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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] |
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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. |
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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? |
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"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 
"Weird to have finally recorded this song after playing it live so many times. This track really highlights Jonny's abusive guitar playing" - Ed 
"Schlang! Schlang-schlang, schlang; schlang... schlang! That's The Bends, full of air." - Jonny
"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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