Radiohead
I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings
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So I recently picked up a copy of the new Deluxe Edition of The Who’s Live At Leeds. Considered one of the great live albums of all time even in its original incarnation as a six song LP, it shows the band at the peak of its powers circa February 1970. Townshend’s molten guitar riffs, Daltrey’s powerful vocals, Entwhistle’s liquid basslines and Moon’s controlled drum flailings are all on display, now on two full-length CDs.

More than three decades later, another band currently at a creative peak has issued a live document of its own. At eight songs, Radiohead’s I Might Be Wrong is something less than a representative sample of the band’s live show. Perhaps we can expect to shell out for the Deluxe Edition in thirty years or so. Aside from one previously unreleased track, the record focuses exclusively on songs from the last two studio records, Kid A and Amnesiac. Although they aren’t concept albums per se, the songs contained on them are of a piece with each other. So in a way some of these tracks sound odd taken out of their familiar context. Moreover, Radiohead is not a “singles” band, at least not these days, and this is certainly not a “greatest hits live” type of affair. So while it might be cool to hear “My Iron Lung” or “Creep,” they probably wouldn’t really fit in here anyway.

A live rendition of Kid A’s “The National Anthem” gets things underway. Its distorted, nagging bassline is a bit sped up from the recorded version. Thom Yorke’s anguished vocals sound more human too and he does some rhythmic breathing to the beat. The song is missing its honking, dissonant free jazz horn section but otherwise it’s a mostly faithful rendition.

The guitar riff and manufactured drumbeat of Amnesiac’s “I Might Be Wrong” gets a wild reception from the crowd. It’s an unlikely choice for a fist-pumping stadium anthem. As on the studio version, you can hardly make out a word Yorke is saying. And the beats and clicks and clacks tend to be swallowed up in the cavernous, echoing arena.

Johnny Greenwood’s guitar squall is louder in the mix on a version of Kid A’s “Morning Bell” (the song is reprised on Amnesiac in a different form). It’s one of that record’s most conventional tracks with a mostly up front Yorke falsetto, soft keyboard sounds and undulating bass. “Release me” and “Where’d you park the car” are two of the song’s more recognizable lyrics.

The song that has undergone the most change in the live setting is Amnesiac’s “Like Spinning Plates.” On the studio version, Yorke sounds like a backwards-singing dwarf in a David Lynch movie backed by reverse tape loops. Live, the song has become a pretty piano ballad with one of Yorke’s best vocals. Get your lighters ready kids.

The live version of Kid A’s “Idioteque” ups the beats per minute quotient and dance-ability of the song as Yorke sings of an “ice age coming.” The effect gives the song sort of a shout-along chorus.

“Everything In Its Right Place” sports a new intro with Yorke singing “here comes the flood” before the familiar spooky keyboard figure prompts the audience to clap along. There’s also a hypnotic, escalating conclusion with strange effects on his voice as it blends with children’s voices and an odd whooshing sound. I still have no idea of the significance of the line “yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon” though.

“Dollars and Cents” sounds a little lost in the arena as well. You can hear the audience doing its best to get excited by the music and the band’s performance.

The record concludes with the previously unreleased “True Love Waits.” It’s an unusual choice since the song features only acoustic guitar and Yorke’s vocal. “I’m not living / I’m just killing time,” he sings. It makes one wonder if the next Radiohead album will have a more conventional sound musically.

If I could issue one complaint about the record besides its relative brevity, it would be to lament the lost art of between song banter on live albums. When I think of my favorite live albums, I can recite the song intros as easily as the songs themselves. Who doesn’t remember Bono intro-ing “Sunday Bloody Sunday” on Under A Blood Red Sky or Cheap Trick’s song intros on At Budokan. Sure “are you ready to rock” and “hello Cleveland” have long since become cliches and you wouldn’t really expect things like that from Radiohead. Nor would you really expect detailed stories about what the songs mean or what influenced them (“I wrote this song about sucking a lemon”). Still it’s always nice to hear a band connecting with its audience in whatever small way. That’s something missing from I Might Be Wrong. I guess we’ll just have to wait for the Deluxe Edition.

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