Tuesday, February 24, 2009

The Greatest Lost Tracks

I love Radiohead but sometimes they really piss me off. I feel like sometimes they have something good and they don't realize it. As a result a lot of good material gets wasted. Sometimes they are too obsessed with perfection. A recent example of this is Videotape. While the final track on In Rainbows is by no means a bad song, Radiohead has had better versions of the song in the past. The track on the album is a mere shell of a song, lacking the emotional potency of the 2006 live versions or Thom's solo Live From the Basement performance.

However there are more glaring examples of discarded gems. The two examples I speak are Big Boots and Lift. These songs were seen in Radiohead's live performances from 1995 to 1996. Unfortunately, these songs never made it onto albums because Radiohead weren't able to put down anything they liked. Despite being fan favorites, it is very unlikely that we'll ever hear studio versions of these songs. I have my fingers crossed that someday someone will wise up and commission Big Boots for a James Bond movie.