Planet Telex – Zia Larty-Healy
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXyrCRd1ikw&w=740&h=422]
It really says something about Radiohead’s musicianship when they can record a song like ‘Planet Telex’ whilst completely intoxicated. Thom Yorke’s one-take, inebriated, lying-down-on-the-floor vocal introduces their second album The Bends. The actual term ‘the bends’ refers to a condition experienced by divers, when they approach the water’s surface too quickly; the band likened their sudden rise to fame to this. The lyrics in ‘Planet Telex’ also allude to the struggles of trying to quash unwanted feelings: “You can crush it as dry as a bone / But still, everything is broken”. Originally, the song was named ‘Planet Xerox’, but had to be changed due to possible issues of copyright infringement.But ‘telex’ and ‘Xerox’ refer to the same sort of concept – communication.
The ‘it’ in the song has been interpreted as a reference to the things in life that humans desire but cannot obtain, suggesting that we will never be satisfied. Yorke’s lyrics give weight to the song itself, which is one of the only songs of theirs that is dominated by keyboard rather than guitar, predicating their musical direction on future albums such as OK Computer. Radiohead cut up sections of the rhythm tracks from different songs recorded in the album sessions; this song was the only one to be written whilst making the album, instead of being written beforehand. If they can produce this whilst drunk on wine, it merely displays their utter passion for writing and recording expressive, dreamy tunes.