Thursday, October 11, 2007

Nude


don’t get any big ideas
they’re not gonna happen
you paint yourself white
and fill up with noise
but there’ll be
something missing

now that you’ve found it it’s gone
now that you feel it you don’t
you’ve gone off the rails

so don’t get any big ideas
they’re not gonna happen
you’ll go to hell
for what your dirty mind is thinking


nude* it is a mans world. and this one is very confused and will have sex with anything woman who comes within a mile radius. but feels bad about it. so doesnt.


This next one is a new song …this is a song about believing you’re wonderful when you know it’s not true.
--Thom (Meeting People is Easy)

MTV: Thom, the new song you’re doing live called "Big Ideas (don’t get any)", I love that title, by the way too.

Thom: That’s good, actually. I didn’t have a title. I wanted to call it—I mean I don’t know what I’m gonna call it. Recently... when you get a mortgage in Britain for you house, in all the adverts for mortgages and so on they always have this thing at the bottom saying: your home is at risk if you don’t keep up repayment. I wanted to call it that but I don’t know if it’s catchy enough”


Steve: See, the thing for me, about having, and this only came sort of begun to come through, after a few listens, but it strikes me as being a very intimate record. And I think actually being able to do "Nude" and doing it very well... it was quite an interesting ..
Thom: Yeah, I don't think we had ever been able to do that song until now. Even though it's been kicking around for ten years, because, I don't know, it didn't, whatever it meant then, it means something to us now. It's one of those weird things... Um...

Steve: Cause that's the song that's one of the songs, as you say, which has been around for a while,
Thom: I think it was because I hated...I used to hate the way I sung it.

Steve: Right..
Thom: Or at least I, it was just, and probably, as you say, too intimate, and I had felt real uncomfortable with it.

Steve: It's an intimate sounding record though, in places. "All I Need" is very intimate.
Ed: Mmm!
Thom: "Videotape" as well. "Bodysnatchers", not so.

Steve: No!
Ed: *laughs*

Steve: Which is, uh, that strikes me as being one of the, that's the sort of the slight shift in mood this time around.
Thom: There you go! You've got to have some of that.
--Thom and Ed (2007-11-19)

Alright, "Nude" is an old song. What changed that made you get it right?

Thom: That’s the classical case of a song that hasn’t made sense for years, don’t you think, Colin?

Colin: One of the frustrating things of being a member of a band is that some songs mean everything to one person, but not to all of us. So one of us keeps going on and on about it, while the others try and look away. But that’s cool, you know.

Thom: I also felt very insecure about the way I had to sing "Nude". I didn’t know in what pitch. And the lyrics were too intimate, but too sweet as well. It’s only when Colin started knocking about with the bassline, that I could figure out how to sing it and get away with it. Also, the lyrics have fallen into place, while at the time... Nothing has changed about them, but still. They didn’t seem to make sense, and now they do.

It makes me think of a story where one band member wants to leave with a groupie, and the other saying: don’t do that, don’t get any big ideas, don’t give in to the temptation.

Thom: I don’t remember for sure, but "Nude" was written in the OK Computer era. It was more something like: 'Don’t play up your imagination, boy. Watch out so you don’t become something you aren’t.'
--Oor (Dutch magazine)

Old track "Nude" made it on to In Rainbows, even though it had been played live as far back as 1998.

Colin says: “Thom felt it was right now, as he is in a place in his life where the words make sense to him.

“When we wrote it in the early Nineties, it didn’t feel right to him. Thom would say this album was also right for it because I finally came up with a bassline. It’s a soul thing.

“It was like a picture that wasn’t right for years and now it works for him.

“And in the context of the record it’s kind of about love so it works in that setting."
--Colin Greenwood (Sun)

Ten years ago, when we first had the song, I didn't enjoy singing it because it was too feminine, too high. It made me feel uncomfortable. Now I enjoy it exactly for that reason - because it's a bit uncomfortable, a bit out of my range and it's really difficult to do. And it brings out something in me...
--Thom (Mojo, 2008)


I love the title. But when you get mortgage in Britain, they always have this thing at the bottom saying: 'Your home is at risk if you don not keep up with payments'. I wanted to use that as the title. But I‚m not sure if it‚s catchy enough.
--Thom

its not gone. i havent forgotten it. its just we have not done it recently and the one we did in meeting people just didnt end up anywhere so..
Thom | Meeting People is Easy

POSTED BY Jonny ON MARCH 06, 2001 AT 02:13:13:
IN REPLY TO: Is Big ideas going to be a b side.. :P
POSTED BY GregD ON MARCH 06, 2001 AT 02:08:58:
unless we do it tomorrow.
we wont, tho.





Big Ideas (don't get any) from James Houston on Vimeo.

4 comments:

Wax and Wane said...

thank you 4 the lyrics =)

Jaqme said...

I think this is the best song from the album.
Thanks for the lyrics!

Lea said...

I think this is the best song from the album.
Thanks for the lyrics!wow!!! hermosa cancion!!
gracias Radiohead!!!
por favor vengan a Argentina!!!!

Hiscariotte said...

The best song I've heard this year, that's for sure. I wake up listening to this album every single day; it's simply great. Thanks for sharing this.