SONG OF THE DAY
“Reckoner” by Radiohead (In Rainbows, XL Recordings, 2008).
WHERE I HEARD IT
ABC’s “Detroit 1-8-7”, Episode 118: “Blackout”, first aired: March 20, 2011
INTERESTING FACTS (a la wikipedia)
– The song was released as the third and final single from In Rainbows on 23 September 2008.
– The track was also released through the Radiohead Remix website in the form of “stems”, individual parts of the song (e.g. vocals, guitar, piano) for fans to remix, as with the track “Nude”. The band had James Holden and Diplo create the first remixes of “Reckoner”.
– The song was listed at #254 on Pitchfork Media’s “Top 500 songs of the 2000s”.
– In 2005, at a Trade Justice Movement rally, Radiohead singer Thom Yorke performed an early version of “Reckoner” on acoustic guitar. Yorke was later asked about the band’s plans for “Reckoner”, and he declared it “dead and buried”.
– The song was not played on the 2006 Radiohead tour where most In Rainbows material was introduced live.
– “Reckoner” on In Rainbows bears little resemblance to the earlier incarnation of the song. When the album came out in October 2007, critics and listeners who had heard both versions remarked that the recorded version of “Reckoner” was a completely different, calmer song, taking the form of a ballad sung in falsetto, with dominant percussion and insistent, softer guitar riffs, and entirely different lyrics. The recording also features a string arrangement by guitarist Jonny Greenwood.
– Late in 2007, members of Radiohead gave an interview to BBC Radio 1 in which they explained that the new “Reckoner” in fact came out of an attempt to record the earlier song with that title. Late in the sessions, Yorke and Greenwood tried adding a coda to the original version of the song, and eventually the band decided to abandon everything except the new coda, which became “Reckoner”.
The pre-coda, original version of “Reckoner” was eventually reworked by Thom Yorke (with Jonny Greenwood) and released as a solo effort, bearing the title “Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses”.
– When played live, Yorke’s guitar chords are more prominent in the outro section of the song. This part is played on an acoustic guitar in the studio version. The chords bear a vague harmonic similarity to the intro of the original version.
– “Reckoner” is featured in the 2008 film Choke based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, and in the 2010 Warren Miller film, Wintervention. It was also featured in Season 2 of television drama series Life and is used for the closing credits of the 2009 eco-documentary The Age of Stupid and 2010 documentary Countdown to Zero. The song was also used during the climax of the season 1 finale of the television series Detroit 1-8-7.
– Gnarls Barkley have played a cover of the song numerous times on tour.
– The official music video for “Reckoner” is Virtual Lasagna’s submission to a video contest conducted by Aniboom. The video depicts a situation in which a place filled with greenery is being replaced with structures, which hints at the gradual depletion the world’s forests for human benefit.