Radiohead album by album

Track 11: 'True Love Waits'

By David Pollock

And we've reached the end with no crescendo, no fanfare… just a truly affecting piano ballad. It's true that, as we've said, this band are best appreciated when the listener divines their own meaning, but it's impossible to hear these lyrics and not hope that everything's okay at home for Yorke; or it would be, if the song wasn't more than 20 years old. Many of the tracks here have enjoyed gestations going back a number of years, as evidenced by their appearance in past live setlists, but 'True Love Waits' has achieved a kind of legendary status as perhaps Radiohead's greatest lost song. Until now – it was first played at a gig in 1995, first released as a live version in 2001, and now it has its own definitive studio recording. As a plea to a lover to continue a relationship, it's supremely powerful; 'I'll drown my beliefs / to have your babies,' Yorke serenades us. 'I'm not living, I'm just killing time / your tiny hands, your crazy kitten smile… just don't leave.' After that, tears are permitted.

 

From the Radiohead Fandom

Before its release on A Moon Shaped Pool, Thom Yorke performed True Love Waits on acoustic guitar. Radiohead recorded a version of the song for their third album, OK Computer (1997), but discarded it. They worked on the song again during the joint sessions for Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001). Guitarist Ed O'Brien wrote in his studio diary:

"[It's] been kicking around for about four years now and each time we approached it we seemed to be going down the same old paths. It actually sounds like the start of something exciting now."

One month later, he wrote:

"This is something like approach number 561 but it is a great song. It's simply trying to find a way of doing it which excites us. And we may have found a way, at the very least we've found a new approach … It may of course be utter crap and we have so lost the plot on this song. Please don't let that be the case."

The band failed to find an arrangement that satisfied them, and song remained unreleased.


Radiohead performed the song several times during their 2001 Amnesiac tour; a recording is included on the live EP I Might Be Wrong (2001), with Yorke performing solo on acoustic guitar. It was performed a further six times in 2003. From 2006, Yorke began performing a slower version of the song on keyboard as an introduction to performances of Everything In Its Right Place. In 2012, Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich said:

"We tried to record it countless times, but it never worked. The irony is you have that ****ty live version [on I Might Be Wrong]. To [Yorke's] credit, he needs to feel a song has validation, that it has a reason to exist as a recording. We could do 'True Love Waits' and make it sound like John Mayer. Nobody wants to do that."

In 2016, True Love Waits was finally released as the last track on Radiohead's ninth album, A Moon Shaped Pool (more than 21 years after its debut) as a minimal piano ballad.


Here's the very first 'True Love Waits' performance. 05 December 1995 in Belgium

 

It’s rare that you get to see a song from such different angles. The versions floating around from the 90s, and even the 2001 live version, have a more youthful yearning to them. It sounds like trying to hold onto a lover. The final version on AMSP sounds like losing or trying to hold on to someone with a deeper, longer connection. There’s a weariness in the vocal that only comes with age. Maybe it’s because I know the story of Thom’s personal life, but it’s hard to separate that from the weight of his voice in the song. It’s brutal.

 

the album as a whole has a lot more of mr. greenwood's soundtrack scoring feel to it. they've always played with orchestration. but this album seems to have a lot more to it. it's the aging, growing, learning, evolving these men have endured.

 

Present Tense is still a favorite. I do really like the choir on that one.

Tinker Tailor starts off cool but I’m not crazy about the extended outro. Feels like more of a transitional piece to get us to the end than a song, and I suppose in that role it’s successful.

This is the best True Love Waits that I’ve heard. This song was always a grabber but this version is its distilled essence.

Overall I do think most everything here is brilliant. It’s a different kind of record, that’s all. Even for them. It doesn’t really ever get a head of steam going, which leaves the tracklist full of plodding. But even that feels like a pretty honest reflection of their struggles at the time.

 

On 2 June 2017 'I Promise' was released. It was the first single from the 'OKNOTOK 1997 - 2017' release

From Wikipedia:

"I Promise" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead released in 2017. Radiohead performed it on their 1996 tour, and recorded it during the sessions for their third album, OK Computer (1997); however, they felt it was not strong enough to release. In June 2017, "I Promise" was included on the OK Computer reissue OKNOTOK 1997 2017, and released as a download with a music video.

Radiohead first performed "I Promise" on 27 March 1996 at the Fillmore in San Francisco,[1] and played it several times that year while touring in support of Alanis Morissette.[2] Bootleg recordings were widely circulated.[3]

Radiohead recorded "I Promise" during the sessions for their third album, OK Computer (1997), but felt it was not strong enough to release.[2] In 1998, guitarist Ed O’Brien suggested that Radiohead could rerecord "I Promise" for their next album, but it remained unreleased. After the release of their seventh album, In Rainbows (2007), O'Brien said they had abandoned the song.[2]

On 23 June 2017, Radiohead released a 20th-anniversary OK Computer reissue, OKNOTOK 1997 2017, featuring "I Promise" and two other new tracks.[4] "I Promise" premiered on BBC Radio 6 on 2 June; host Steve Lamacq said that Radiohead had been "especially pleased to find [it] in the vaults, because they thought it'd been lost over the years".[5] That day, Radiohead released an "I Promise" music video on their website[5] and made the song available to download to those who had pre-ordered OKNOTOK.[6]

On tour in June 2017, Radiohead performed "I Promise" for the first time in 21 years. Yorke told the crowd: "What a bunch of nutters we were, and probably still are ... One of the crazy things we did was not release this song, because we didn't think it was good enough."[7]

 

Pitchfork 2017 review

Listen to “I Promise” by Radiohead

And here's a 2017 performance (audience filming)

 

“I Promise” is a cool song, though I think it’s for the best it didn’t make the album. It wouldn’t really fit with the other material. The mythology around it definitely helped it, and it was pretty lovely to hear for the first time when it was finally released. I had almost forgotten how gorgeous Thom’s voice could be when he soared like that in the 90s.

 

Loved 'I Promise' at first listen. Great, great track

Yes, it doesn't fit 'OK Computer', but it's a great song anyway

 

Only heard it for the first time a few days ago, but enjoyed it. Like most of the tracks on the third OKNOTOK disc, doesn't sound like it would have fitted on OK Computer, but fits very nicely with the 2003 onwards material that I've been discovering recently.

 

“I Promise” sounds to me like it would’ve been a standout track on the Bends if it was written just a bit earlier. But it didn’t fit with the OKC material or even, really, the outtakes that made up the Airbag EP. would’ve been perfect as a soundtrack single or something but they may have felt it was too poppy? Too pretty? No way to know. Either way, I’m very happy I can listen to a studio recording of it whenever I want now

 

Radiohead Setlist at Roseland Ballroom, New York

my first time seeing the boys live. for years i was hoping for I Promise and Lift to be released. especially the latter. one of the few concerts that i remember every single second of so vividly. finally hearing these songs, put such a huge smile on my face. Lift is glorious.

 

I also loved I Promise immediately - much more than the other two, much-hyped & anticipated unreleased tracks - & was so happy when they played it live at my first Radiohead gig in Manchester the following year; which, btw, was one of the best live shows I’ve ever attended: their playing was so tight yet fluid & the set-list was incredible:


Setlist

1. Let Down
   (first time as set opener)
   Play Video
2. Lucky
   Play Video
3. Ful Stop
   Play Video
4. Airbag
   Play Video
5. 15 Step
   Play Video
6. Myxomatosis
   Play Video
7. All I Need
   Play Video
8. Pyramid Song
   Play Video
9. Everything in Its Right Place
   Play Video
10. No Surprises
    (then spontaneous "Oh, Jeremy Corbyn!" chant)
    Play Video
11. Bloom
    Play Video
12. Identikit
    Play Video
13. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
    Play Video
14. Idioteque
    Play Video
15. You and Whose Army?
    Play Video
16. Bodysnatchers
    Play Video
17. 2 + 2 = 5
    Play Video
18. Encore:
19. Daydreaming
    Play Video
20. Nude
    Play Video
21. Lotus Flower
    Play Video
22. Paranoid Android
    Play Video
23. Fake Plastic Trees
    Play Video
24. Encore 2:
25. There There
    Play Video
26. I Promise
    Play Video
27. The Bends
    Play Video
28. Karma Police

 

Whoa, Let Down as opener is awesome

 

On 22 June 2017, 'Man of War' was released

It was the second single from 'OKNOTOK'.

From Wikipedia:

"Man of War" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released as a download on 22 June 2017. Radiohead wrote it during the sessions for their second album, The Bends (1995), and performed it on the Bends tour; singer Thom Yorke described it as a homage to James Bond themes. Radiohead worked on it during the sessions for their third album, OK Computer (1997), and recorded a version for the 1998 film The Avengers, but the recordings were abandoned.

Years later, Radiohead submitted "Man of War" for the 2015 James Bond film Spectre, but it was rejected as it had not been written for the film. It remained unreleased until 2017, when it was included on the OK Computer reissue OKNOTOK 1997 2017.

"Man of War", which had the working title "Big Boots",[1] was written during the sessions for Radiohead's second album The Bends (1995). The band performed it several times on tour in 1995.[2] Singer Thom Yorke said it was a "melodramatic" homage to James Bond themes;[3] Radiohead covered "Nobody Does It Better", the theme from the 1977 Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, on the same tour.[4] Radiohead considered recording "Man of War" as a B-side for the Bends single "Street Spirit (Fade Out)".[3] Instead, they recorded a version in the first sessions for their third album, OK Computer (1997), with producer Nigel Godrich, but it went unreleased.[5]

In March 1998, Radiohead and Godrich recorded a version containing electronic elements in Abbey Road Studios for the 1998 spy film The Avengers,[6] but this was abandoned. Footage of the session appears in the 1998 documentary Meeting People Is Easy.[7] Yorke said: "We were so messed up and we went in, tried to do the track, but we just couldn't do it. It was actually a really difficult period of time. We had a five-week break and all the **** was coming to the surface ... It was a real low point after it."[8]

Years later, Radiohead were commissioned to write the theme song for the 2015 James Bond film Spectre, and submitted "Man of War".[9] In September 2015, conductor Robert Ziegler, who had worked with Radiohead on their 2011 album The King of Limbs, tweeted photos of the band recording with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.[10] The Spectre production team liked the song, but rejected it when they discovered it had not been written for the film and would be ineligible for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.[9] Radiohead suspended work on their ninth album, A Moon Shaped Pool (2016), to record another song for the film, "Spectre", but this was rejected as too melancholy.[11][9] In June 2017, Radiohead released "Man of War" on the OK Computer reissue OKNOTOK 1997 2017 alongside two other previously unreleased tracks: "I Promise" and "Lift".[12]

 

Here's the (then) 'Big Boots' version. From 'Meeting People is Easy'

 

“Man of War” is my favorite of the unreleased tracks on OKNOTOK. I’d love to one day see a breakdown of which parts were tracked back in 98 and which were added in 2015-2016. There was a lot of speculation around Reddit that at least some of the vocals were done much later. Either way, it’s massive and stirring and the strings sound so good.

 

I've always thought that 'I Promise', 'Man of War' and 'Lift' would've made such fantastic EP in 1998

 

"Man of War" is another fine track - perhaps sounds to me more like it would have fitted on The Bends rather than OK Computer.

If the bonus disc of OKNOTOK was an actual album in it's own right, I think it would be one of my favourite Radiohead albums.

 

It must’ve been hell to sequence OKC. They had so much amazing material to work with

 

'Lift' is the third previously unreleased song from 'OKNOTOK'

Odd enough, despite being the most obvious candidate for a single, it wasn't released. Unlike 'I Promise' and 'Man of War'. Yet it does have a promo video, like both 'I Promise' an 'Man of War'.

From Wikipedia

"Lift" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead released in 2017. "Lift" was first performed in 1996. Bootleg recordings were widely circulated, and it became a fan favourite. Radiohead recorded versions of "Lift" during the sessions for their third album, OK Computer (1997), but abandoned it. Guitarist Ed O'Brien said the band had felt pressured by its commercial potential, and drummer Philip Selway said it did not represent what Radiohead wanted to say at the time.

In 2017, Radiohead released a version of "Lift" recorded during the OK Computer sessions on the reissue OKNOTOK 1997 2017, followed by a music video. Critics described it as anthemic and "Britpop-like". Further versions recorded during the OK Computer period were leaked on the 2019 compilation MiniDiscs [Hacked].

Radiohead first performed "Lift" on March 14, 1996, at the Troubadour in West Hollywood. They performed it over 30 times that year while supporting Alanis Morissette on her Jagged Little Pill tour,[2] alongside future OK Computer material.[3] Journalists noted "Lift" as a highlight and possible future single.[3] According to guitarist Ed O'Brien, the audience responded warmly to the song: "Suddenly you'd see them get up and start grooving. It had this infectiousness."[4] A bootleg recording was widely circulated,[5] and "Lift" became a fan favourite.[2]

 

Back in 1996 the band used to play it live, and everyone thought it was going to be the next single!

 

It was exciting to finally get a studio version of “Lift” after all these years but it did feel a little underwhelming after being used to the energy of the Pinkpop live version. Any recording is better than none, though. I’m very glad we eventually got the Minidisc recording later. Like “Man of War”, I’d love to see notes on when each version was tracked

 

Same feelings here

Despite I LOVE 'Lift', I think the live versions truly deliver, but the studio one lacks a little bit

Anyway, happy to have a studio version at last!