Street Spirit (Fade Out)

"Street Spirit (Fade Out)"
Single by Radiohead
from the album The Bends
Released	22 January 1996
Format	7" vinyl, CD
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	4:12
Label	Parlophone
Writer(s)	Radiohead
Producer	John Leckie
Radiohead singles chronology
"Just" (1995) "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" (1996) "Paranoid Android" (1997)
The Bends track listing "Sulk" (11) "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" (12)

"Street Spirit (Fade Out)" (commonly referred to as "Street Spirit") is a song by English alternative rock band Radiohead, featured on their second studio album The Bends, which was released in 1995. Noted by singer-songwriter and guitarist Thom Yorke as "one of [the band's] saddest songs" and describing it as "the dark tunnel without the light at the end", "Street Spirit" was released as the band's ninth single and reached number five on the UK Singles Chart, the highest chart position the band achieved until "Paranoid Android" from OK Computer, which reached number three in 1997.

Yorke has suggested that the song was inspired by the 1991 novel The Famished Road, written by Ben Okri, and that its music was inspired by R.E.M. The track is built around a soft melody in A minor with an arpeggio (broken chord) guitar part. The single is also acclaimed for the quality of its B-sides; for example, "Talk Show Host" rose to prominence after it was remixed by Nellee Hooper for the 1996 film Romeo + Juliet, since becoming a regular at Radiohead concerts.

Interpretation

Radiohead apparently attribute a great deal of depth to "Street Spirit", beyond the level typically perceived by their audience. Lead singer Thom Yorke is alleged to have said,

“

'Street Spirit' is our purest song, but I didn't write it. It wrote itself. We were just its messengers; its biological catalysts. Its core is a complete mystery to me, and, you know, I wouldn't ever try to write something that hopeless. All of our saddest songs have somewhere in them at least a glimmer of resolve. 'Street Spirit' has no resolve. It is the dark tunnel without the light at the end. It represents all tragic emotion that is so hurtful that the sound of that melody is its only definition. We all have a way of dealing with that song. It's called detachment. Especially me; I detach my emotional radar from that song, or I couldn't play it. I'd crack. I'd break down on stage. That's why its lyrics are just a bunch of mini-stories or visual images as opposed to a cohesive explanation of its meaning. I used images set to the music that I thought would convey the emotional entirety of the lyric and music working together. That's what's meant by 'all these things you'll one day swallow whole'. I meant the emotional entirety, because I didn't have it in me to articulate the emotion. I'd crack... Our fans are braver than I to let that song penetrate them, or maybe they don't realise what they're listening to. They don't realise that 'Street Spirit' is about staring the fucking devil right in the eyes, and knowing, no matter what the hell you do, he'll get the last laugh. And it's real, and true. The devil really will get the last laugh in all cases without exception, and if I let myself think about that too long, I'd crack. I can't believe we have fans that can deal emotionally with that song. That's why I'm convinced that they don't know what it's about. It's why we play it towards the end of our sets. It drains me, and it shakes me, and hurts like hell every time I play it, looking out at thousands of people cheering and smiling, oblivious to the tragedy of its meaning, like when you're going to have your dog put down and it's wagging its tail on the way there. That's what they all look like, and it breaks my heart. I wish that song hadn't picked us as its catalysts, and so I don't claim it. It asks too much. I didn't write that song.

”

No direct source of this quote, however, is available.

Music video

The black-and-white music video for "Street Spirit" was filmed during two nights in a desert just outside Los Angeles. It premiered in February 1996^{[citation needed]} and was directed by Jonathan Glazer, who said, "That was definitely a turning point in my own work. I knew when I finished that, because they found their own voices as an artist, at that point, I felt like 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. That for me was a key moment." Glazer would later direct the video for "Karma Police".

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" – 2:26

Covers

• The Darkness often cover this song live. Their version is delivered in a faster tempo, with significantly heavier guitar, and with lead singer Justin Hawkins' signature falsetto.
• Stream of Passion have recorded this song on their 2009 album The Flame Within. It is sung by Marcela Bovio and adds a burst of heavy guitar playing.*
• Romanian Alternative Rock band Luna Amară covers the song as a bonus track on their album Loc lipsă. It is played at a slow pace with a background trumpet performed by Mihai Iordache.
• Joe Budden had this song sampled on the track "Never Again" off of the 2009 album Escape Route.
• Peter Gabriel's album Scratch My Back features a cover of the song.
• The Eden House cover it on the 2010 album The Looking Glass.
• Korea cover it on the 2010 album The Delirium Suite.
• Sasha Lazard and Shawna Stone cover this song on their collaboration album Siren.

External links

• "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" (disc 2) at MusicBrainz
• Article from The Guardian with Jonathan Glazer talking about the video