HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY
Released: Oct 2000
Length: 5:56
Disc: Kid A
Tablature: Guitar | Bass

Other Versions:
Cover by Lunasect - Anyone Can Play Radiohead Tribute LP

Originally titled 'How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found', this was the only track on Kid A to come out of the OK Computer era. How To Disappear Completely was just too good to be kept off another album. This song smacks of Radiohead's old style. Not loud and guitary, but mellow and meaningful.

Rumoured to be up to 10 minutes long at live shows, the studio version clocks in at about 6 minutes. In this track, Jonny adopted the strings for months, and did it as a separate thing all on his own. The final result, when placed with Thom's vocals is literally amazing. The last minute of the song, where Thom starts to scream to the exact sound of the music is brilliance.

The song is about those times when you just want the ground to swallow you up because you're in a situation or place that you really don't want to be in. And you go into your own little world, and you tell yourself it isn't happening.

Some of the lyrics were changed from the OK Computer live playings, to the Kid A studio track.

You can hear a short snippet of the very early version of this song on the video Meeting People Is Easy.

How To Disappear Completely appeared in the Kevin Kline movie 'Life As A House', though it did not appear on the soundtrack.

That there, that's not me
I go where I please
I walk through walls
And float down the Liffey

I'm not here
This isn't happening
I'm not here, I'm not here

In a little while I'll be gone
The moment's already passed
Yeah it's gone

And I'm not here
This isn't happening
I'm not here, I'm not here

Strobe lights and blown speakers
Fireworks and hurricanes

I'm not here
This isn't happening
I'm not here, I'm not here
Thom Yorke "I dreamt I was floating down the liffey and there was nothing I could do. I was flying around Dublin and I really was in the Dream. The whole song is my experiences of really floating" - Thom

"That song is about the whole period of time that OK Computer was happening. We did the Glastonbury Festival and this thing in Ireland. Something snapped in me. I just said, 'That’s it. I can’t take it anymore.' And more than a year later, we were still on the road. I hadn’t had time to address things. The lyrics came from something Michael Stipe said to me. I rang him and said, 'I cannot cope with this.' And he said, 'Pull the shutters down and keep saying, 'I'm not here, this is not happening.' ' " - Thom

"When Jonny did the strings on 'How to Disappear Completely,' that was absolutely his thing. Nigel [Godrich] helped him, and that was it. The rest of us were not involved in that at all." - Thom
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