Karma Police
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| “Karma Police” | |||||
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| Single by Radiohead from the album OK Computer |
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| Released | 25 August 1997 30 June 1998 (United States) |
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| Format | CD, 7", 12" | ||||
| Genre | Piano rock | ||||
| Length | 4:21 | ||||
| Label | Parlophone | ||||
| Producer | Nigel Godrich | ||||
| Radiohead singles chronology | |||||
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| OK Computer track listing | |||||
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"Karma Police" is the second single from Radiohead's acclaimed 1997 album OK Computer, and is perhaps Radiohead's best known hit worldwide, apart from "Creep." It is perhaps best recognized for its piano riff, which is similar to The Beatles' "Sexy Sadie", and its dark bass line.
While few songs from 1995's The Bends became hits outside the UK, and the six-and-a-half-minute "Paranoid Android" (first single from OK Computer) received MTV promotion but was hardly played on radio, "Karma Police" became an alternative radio anthem. In the UK, however, the single peaked at #8, hardly the band's best showing. OK Computer's popularity was largely not seen to be single-driven. The song also appears on the inaugural Now That's What I Call Music compilation in the United States, which is highly unusual since the song did not manage to break the Top 40 in the country (It was, however a successful song on US Modern Rock radio, hitting #14 on the chart) .
Similarities have often been noted between the piano riff of "Karma Police" and The Beatles' "Sexy Sadie". The band has apparently acknowledged the similarity, though the rest of each song is quite different.[citation needed] While recording OK Computer, they listened to late Beatles albums, among other music (such as Miles Davis, DJ Shadow and Ennio Morricone), for inspiration.
The sound at the end of the song was created by Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien by "feeding sound through a digital delay machine".[1]
"Karma Police", like several other songs that would make up OK Computer, was debuted live in 1996, when the band briefly supported Alanis Morissette on an American tour. A live version of "Karma Police", performed with a Rhodes piano on The Late Show with David Letterman, is captured in the Radiohead documentary Meeting People Is Easy. Today the song is usually an audience singalong when performed at live concerts, often as an encore. As of 2006, it continues to be played by the band somewhat regularly, though not at each show.
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[edit] Meaning
Radiohead members used to tell one another that they would call "the karma police" on them if they did something wrong. The joke was incorporated as the title of the song.[2]
Thom Yorke explained the idea of the lyrics to The Independent newspaper in 2006. "It's for someone who has to work for a large company. This is a song against bosses. Fuck the middle management!" He also said it was about those who are judgmental.[1]
[edit] Music video
The music video for the song was directed by Jonathan Glazer, previously responsible for Radiohead's "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" clip. The video premiered in August 1997 and featured Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke as well as Hungarian actor Lajos Kovács.
Glazer won MTV's Director of the Year award in 1997 for his work on this, as well as Jamiroquai's "Virtual Insanity". Glazer however revealed in an interview that he considers this video to be a failed attempt "I regard 'Karma Police' as a complete failure, because I decided to do a very minimalist, subjective use of camera, and tried to do something hypnotic and dramatic from one perspective, and it was very hard to achieve and I feel that I didn't achieve it".
[edit] Plot
The video presents a short story during night. For more than half of it, the camera shows the view from the driver's seat of a car. Someone that we never see, enters the car and starts driving down a road, only illuminated by the car's headlights. All of a sudden, in the distance, a man appears further down the road having been running away from where the car was stopped in the beginning. The camera turns around and shows the backseat of the car, where Yorke is sitting and singing along. The camera returns to its previous position, where we see the car has closed in on the running man. He is desperately trying to get away, looking back a few times. Another rotation of the camera later, the take is interrupted and we see a close-up shot of the man's head as he continues running. He is exhausted, and starts to slow down until he stops and falls to his knees. The car stops as well and the man stands and faces it. We see the car from the man's point of view, but neither the driver nor Yorke are visible due to the strong headlights. The car goes back in reverse a few metres. The man then notices that the car is leaking petrol and has left a trail of it on the road. The man then reaches in his back pocket and takes out a matchbook whose cover features a fetus with an umbilical cord. Holding the matchbook behind his back, he tries to light a match. From the drivers point of view, we see that he succeeds and throws the match to the petrol trail. The driver begins to pull back, but the fire catches up and the bonnet of the car flames up. The camera rotates frantically and shows that the back seat is empty.
[edit] Track listing
- CD1 CDNODATAS03
- "Karma Police" – 4:23
- "Meeting in the Aisle" – 3:08
- "Lull" – 2:28
- CD2 CDNODATA03
- "Karma Police"
- "Climbing Up the Walls (Zero 7 Mix)"
- "Climbing Up the Walls (Fila Brazillia Mix)"
[edit] Covers
The song was covered in 2003 by Christopher O'Riley on his first Radiohead tribute album True Love Waits: Christopher O'Riley Plays Radiohead. The song has also been covered by Panic at the Disco, The Arrogant Sons of Bitches, The Dresden Dolls, moe, Tori Amos, and John Vanderslice. Jazz trio The Bad Plus contributed their cover of the song to the tribute album Exit Music: Songs with Radio Heads. Fifth-season Canadian Idol winner Brian Melo covered the song during the top 5 round of the competition, earning a standing ovation from the celebrity judges, the audience and guest mentor Kelly Clarkson. The song is also covered on the album Radiodread by the Easy Star All-Stars being sung by Citizen Cope.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Webb, Robert. "Story of the Song: 'Karma Police'" The Independent, 15 September 2006.
- ^ melodymaker053197
[edit] External links
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