Thursday, November 8, 2007

david coverversions: exit music (for a film)

with the possible exception of 'where i end and you begin' from 'hail to the theif' and 'like spinning plates' from 2001's live ep 'i might be wrong', (granted the downtempo trippiness of the studio take is unrivaled, it can't compare to to the amazing piano/bass/voice take they gave for said ep) my favorite radiohead song could possibly be 'exit music (for a film)'. legend has it they were given the last 5 minutes of the 1996 movie 'william shakespeare's romeo + juliet' and were asked to write a song for the closing credits. from that comes exit music. i'm glad thom yorke had the foresight to keep it off the soundtrack, keeping it for ok computer and giving them 'talk show host' instead. 2 versions of the song appear on the easy star all-stars cover of the album previously posted. one being the straight ahead reggae take and one entitled 'exit music (for a dub)' which is sweet. classical pianist and public radio host christopher o'riley transcribed a bunch of radiohead tracks for 'true love waits: christopher o'riley plays radiohead' album and it's follow up 'hold me to this'. they are both great, if you like music interpretations and the piano. speaking of musical interpretaions, i was somehow surprised to find 'corporate love breakdown" a bluegrass tribute to radiohead. most of those bluegrass tribute or pickin' on discs are ok, some are lame, but radiohead's is spot-on. keeping true to the original arrangements this disc is quite an enjoyable time around the old victrola. lastly, music website stereogum commissioned a ten year anniversary ok computer tribute album called okx. stereogum is like pitchfork and filter and shit. minus the pretentiousness and plus the sweet cover albums. they just gave us this a month ago. christopher o'riley's discs of elliot smith songs and nick drake songs are worth seeking out as well. why is 'i will' posted?

radiohead - exit music (for a film)
christopher o'riley - exit music (for a film)
vampire weekend - exit music (for a film)
corporate love breakdown - exit music (for a film)
easy star all-stars - exit music (for a film)
easy star all-stars - exit music (for a dub)

radiohead - i will
radiohead - where i end and you begin
radiohead - like spinning plates
radiohead - like spinning plates (live)


go buy whatcha likes and delete whatcha don't

2 comments:

Will Phalen said...

Randy,
That's a great song. You've got to hear Brad Mehldau's version of it off of "Art of the Trio vol III." If you're not familiar with Mehldau, he's pretty much the coolest and most innovative jazz pianist around these days. In fact, he does a bunch of Radiohead covers and they're all great.

Enjoy--
Will Phalen

randy said...

will...i've heard that brad's versions are just boffo but i've never had the opportunity to hear them. aside from paying for a full albums worth of wiener mp3s from itunes or something...

 

free counter