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Pyramid Song

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This article is about the Radiohead song. For the Jake Zyrus song, see Pyramid (song). For the Frank Ocean song, see Pyramids (song).

"Pyramid Song"
Single by Radiohead
from the album Amnesiac
Released16 May 2001 (2001-05-16)
StudioMedley Studios, Copenhagen
Genre
Length4:51
Label
Songwriter(s)Radiohead
Producer(s)
Radiohead singles chronology
"No Surprises"
(1998) 		"Pyramid Song"
(2001) 		"Knives Out"
(2001)
Music video
"Pyramid Song" on YouTube

"Pyramid Song" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released as the lead single from their fifth studio album, Amnesiac (2001), in May 2001. It features piano, strings, an unusual "shuffling" rhythm and lyrics inspired by the Egyptian underworld and ideas of cyclical time.

After no singles were released from their previous album, Kid A (2000), "Pyramid Song" was Radiohead's first single since "No Surprises" (1998). It reached the top 10 on seven national charts, and was named one of the best tracks of the decade by Rolling Stone, NME and Pitchfork. The animated music video, depicting an undersea world, won the 2002 NME Carling Award for best music video.

Writing

[edit]

Following the tour for Radiohead's third album, OK Computer (1997), Radiohead's songwriter, Thom Yorke, bought a house in Cornwall. He spent his time walking the cliffs and drawing, restricting his musical activity to playing his new grand piano.[2] He wrote "Pyramid Song" and "Everything In Its Right Place" in the same week.[3] He said: "The chords I'm playing involve lots of black notes. You think you're being really clever playing them but they're really simple."[3]

"Pyramid Song" was inspired by the song "Freedom" by the jazz musician Charles Mingus, released on the 1962 album The Complete Town Hall Concert. One version of "Pyramid Song" included similar handclaps, but Yorke was unhappy with the sound and erased them.[3] The lyrics were inspired by an exhibition of ancient Egyptian underworld art Yorke attended while Radiohead were recording in Copenhagen,[4] and ideas of cyclical time found in Buddhism and discussed by Stephen Hawking.[4]

The guitarist Jonny Greenwood cited "Pyramid Song" as an example of the challenge of arranging Radiohead songs: "How do we not make it worse, how do we make it better than [Thom] just playing it by himself, which is already usually quite great?"[5]

Recording

[edit]
The strings were recorded in Dorchester Abbey, a church in Oxfordshire.

Yorke first performed "Pyramid Song", which had the working title of "Nothing to Fear", at the 1999 Tibetan Freedom Concert in Amsterdam.[6] The basic track was recorded in Copenhagen early in the sessions for Kid A and Amnesiac.[6] Whereas Yorke programmed his piano playing into a synthesiser for "Everything In Its Right Place", he found "Pyramid Song" sounded better untreated.[3]

The drummer, Philip Selway, initially found it difficult to follow the rhythm and felt the recording session was going badly. However, the drum part "fell into place" when he stopped trying to analyse the rhythm and instead responded to the inflections in Yorke's piano and vocals.[7]

The strings were performed by the Orchestra of St John's in Dorchester Abbey, a 12th-century church about five miles from Radiohead's studio in Oxfordshire, where Radiohead also recorded strings for another song, "How to Disappear Completely".[8][9] Greenwood instructed the players to swing in the style of jazz musicians.[9] The isolated string part was included on the 2021 reissue Kid A Mnesia.[10]

Composition

[edit]
"Pyramid Song"
"Pyramid Song" features strings and an irregular rhythm.
Problems playing this file? See media help.

"Pyramid Song" is an art rock song,[11] with elements of jazz, classical and krautrock.[12] According to the journalist Alex Ross, Yorke's piano chords are "laced with suspended tones" and "hang mysteriously in the air, somewhere between serenity and sadness".[13] It features a string section playing glissando harmonics.[13] The unusual rhythm and time signature have been the subject of debate; Selway interpreted it as swung 4
4.[7]

In a 2001 Rolling Stone interview, O'Brien said he felt "Pyramid Song" was Radiohead's best work.[8] Selway said it "ran counter to what had come before in Radiohead in lots of ways ... The constituent parts are all quite simple, but I think the way that they then blend gives real depth to the song."[14]

Music video

[edit]

The music video for "Pyramid Song" was created by the animation studio Shynola.[15] In the video, inspired by a dream Yorke had, a scuba diver explores an undersea world and enters a submerged house.[15][16] The video won the 2002 NME Carling Award for best music video.[17]

Reception

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NME named "Pyramid Song" their "single of the week", describing it as "malevolent, moving, epic".[18] The Guardian named it "CD of the week", with the critic Alexis Petridis describing it as "a beautiful, intricately wrought mesh of complex time signatures, keening vocals, elegiac strings and subtly disturbing audio effects".[19]

In 2011, Rolling Stone named "Pyramid Song" the 94th-best song of the decade, writing that it "might be [Yorke's] most blissful recorded moment".[20] Pitchfork named it the 59th-best, describing it as "an absolutely singular track in a catalog with no shortage of standouts".[21] In the same year, NME named it the 131st-best track of the preceding 15 years, calling it a "ghostly hymn of stunning beauty".[22]

In 2020, the Guardian named "Pyramid Song" the fourth-best Radiohead song, writing: "Lyrics alluding to Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha, piano seemingly exhumed from ancient civilisation and a newly spiritual Yorke, swimming with 'black-eyed angels' and a shoal of exes towards some nebulous afterlife. Torture for some; otherwise, cult-making."[23]

Sales

[edit]

"Pyramid Song" was Radiohead's first single in three years,[24] after releasing none from their previous album, Kid A (2000).[8] It reached number five on the UK Singles Chart,[25] number one in Portugal,[26] number two in Canada,[27] number three in Norway,[28] number six in Finland[29] and Italy[30] and number 10 in Ireland.[31] It also reached the top 25 in Australia,[32] France[33] and the Netherlands.[34] On the Eurochart Hot 100, it debuted at number 13, its highest position.[35]

Track listings

[edit]

Personnel

[edit]

Adapted from the Amnesiac liner notes.[41]

Radiohead

Additional musicians

Technical personnel

  • Nigel Godrich – production, engineering
  • Radiohead – production
  • Gerard Navarro – engineering assistance
  • Graeme Stewart – engineering assistance
  • Bob Ludwig – mastering

Artwork

Charts

[edit]

Release history

[edit]
Release dates and formats for "Pyramid Song"
Region Date Format(s) Label(s) Ref.
Japan 16 May 2001 CD
[53][54]
United Kingdom 21 May 2001 Parlophone [55]
Australia 28 May 2001 [56]

References

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  1. ^ "Radiohead: Amnesiac". The A.V. Club. 4 June 2001. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
  2. ^ Naokes, Tim (12 February 2012). "Splitting atoms with Thom Yorke". Dazed. Retrieved 4 January 2019.
  3. ^ a b c d Kent, Nick (June 2001). "Happy now?". Mojo. Bauer. Archived from the original on 6 February 2012. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  4. ^ a b Greenwood, Colin; O'Brien, Ed (25 January 2001). "Interview with Ed & Colin". Ground Zero (Interview). Interviewed by Chris Douridas. KCRW.
  5. ^ "All Songs +1: A Conversation With Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood". NPR. Archived from the original on 5 August 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  6. ^ a b Randall, Mac (12 September 2000). Exit Music: The Radiohead Story. Delta. ISBN 0-385-33393-5.
  7. ^ a b Reed, Ryan (6 January 2023). "Radiohead's Philip Selway on atmospheric solo LP, Radiohead's future". Spin. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
  8. ^ a b c Fricke, David (21 May 2001). "Radiohead warm up with Amnesiac". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 25 July 2015.
  9. ^ a b "Radiohead Revealed: The Inside Story of the Year's Most Important Album". Melody Maker. 29 March 2000. Archived from the original on 11 July 2007. Retrieved 18 March 2007.
  10. ^ Eccleston, Danny (December 2021). "Twin Peaks". Mojo. 337. Bauer Media Group: 102.
  11. ^ "The 35 Greatest Concerts of the Last 35 Years". Spin. 28 November 2020. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  12. ^ Gallucci, Michael (20 March 2019). "The Best Song From Every Radiohead Album". Ultimate Classic Rock. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  13. ^ a b Ross, Alex (21 August 2001). "The Searchers: Radiohead's unquiet revolution". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 25 May 2007. Retrieved 14 June 2007.
  14. ^ Langham, Matt (4 February 2015). "DiS Meets Radiohead's Philip Selway: "If it means something to some people then that is success"". Drowned in Sound. Archived from the original on 4 February 2015. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  15. ^ a b Schumacher-Rasmussen, Eric (5 June 2001). "Radiohead broadcast US tour dates". MTV News. Archived from the original on 11 September 2021. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  16. ^ Sherburne, Philip (May 2003). "Sound and vision: Radiohead reinvents the music video". RES. RES Media Group: 53.
  17. ^ "NME Carling awards — all the winners". NME. 25 February 2002. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  18. ^ Kessler, Ted (12 September 2005). "Radiohead: 'Pyramid Song': This is our favourite Radiohead single in recent memory..." NME. Retrieved 22 April 2007.
  19. ^ Petridis, Alexis (1 July 2001). "CD of the week: Radiohead: Amnesiac". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 November 2018.
  20. ^ "100 best songs of the 2000s". Rolling Stone. 17 June 2011. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
  21. ^ "The Top 500 Tracks of the 2000s: 100-51". Pitchfork. 19 August 2009. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
  22. ^ Schiller, Rebecca (6 October 2011). "NME's 150 Top Tracks of the 2000s". NME. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
  23. ^ Monroe, Jazz (23 January 2020). "Radiohead's 40 greatest songs – ranked!". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
  24. ^ "CD of the week: Radiohead: Amnesiac". The Guardian. 1 June 2001. Retrieved 11 November 2018.
  25. ^ a b "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  26. ^ a b "Top National Sellers" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 19, no. 25. 16 June 2001. p. 9. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  27. ^ a b "Radiohead Chart History (Canadian Digital Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  28. ^ a b "Radiohead – Pyramid Song". VG-lista. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  29. ^ a b "Radiohead: Pyramid Song" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  30. ^ a b "Radiohead – Pyramid Song". Top Digital Download. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  31. ^ a b "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Pyramid Song". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  32. ^ a b "Radiohead – Pyramid Song". ARIA Top 50 Singles. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  33. ^ a b "Radiohead – Pyramid Song" (in French). Les classement single. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  34. ^ a b "Nederlandse Top 40 – week 24, 2001" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  35. ^ a b "Eurochart Hot 100 Singles" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 19, no. 24. 9 June 2001. p. 9. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
  36. ^ Pyramid Song (UK CD1 liner notes). Radiohead. Parlophone. 2001. CDSFHEIT 45102.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  37. ^ Pyramid Song (UK CD2 liner notes). Radiohead. Parlophone. 2001. CDFHEIT 45102.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  38. ^ Pyramid Song (UK & French 12-inch single vinyl disc). Radiohead. Parlophone. 2001. 12FHEIT 45102.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  39. ^ Pyramid Song (European maxi-CD single liner notes). Radiohead. Parlophone. 2001. ICPN 7243 879357 2 3.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  40. ^ Pyramid Song (Japanese CD single liner notes). Radiohead. Parlophone, EMI. 2001. TOCP-61053.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  41. ^ Amnesiac (booklet). Radiohead. Parlophone. 2001.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  42. ^ "Radiohead – Pyramid Song" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  43. ^ "Radiohead – Pyramid Song" (in Dutch). Ultratip. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  44. ^ "Radiohead – Pyramid Song" (in French). Ultratip. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  45. ^ "Radiohead – Pyramid Song" (in German). GfK Entertainment charts. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  46. ^ "Radiohead – Pyramid Song" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  47. ^ "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  48. ^ "Radiohead – Pyramid Song". Singles Top 100. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  49. ^ "Radiohead – Pyramid Song". Swiss Singles Chart. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  50. ^ "Canada's Top 200 Singles of 2001". Jam!. Archived from the original on 26 January 2003. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
  51. ^ "The Official UK Singles Chart 2001" (PDF). UKChartsPlus. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
  52. ^ "Canada's Top 200 Singles of 2002". Jam!. 14 January 2003. Archived from the original on 6 September 2004. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  53. ^ "What's New" (in Japanese). Toshiba EMI. Archived from the original on 16 May 2001. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
  54. ^ "ピラミッド・ソング | レディオヘッド" [Pyramid Song | Radiohead] (in Japanese). Oricon. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
  55. ^ "New Releases – For Week Starting May 21, 2001: Singles" (PDF). Music Week. 19 May 2001. p. 25. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  56. ^ "The ARIA Report: New Releases Singles – Week Commencing 28th May 2001" (PDF). ARIA. 28 May 2001. p. 24. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 February 2002. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
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