Street Spirit (Fade Out)

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"Street Spirit (Fade Out)"
Single by Radiohead
from the album The Bends
B-side
  • "Talk Show Host"
  • "Bishop's Robes"
Released22 January 1996 (1996-01-22)[1]
Recorded1994
GenrePost-grunge[2]
Length4:13
LabelParlophone
Songwriter(s)Radiohead
Producer(s)John Leckie
Radiohead singles chronology
"Just"
(1995) 		"Street Spirit (Fade Out)"
(1996) 		"The Bends"
(1996)
Music video
"Street Spirit (Fade Out)" on
YouTube

"Street Spirit (Fade Out)" is a song by the English rock band

UK Singles Chart, Radiohead's highest position up to that point. Radiohead considered it a breakthrough in their songwriting. It was accompanied by a music video by Jonathan Glazer, and has been covered by acts including Peter Gabriel and the Darkness
.

Composition

Radiohead's songwriter, Thom Yorke, said "Street Spirit" was inspired by the American band R.E.M. and the 1991 novel The Famished Road by Ben Okri.[3] It features a guitar arpeggio written by Yorke and played by Ed O'Brien.[4] In 2018, Pitchfork wrote that the song "channels a sense of capitalist dread that even class-conscious Britpop artists repressed".[5]

Recording

Radiohead recorded several versions of "Street Spirit" before settling on the final version. The members felt it was a breakthrough in their songwriting.[6] Yorke said later: "If I ever forget why I started this as a career, then ['Street Spirit'] is why I started ... We spent a day going round in circles until I was thinking, 'This is never going to happen'. Then suddenly something happened and I was transported to a place that I'd been willing myself to be in for months on end."[6]

Music video

The music video for "Street Spirit" was directed by Jonathan Glazer and filmed over two nights in a desert outside Los Angeles. Glazer described it as a "turning point" for his work. He felt that Radiohead had "found their own voices as an artist" and that "I got close to whatever mine was, and I felt confident that I could do things that emoted, that had some kind of poetic as well as prosaic value".[7]

Release

"Street Spirit" was released as the second single from Radiohead's second album,

UK Singles Chart, Radiohead’s highest placement up to that point.[8] After Radiohead's previous singles had failed to match the success of their 1992 debut, "Creep", "Street Spirit" demonstrated that they were not one-hit wonders.[9] In 2008, "Street Spirit" was included on Radiohead: The Best Of.[10]

Covers

Peter Gabriel recorded a cover of "Street Spirit" for his album Scratch My Back (2010). Gabriel described his version as an "existential cry of mortality".[11] He hoped that, in return, Radiohead would record a version of his 1982 song "Wallflower" for his album And I'll Scratch Yours (2013).[12] According to Gabriel, Radiohead ceased communication after he sent them his version of "Street Spirit".[13] Gabriel said his rendition was "pretty extreme" and had since heard that Radiohead did not like it.[11]

The Darkness released a cover of "Street Spirit" on their album 2012 Hot Cakes.[14] They had included the song in their live shows in 2003.[15] In 2020, the System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan released a cover with M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine on his album These Grey Men.[16]

Track listing

CD 1

  1. "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" – 4:13
  2. "Talk Show Host" – 4:41
  3. "Bishop's Robes" – 3:25

CD 2

  1. "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" – 4:13
  2. "Banana Co." – 2:20
  3. "Molasses" – 2:27

Personnel

All personnel adapted from the liner notes.[17]

Charts

Chart (1996) Peak
position
Canada Top Singles (RPM)[18] 57
Europe (Eurochart Hot 100)[19] 19
Iceland (Íslenski Listinn Topp 40)[20] 21
Ireland (IRMA)[21] 25
Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[22] 28
Netherlands (Single Top 100)[23] 26
Scotland (OCC)[24]
 7
UK Singles (OCC)[25]
 5

Year-end charts

Chart (2001) Position
Canada (Nielsen SoundScan)[26] 105

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[27] Silver 200,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References

  1. ^ "New Releases: Singles" (PDF). Music Week. 20 January 1996. p. 31. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
  2. ^ DeLuca, Dan (13 August 2008). "Review: Everything right with Radiohead". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
  3. ^ "Chipping Away - Brian Draper talks to Thom Yorke". Third Way. Vol. 27, no. 10. Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd. December 2004. p. 16.
  4. ^ Amit, Sharma (9 June 2020). "Ed O'Brien: 'The guitar to me is like an oscillator on a synthesizer - it's the start of a sound rather than the sound in itself'". Guitar World. Retrieved 14 February 2022.
  5. ^ "The 50 Best Britpop Albums". Pitchfork. 29 March 2017. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
  6. ^ a b Kent, Nick (June 2001). "Happy now?". Mojo. Archived from the original on 6 February 2012. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  7. indieWIRE. Archived from the original
    on 13 December 2007. Retrieved 8 January 2008.
  8. ISBN 978-1-4584-7147-5
    .
  9. ^ Randall 2012.
  10. ^ Plagenhoef, Scott (5 June 2008). "Radiohead: The Best Of". Pitchfork. Retrieved 14 February 2022.
  11. ^ a b Rogers, Jude (2 June 2010). "Peter Gabriel: 'It doesn't have anything to do with witchcraft!'". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  12. ^ Bassett, Jordan (12 February 2010). "Peter Gabriel: 'Thom Yorke won't respond to my cover of 'Street Spirit'". NME. Retrieved 19 August 2015.
  13. ^ Young, Alex (15 February 2010). "Radiohead's Thom Yorke "disses" Peter Gabriel, preps "something" in April". Consequence. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
  14. ^ Nelson, Michael (9 August 2012). "The Darkness – "Street Spirit" (Radiohead Cover)". Stereogum. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
  15. ^ Poole, Steven (10 October 2003). "This is not Spinal Tap". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  16. ^ Blistein, Jon (23 January 2020). "System of a Down's John Dolmayan taps Tom Morello for cover of Radiohead's 'Street Spirit'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  17. ^ Street Spirit (Fade Out) (single liner notes). Radiohead. Parlophone. 1995.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  18. ^ "Top RPM Singles: Issue 3027." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  19. ^ "Eurochart Hot 100 Singles" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 13, no. 6. 10 February 1996. p. 15. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
  20. ^ "Íslenski Listinn Topp 40 (30.3. – 5.4. '96)". Dagblaðið Vísir (in Icelandic). 30 March 1996. p. 52. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
  21. ^ "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Street Spirit (Fade Out)". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  22. ^ "Nederlandse Top 40 – week 15, 1996" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  23. ^ "Radiohead – Street Spirit (Fade Out)" (in Dutch). Single Top 100.
  24. ^ "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  25. ^ "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company.
  26. ^ "Canada's Top 200 Singles of 2001". Jam!. Archived from the original on 26 July 2002. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
  27. ^ "British single certifications – Radiohead – Street Spirit (Fade Out)". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 21 February 2020.

External links

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