Harrowdown Hill
2006 single by Thom Yorke
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"Harrowdown Hill" is a song by the English musician Thom Yorke, released on 21 August 2006 as the first single from his first solo album, The Eraser. Yorke wrote it about David Kelly, a British weapons expert who killed himself in 2003 after telling a reporter that the British government had falsely identified weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. "Harrowdown Hill" reached number 23 on the UK singles chart.
| "Harrowdown Hill" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single by Thom Yorke | ||||
| from the album The Eraser | ||||
| B-side |
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| Released | 21 August 2006 | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock, electronic | |||
| Length | 4:38 | |||
| Label | XL | |||
| Songwriter | Thom Yorke | |||
| Producer | Nigel Godrich | |||
| Thom Yorke singles chronology | ||||
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Writing
"Harrowdown Hill" was released on Yorke's first solo album, The Eraser (2006), which he recorded while his band Radiohead were on hiatus.[1] Yorke said it existed during the sessions for Radiohead's sixth album, Hail to the Thief (2003), but could not have worked as a Radiohead song.[2]
According to The Globe and Mail, "Harrowdown Hill" resembles a love song with a sense of "menace" and "grim political showdown".[3] The lyrics are about David Kelly, a British weapons expert who killed himself in 2003 after telling a reporter that the British government had falsely identified weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Kelly's body was found in the woods of Harrowdown Hill, near Yorke's former school in Oxfordshire.[4] The 1990 poll tax riots were also an inspiration.[4] Yorke felt "Harrowdown Hill" was a "poetic" name that sounded like the site of a historic battle.[4]
Yorke was uncomfortable about the subject matter and conscious of Kelly's grieving family, but felt that "not to write it would perhaps have been worse".[3] He told The Globe and Mail: "The government and the Ministry of Defence were implicated in his death. They were directly responsible for outing him and that put him in a position of unbearable pressure that he couldn't deal with, and they knew they were doing it and what it would do to him."[3] Yorke said "Harrowdown Hill" was the angriest song he had written.[5]
Music video
The "Harrowdown Hill" music video was directed by Chel White. It features stop-motion eagle animation by David Russo, time-lapse footage by Mark Eiffert and an early use of tilt–shift photography. It was released on 31 July 2006 and was first played on Channel 4.[6][7][8] The video won the jury award for best music video at the 2006 South by Southwest festival.[9]
Release
"Harrowdown Hill" was released as a single on 21 August 2006, and reached number 23 in the UK singles chart.[10] In 2008, to celebrate the election of US President Barack Obama, Yorke released a remixed version of "Harrowdown Hill" as a free download.[11] The Los Angeles Times critic Ann Powers wrote that "'Harrowdown Hill' makes its point through startling sounds and shards of emotionally charged speech; it's as political as a private, even secret, moment can be. Its startling beauty is typical of The Eraser."[4]
Track listings
- Promo CD
- "Harrowdown Hill" (Early Fade)
- "Harrowdown Hill" (Full Length)
- 7" XLS238, limited to 5,000 copies
- "Harrowdown Hill" - 4:38
- "Jetstream" - 3:44
- CD XLS238CD, limited to 10,000 copies
- "Harrowdown Hill" - 4:38
- "The Drunkk Machine" - 4:07
- "Harrowdown Hill" (extended mix) - 7:01
- 12" XLT238, limited to 3,000 copies
- "Harrowdown Hill" (extended mix) - 7:01
- "The Drunkk Machine" - 4:07
- 12" XLT238US
- "Harrowdown Hill" (extended mix) - 7:01
- "The Drunkk Machine" - 4:07
- "Jetstream" - 3:44