BLACK STAR

Released:
March 1995
Length: 4:07
Disc: The Bends
Tablature: Guitar

For Thom, this song is special. Although he has never offered an explanation of it, throughout 1995-96, when the band played it live, he did introduce it in various ways - declaring, for instance, that the song is about "Sex in the morning. Which is the best time to have it. As long as you've cleaned your teeth beforehand".

It's an intriiguing song, because the actual sound of it, the way the vocals are sang, and the way that the guitar sounds. They all give this feeling of a relationship that isn't working out. There's a desperation, a regret, and there's hurt in there. This is one of the most emotional tracks Radiohead have ever made, and many fans consider it one of the best songs on the album. This could have been a single.

I get home from work and you're still standing in your dressing gown
Well what am I to do?
I know all the things around your head, and what they do to you
What are we coming to?
What are we gonna do?

Blame it on the black star
Blame it on the falling sky
Blame it on the satellite that beams me home

The troubled words of a troubled mind
I try to understand what is eating you
I try to stay awake but it's 58 hours since that I last slept with you
What are we coming to?
I just don't know anymore

Blame it on the black star
Blame it on the falling sky
Blame it on the satellite that beams me home

I get on the train and I just stand about now that I don't think of you
I keep falling over I keep passing out when I see a face like you
What am I coming to?
I'm gonna melt down

Blame it on the black star
Blame it on the falling sky
Blame it on the satellite that beams me home

This is killing me
Do you know, this is killing me?
Thom Yorke "If Harry Niellson were alive today we'd beg him to sing this. He was dead however, so I had to bloody do it. Sober." - Thom

Ed O'Brien
"This was recorded when John [Leckie] was away for a day - we rehearsed the song for about an hour then recorded it." - Ed
Phil Selway
"Bit of a watershed during first RAK-sessions - recorded in an afternoon, it got our creative juices flowing again." - Phil Jonny Greenwood

"This was done when John Leckie was at a wedding - there was a real 'teachers-away' larkiness to that day, hence the ace raggedness of the playing." - Jonny
Colin Greenwood
"Wow! Fave 'heavy' rock number." - Colin
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