Radiohead were once kids too, and here’s the proof.
It’s hard to believe that what we know as Radiohead actually formed in 1985, a full eight years before “Creep” hit the Buzz Bin. Since their major-label debut, they went from post-grunge brush-offs to one of the most forward thinking bands of all time. Like all bands starting out, their preliminary stage was an exercise in imitating their influences before using them to make their own story.
Back when they were known as On a Friday, the band cut a home demo in 1986 from which two songs have surfaced on the internet today. Both are actually pretty great. The jangly ballad “Everybody Knows” sounds like something that The Church would have made around that time and sounds like a precursor to “Lurgee,” one of “Pablo Honey”‘s underrated gems. The other, “Girl (in the Purple Dress)” is even more fascinating. Uptempo and complete with Phil Selway’s signature shuffled drum patterns (prominent on songs like “The National Anthem” and “Where I End and You Begin”), the song also features an early incarnation of Thom Yorke’s magical ivories touch — the piano hook sounds straight out of their ’00s catalog, showing that the band always had an affinity for minor chords. Even its outro has a clanging guitar meet up that recalls “The Bends”‘ fiercest moments. Oh, and did we mention they both have saxophone solos?
With any luck maybe an album’s worth of early recordings will see the light of day in a neat little package, like what another ’90s powerhouse band should also be doing.
“Everybody Knows”
“Girl (in the Purple Dress)”
[Via Poptart, What's Our Mission?]
