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“Like Spinning Plates” is a song written by the English band Radiohead that appears on their 2001 album Amnesiac. It also appears on their live album, I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings.
The song is built over the reversed backing track of an electronic version of the then unreleased
I Will (which would later be released in a much different form on Hail To The Thief). According to Thom Yorke, in an interview with The Wire, “We’d turned the tape around , and I was in another room, heard the vocal melody coming backwards, and thought, ‘That’s miles better than the right way round’, then spent the rest of the night trying to learn the melody.”
To achieve the song’s distorted vocals, Yorke learned to sing the vocals backwards. Then, after hearing them back, he sang the backwards vocals backwards again, giving them an uneasy sound. This technique is similar to ones used by The Beatles and The Stone Roses on some of their songs.
Colin Greenwood said of the vocals, “In Copenhagen, I was listening to Woman’s Hour. They were talking about this English composer, whose name I can’t remember, who wrote a piece of music for a singer where all the phrasings were backward but she sung it forward. Thom sung the backwards melody. It was recorded forward then listened to backwards and he did the phrasing so as to create backward sounding words but it’s sung forwards. It’s kind of my favourite track.”
On Amnesiac, the song segues into the final track on the album,Life In A Glasshouse through the electronic noises at the start of the latter.
The song is built over the reversed backing track of an electronic version of the then unreleased
I Will (which would later be released in a much different form on Hail To The Thief). According to Thom Yorke, in an interview with The Wire, “We’d turned the tape around , and I was in another room, heard the vocal melody coming backwards, and thought, ‘That’s miles better than the right way round’, then spent the rest of the night trying to learn the melody.”To achieve the song’s distorted vocals, Yorke learned to sing the vocals backwards. Then, after hearing them back, he sang the backwards vocals backwards again, giving them an uneasy sound. This technique is similar to ones used by The Beatles and The Stone Roses on some of their songs.
Colin Greenwood said of the vocals, “In Copenhagen, I was listening to Woman’s Hour. They were talking about this English composer, whose name I can’t remember, who wrote a piece of music for a singer where all the phrasings were backward but she sung it forward. Thom sung the backwards melody. It was recorded forward then listened to backwards and he did the phrasing so as to create backward sounding words but it’s sung forwards. It’s kind of my favourite track.”
On Amnesiac, the song segues into the final track on the album,
Life In A Glasshouse through the electronic noises at the start of the latter.
Video
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Radiohead's "Like Spinning Plates" from Amnesiac. My camera can only record 3 minutes at a time so the very last chord gets cut off.
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Albums featuring this track
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Amnesiac
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Amnesiac (Promo)
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I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings
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Shouts
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m1aarge wrote:
i've never got into this song but the live version is beyond words! currently my fav RH track
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AphexCanada wrote:
Its better on I Might be Wrong..
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warisz00r wrote:
Trippin ballz
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michaoo87 wrote:
magnificent
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Ocean_Quiet wrote:
And this just feels like spinning plates My body is floating down the muddy river.. fantastic
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APRILELIZ wrote:
intense
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blacknail wrote:
While you make pretty speeches, I've being cut to shreds <3
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macrocosm144 wrote:
Luv me some Radiohead!
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n0umena wrote:
cloud fucking cuckoo land
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joindierocker wrote:
playin it on the piano is almost orgasmic
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jkatticus wrote:
i watch alien videos while listening to this song and stare at the sky
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AaronEstes wrote:
Damn they have got to be the most interesting and musically progressive band out there...
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TaintedProphet wrote:
This song gave me inspiration to write a short story. it gives a one of a kind atmosphere ♥
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_Karlos_ wrote:
I don't really like the album version, i think is rare. But live, it really amazes me. Is one of my favourites.
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speedking1956 wrote:
was ist das? titel rückwärts und zu schnell abgespielt, "gewöhnungsbedürftig"!
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oodlefish wrote:
Oh man... this track is so amazing. I love it so much. <3
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ModBear61R wrote:
who the HECK did the lyrics for this up there!?!?! completely wrong!...but still...better than Thom Yorke's crappy politically sided rants.
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DixieNava wrote:
OMFG! This song provoke me EARgasms! D:
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kida08 wrote:
I remembering reading in a book on the band that Thom likes this song because it makes his car shake when its on.
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jag66 wrote:
praying they play this at leeds festival (5 times not seen it yet)
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