Street Spirit (Fade Out)

Radiohead's songwriter, Thom Yorke, said "Street Spirit" was inspired by the American band R.E.M. and the 1991 novel The Famished Road by Ben Okri.{{cite magazine |last=Draper |first=Brian |date=December 2004 |title=Chipping away |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Yq7ZTsst1YC&pg=PA16 |magazine=Third Way |publisher=Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd |page=16 |volume=27 |issue=10}} It features a guitar arpeggio written by Yorke and played by Ed O'Brien.{{Cite web|last=Amit|first=Sharma|date=2020-06-09|title=Ed O'Brien: 'The guitar to me is like an oscillator on a synthesizer - it's the start of a sound rather than the sound in itself'|url=https://www.guitarworld.com/features/ed-obrien-the-guitar-to-me-is-like-an-oscillator-on-a-synthesizer-its-the-start-of-a-sound-rather-than-the-sound-in-itself|access-date=2022-02-14|website=Guitar World|language=en}} In 2018, Pitchfork wrote that the song "channels a sense of capitalist dread that even class-conscious Britpop artists repressed".{{cite web|date=29 March 2017|title=The 50 Best Britpop Albums|url=http://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/10045-the-50-best-britpop-albums/?page=5|access-date=30 May 2017|website=Pitchfork}}

Radiohead recorded several versions of "Street Spirit" before settling on the final version. The members felt it was a breakthrough in their songwriting.{{cite web |last=Kent |first=Nick |date=June 2001 |title=Happy now? |url=http://www.followmearound.com/presscuttings.php?year=2001&cutting=121 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206154836/https://www.followmearound.com/presscuttings.php?year=2001&cutting=121 |archive-date=6 February 2012 |access-date=27 March 2012 |work=Mojo |df=dmy}} Yorke said later: "If I ever forget why I started this as a career, then ['Street Spirit'] is why I started ... We spent a day going round in circles until I was thinking, 'This is never going to happen.' Then suddenly something happened and I was transported to a place that I'd been willing myself to be in for months on end."

The music video for "Street Spirit" was directed by Jonathan Glazer and filmed over two nights in a desert outside Los Angeles. Glazer described it as a "turning point" for his work. He felt that Radiohead had "found their own voices as an artist" and that "I got close to whatever mine was, and I felt confident that I could do things that emoted, that had some kind of poetic as well as prosaic value".{{cite news |url=http://www.indiewire.com/people/int_Glazer_Jonathan_010612.html |title=Shooting the "Beast"; Jonathan Glazer Tames the Gangster Genre |last=Kaufman |first=Anthony |work=indieWIRE |date=12 June 2001 |access-date=8 January 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071213055646/http://www.indiewire.com/people/int_Glazer_Jonathan_010612.html |archive-date=13 December 2007 |url-status=dead }}

"Street Spirit" was released as the fifth single from Radiohead's second album, The Bends (1995), on 22 January 1996. It reached number five on the UK singles chart, Radiohead’s highest position up to that point.{{Cite book |last=Randall |first=Mac |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0q9bTJp2Bi4C |title=Exit Music: The Radiohead Story Updated Edition |date=2012-02-01 |publisher=Backbeat Books |isbn=978-1-4584-7147-5}} After Radiohead's previous singles had failed to match the success of their 1992 debut, "Creep", "Street Spirit" demonstrated that they were not one-hit wonders.{{sfn|Randall|2012}} In 2008, "Street Spirit" was included on Radiohead: The Best Of.{{Cite web |last=Plagenhoef |first=Scott |date=5 June 2008 |title=Radiohead: The Best Of |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/11686-the-best-ofthe-best-of-special-edition/ |access-date=2022-02-14 |website=Pitchfork |language=en}}

In 2015, Stereogum said "Street Spirit" was "one of the all-time great album closers ... a perfectly rendered slice of doomy, incantatory psychedelia that made it sound like Radiohead could do anything".{{cite web |last=Breihan |first=Tom |date=13 March 2015 |title=The Bends Turns 20 |url=https://www.stereogum.com/1785796/the-bends-turns-20/reviews/the-anniversary/ |access-date=5 February 2025 |website=Stereogum |quote="And it's got one of the all-time great album closers in 'Street Spirit (Fade Out)', a perfectly rendered slice of doomy, incantatory psychedelia that made it sound like Radiohead could do anything."}} In 2020, the Guardian named "Street Spirit" the 12th-greatest Radiohead song, writing that it "makes for a spectacular showdown – a grand, doomed surrender".{{cite news |last=Monroe |first=Jazz |date=23 January 2020 |title=Radiohead's 40 greatest songs – ranked! |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jan/23/radioheads-40-greatest-songs-ranked |access-date=24 January 2020 |work=The Guardian |issn=0261-3077}}

The Darkness performed "Street Spirit" in their live shows in 2003; the critic Steven Poole wrote that they "reinvent it brilliantly by alternating speed-metal verses with half-time power-grunge choruses".{{cite web |last=Poole |first=Steven |author-link=Steven Poole |date=10 October 2003 |title=This is not Spinal Tap |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/oct/10/2 |access-date=27 February 2022 |website=The Guardian}} They included their cover on their album 2012 Hot Cakes.{{cite web |last=Nelson |first=Michael |date=9 August 2012 |title=The Darkness – "Street Spirit" (Radiohead Cover) |url=https://www.stereogum.com/1119961/the-darkness-street-spirit-radiohead-cover/news/ |access-date=25 January 2015 |website=Stereogum}}

Peter Gabriel recorded a cover of "Street Spirit" for his album Scratch My Back (2010). Gabriel described his version as an "existential cry of mortality". He hoped that, in return, Radiohead would record a version of his 1982 song "Wallflower" for his album And I'll Scratch Yours (2013).{{cite web|url=http://www.nme.com/news/radiohead/49725|title=Peter Gabriel: 'Thom Yorke won't respond to my cover of 'Street Spirit'|last=Bassett|first=Jordan|date=12 February 2010|website=NME|access-date=19 August 2015}} According to Gabriel, Radiohead ceased communication after he sent them his version of "Street Spirit".{{cite web|last=Young|first=Alex|date=15 February 2010|title=Radiohead's Thom Yorke "disses" Peter Gabriel, preps "something" in April|url=https://consequence.net/2010/02/radioheads-thom-yorke-disses-peter-gabriel-preps-something-in-april/|access-date=25 January 2015|website=Consequence}} Gabriel said his rendition was "pretty extreme" and had since heard that Radiohead did not like it.{{cite news |last=Rogers |first=Jude |date=2 June 2010 |title=Peter Gabriel: 'It doesn't have anything to do with witchcraft!' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jun/02/peter-gabriel-scratch-my-back |access-date=19 August 2015 |work=The Guardian |location=London}}

In 2020, the System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan released a cover of "Street Spirit" with M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine on his album These Grey Men.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/system-of-a-down-john-dolmayan-tom-morello-m-shadows-radiohead-street-spirit-cover-941496/ |title=System of a Down's John Dolmayan taps Tom Morello for cover of Radiohead's 'Street Spirit' |first=Jon |last=Blistein |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=23 January 2020 |access-date=24 January 2020 }}

1. "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" – 4:13
2. "Talk Show Host" – 4:41
3. "Bishop's Robes" – 3:25

1. "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" – 4:13
2. "Banana Co." – 2:20
3. "Molasses" – 2:27

All personnel adapted from the liner notes.{{cite AV media notes|title=Street Spirit (Fade Out)|others=Radiohead|year=1995|type=single liner notes|publisher=Parlophone}}

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Radiohead

• Thom Yorke
• Jonny Greenwood
• Ed O'Brien
• Colin Greenwood
• Philip Selway

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Production

• John Leckie – production "(Street Spirit", "Banana Co."), mixing "(Street Spirit"), engineering "(Street Spirit")
• Nigel Godrich – production ("Talk Show Host", "Bishop's Robes", "Molasses"), engineering ("Street Spirit"), mixing ("Talk Show Host", "Molasses")
• Chris Brown – engineering
• Chris Blair – mastering
• Jim Warren – initial production ("Banana Co.")
• Sean Slade – mixing ("Banana Co.")
• Paul Q. Kolderie – mixing ("Banana Co.")

Design

• Stanley Donwood – art
• The White Chocolate Farm – art

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{{Certification Table Entry|region=United Kingdom|type=single|artist=Radiohead|title=Street Spirit (Fade Out)|award=Silver|relyear=1996|certyear=2020|id=16214-1730-1|access-date=21 February 2020}}

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{{Reflist}}

• {{AllMusic|class=song|id=mt0033257206|label="Street Spirit (Fade Out)"}}
• {{MBrgID|88477b42-055d-3d1c-9e5c-7e1de8f35243|name=Street Spirit (Fade Out)|type=single}}
• {{Discogs master|master=73763|name=Street Spirit (Fade Out)|type=single}}
• [https://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/sep/24/popandrock1 Article] from The Guardian with Jonathan Glazer talking about the video

{{Radiohead}}

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Category:Radiohead songs

Category:1996 singles

Category:1996 songs

Category:Parlophone singles

Category:Music videos directed by Jonathan Glazer

Category:Black-and-white music videos

Category:Songs written by Thom Yorke

Category:Songs written by Colin Greenwood

Category:Songs written by Jonny Greenwood

Category:Songs written by Philip Selway

Category:Songs written by Ed O'Brien

Category:Songs about death

Category:Song recordings produced by John Leckie