romantic poem, The Lady of the Lake, “Hail to the Chief” was written by English composer James Sanderson. The melody may have been borrowed from an old Scottish air, and the song was first performed in the United States in 1812.
“The first time “Hail to the Chief” was used to honor a President of the United States occured on February 22, 1815, in Boston. With new lyrics and a revised title, “Wreaths for the Chieftain,” it was sung at a service to celebrate the birthday of George Washington, who had died 16 years earlier.
“On July 4, 1828, the Marine Band performed the song at the ground-breaking ceremony for the excavation of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal attended by President John Quincy Adams. This was the first time the piece was used in association with a living President.”
You can listen to “Hail to the Chief” here.
AT EASE has one of the more complete explanations of the album’s title. It reads, in part:
“The title of Radiohead’s sixth album ‘Hail To The Thief’ is also an anti-George W. Bush slogan used by protesters at the end of the controversial election campaign that put him into the White House. The phrase ‘Hail To The Thief’ was coined by protesters at the end of the 2000 US Presidential election, when controversy famously surrounded Bush’s rise to office. The battle between Bush and Democrat candidate Al Gore came to a bitter end, with the result in the key state of Florida dogged by recounts, amid allegations of unfairness in the voting process.
“On the day of his inauguration Bush was greeted in Washington by thousands of protesters with banners, some of who shouted, ‘Hail to the thief, our commander in chief’. The phrase has now become well used in anti-Bush circles. A website, www.hail-to-the-thief.org, that casts a cynical eye over US policy is active and goes under the banner ‘Hail to the Thief! Love your country. Never trust its government.’ A number of books and articles have also been written, perhaps most famously ‘Mediaocracy 2000 -Hail to the Thief’ by Danny Schechter, which looks at the role of the media in the election.”
Hail To The Thief is also a repeated line of the song “2+2=5.”
The editors of Postmodern Culture have published a letter commenting on my antivideo essay. The letter from Jeremy Arnold is followed by my response to it.
The following information is excerpted from an email Rhys Davies sent to me in February 2003: “the original author of the ‘Radiohead Dictionary’ was Onn-Jian Lim (he preferred OJ Lim).”
The dictionary was originally created in c. 1997-98 and hosted on OJ Lim’s Another Useless Radiohead Site, which is now defunct. Rhys Davies added: “OJ frequented a number of Radiohead mailing lists and this ‘dictionary’ was compiled with a some help from others on those lists.”
Lines 9-11 of “Electioneering” read:
Riot shields, voodoo economics,
it’s just business, cattle prods and the I.M.F.
I trust I can rely on your vote.
Riot shields are available for purchase here. Notice in the demonstration picture that a minority is being detained by two caucasians with a “detention shield” that curves away from the user. The phrase “voodoo economics” may have been used first in 1984 by Geraldine Ferraro, though it may have been used before. Cattle prods can be bought online here. You can also visit the web site of the IMF.
The collection of essays I’ve edited on Radiohead (formerly titled Strobe-Lights and Blown Speakers) has found a publisher: Ashgate Publishers Ltd. A publication date has not been set, but it will likely not hit shelves until late 2003. This delay allows the collection to include an essay or two or more on the band’s new album due out in mid-2003. More information on the book, now titled The Music and Art of Radiohead, is available here.
In “The Tourist” on OK Computer, the speaker says people ask him where he’s going “At a 1000 feet per second.” To travel at a 1000 feet per second is equivalent to 682 miles per hour. This is roughly the speed of sound in air. Sound speed varies depending on the medium’s density, whether it be gas, liquid, or solid.
A Radiohead Dictionary of phrases used in the band’s music and cover art. As this “dictionary” has been posted on numerous sites around the internet, the original author is unknown.