The National Anthem (Radiohead song)
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| "The National Anthem" | |
|---|---|
 Belgium promotional single cover | |
| Song by Radiohead | |
| from the album Kid A | |
| Released | 2000 |
| Recorded | 1997–2000 |
| Genre | |
| Length | 5:51 |
| Label | |
| Songwriter(s) | Radiohead |
| Producer(s) |
|
"The National Anthem" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released on their fourth album, Kid A (2000). The song is set to a repeating bassline and features horns playing free jazz, influenced by the jazz musician Charles Mingus.
Radiohead's frontman, Thom Yorke, wrote "The National Anthem"'s bassline when he was 16.[3] In late 1997, Radiohead recorded drums and bass for the song, intending to develop it as a B-side for their third album, OK Computer (1997). Instead, they saved it for their next album, Kid A (2000).[4][5]
The band returned to "The National Anthem" in mid-1999 while recording Kid A in Gloucestershire.[5] Yorke played bass,[4] and his vocals were processed with a ring modulator.[6] Jonny Greenwood added ondes Martenot and sounds sampled from radio stations.[4] The guitarist Ed O'Brien said: "It's a very ill-disciplined way of recording ... You're adding things to the stew — as well as rejecting things — and then you come back to the song with fresh ears."[4]
In November 1999,[5] Radiohead recorded a horn section playing free jazz, inspired by the "organised chaos" of the live album Town Hall Concert by the jazz musician Charles Mingus. Yorke described Town Hall Concert as "just fucking chaos ... There's this incredible tension and it was the most formative record of the whole time."[7] Yorke and Greenwood directed the musicians to sound like a "traffic jam". According to Yorke, he jumped up and down so much during his conducting that he broke his foot.[8] Yorke said: "The running joke when we were in the studios was, 'Just blow. Just blow, just blow, just blow.'"[9]
An early demo of "The National Anthem" was included in the special edition of the 2017 OK Computer reissue OKNOTOK 1997 2017.[10]
Composition
Yorke said Radiohead tried to convey the feeling of angry people trapped in a lift or traffic.[11] MTV described the free jazz section as "a brass band marching into a brick wall".[9] Simon Reynolds of Spin wrote that it was "a strange, thrilling blast of kosmik highway music" that combined jazz with the Hawkwind song "Silver Machine" and the Can song "Mother Sky".[12] Cam Lindsey of Exclaim! wrote that the song is a "radical jazz-rock fusion".[13] David Fricke of Rolling Stone called the song "crusty funk".[14]
