THE BENDS

Released:
March 1995
Length: 4:05
Disc: The Bends | The Bends single
Tablature: Guitar | Drum
The Bends Video [live 4 track demo]

Other Versions:
Live 4 Track Demo - Long Live Tibet Compilation
Live @ Black Session - Creep [Black Session EP]

This track was intially introduced as being about "knowing who your real friends are and when they're going to come to your gigs." Thom soon simplified this to "knowing who your friends are." The song reflects Radiohead sense of humour; it contains many ridiculous lines about the CIA and the Marines.

This song had been written and the band were soundchecking performances with this before Pablo Honey had come out. Almost made it onto Pablo Honey - but instead was held over to the second LP. An original 4-track demo version has been released on the Long Live Tibet compilation - definitely worth hearing for the slightly ropey guitars, and most memorably, Jonny's recorder solo.

It's still occasionally played live. Where Thom has been known to introduce it, saying "This is a rock song". That it definitely is.

Where do we go from here?
The words are coming out all weird
Where are you now, when I need you?
Alone on an aeroplane
Fall asleep against the window pane
My blood'll thicken

I need to wash myself again to hide all the dirt and pain
Cos I'd be scared that there's nothing underneath
But who are my real friends?
Have they all got the bends?
Am I really sinking this low?

My baby's got the bends, oh no
We don't have any real friends, no, no, no

Just lying in the bar with my drip feed on
Talking to my girlfriend, waiting for something to happen
I wish it was the sixties, I wish I could be happy
I wish, I wish, I wish that something would happen

Where do we go from here?
The planet is a gunboat in a sea of fear
And where are you?
They brought in the CIA, the tanks and the whole marines
To blow me away, to blow me sky high

My baby's got the bends
We don't have any real friends

Just lying in the bar with my drip feed on
Talking to my girlfriend, waiting for something to happen
I wish it was the sixties, I wish I could be happy
I wish, I wish, I wish that something would happen

I wanna live, breathe
I wanna be part of the human race
I wanna live, breathe
I wanna be part of the human race, race, race, race

Where do we go from here?
The words are coming out all weird
Where are you now, when I need you?
Thom Yorke "The sound at the beginning comes from this caterwauling mayhem outside this hotel in the States. There was this guy training these eight-year-old kids, who were parading up and down with all these differents instruments. The guy had this little microphone on his sweater and was going: 'Yeah, keep it up, keep it up.' So I ran out and taped it." - Thom

"Listen out for the recorders. I do. This song is so old I have no idea what it means anymore.
For which I'm glad" - Thom

"The song 'The Bends' is completely jokey, completely taking the piss. None of that stuff had ever happened to us when we wrote it. That was our Bowie pastiche, our joke song ! And I really do wish I'd never written that fucking song - it's become the bane of my life. Hundreds of journalists asking - every single fucking interview: 'Do you wish it was the sixties ?' No, I don't wish it was the fucking sixties - Levis jeans wish it was the sixties - I certainly fucking don't." - Thom

Ed O'Brien
"Weird to have finally recorded this song after playing it live so many times. This track really highlights Jonny's abusive guitar playing" - Ed

Jonny Greenwood "Schlang! Schlang-schlang, schlang; schlang... schlang! That's The Bends, full of air." - Jonny

Phil Selway
"I wanted to get away from the studio to view a house for rent. Consequently, this was the first take." - Phil
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