I can’t believe he says the vocal performance isn’t his best! Are you kidding me! He is absolutely incredible in this

This performance misses a lot of the wonderful layers present in the studio recording, but Thom's vocal performance really is stunning.

You are also missing out on Jonny playing keyboard with the end of his guitar at the same time as he plays the riff. That man...

More Radiohead, they’re such amazing musicians!

I think Thom is an underrated guitarist. To play that constant picking pattern on a 12 string while singing this like he does is harder than he makes it look. IMO

When it comes to Radiohead, everything is intential Michael. Incredibly talented musicians.

These two are doing a live with The Smile today in just a few minutes. It's free for everyone on the BBC website!

We got him hooked! Radiohead are and will always be my all time favourite band, just because of the variety of everything over their musical career. Check out Pyramid Song - it's not guitar-based, but it has one HELL of a time signature and a wonderful drifting ethereal sound that you'd dig.

Never saw THAT performance before, my God how iconic... Thom was in another dimension. Beyond perfection 👏

Love that you’re going back for more Radiohead! Super impressive for how close you got to the arpeggiation on the first few go-arounds with the descending melody around A minor. You’re spot on that they don’t do E7 until the very end too. It’s the closing track on “The Bends” and gives a strong resolution after floating with A minor and E minor for the rest of the time.

woohoo! Been waiting for more Radiohead.

Johnny Greenwood (left) is also a film composer. Ever seen There Will Be Blood?

I'm not a reaction guy normally but stumbled on a couple of in rainbows and Lisa hanniigan/rice reactions and really loving your work. I don't play but you explain what I love so specifically and accurately on a different level to anyone else in this genre, you teach people why the love what they love. To boot with genuine enthusiasm love and very good recording quality. Genuine love for music, love you man, make me wanna learn

Thank you for this. I always think of Street Spirit as Radiohead’s ‘Echoes’. Like that Floyd album, great album, but that last track paves the way for what’s to come. Interestingly, Thom says this is the most hopeless of Radiohead songs lyrically. He’s right, all doom and gloom and all too real. Ironically it adds to its ‘harsh’ beauty.

Radiohead is my favorite band. They are prog-rockers like Primus, King Crimson, Yes, and Rush with the emotional accessibility of The Smashing Pumpkins and The Smiths. And they touch on ethereal unexamined feelings like The Cranberries and Sigur Ros.

So glad you did this one! I agree that the studio version is far more complex, but this version really hits home how insanely hard it is to play and sing at the same time, especially notes that long. The more Radiohead from you, the better. And yes, it is pronounced that way ;)

the "set the control for the heart of the sun" reference is class Mike! love ya keep it up

Yes. It’s on purpose. And they know what they’re doing. They’re from another planet and I’m so glad you are experiencing some of it for the first time. I wish I could!

Yes it’s on the album. Thom’s vocal leading is the greatest thing about Radiohead in my opinion. And honestly why I listen to all things Thom Yorke more than just Radiohead

Tom dips in an out of those eastern sounds all the time before wrecking you with beauty and power

Finally more Radiohead, anything from the basement sessions is perfect, or just anything from these guys is perfect.

Thank you so much Eloise!! This was such a pleasure to watch, brought happy tears to my eyes 🥹

Thom York is a friggin god of music.... I'm 43 now and I was listening to his brilliance when I was 15 yrs old... Radiohead put me to sleep every night. All time fave band 🎶💜🎶💜 7:28

“I love me some Radiohead” I admit, I giggled.

There are so many great Radiohead songs i would love for you to breakdown. Climbing Up the Walls, Wolf at the Door, Jigsaw Falling into Place

You would have fun breaking down "just" by radiohead. Thom was convinced Johnny was trying to throw as many chords as possible. One of their heavier songs as well and i think you'd enjoy it. It's a polar opposite to street spirit and from the same album.

Love it when you check out Radiohead, all anyone can do is shake their head in frustration/admiration and enjoy them for what they are.

Their best 2 puncher is Exit music for a film followed by Let down on OK Computer. Those 2 songs perfectly resolve each other. Gotta check out that song combo bros !!!!

Time to flood Mike with more Live from the Basement

Daily mail from radiohead is awesome as well in terms of composition

i believe ed, the other guitarist came up with the riff for this song, but hes not there for this one also you should do bodysnatchers from the basement if you do any more

This is my favorite Radiohead song. You absolutely broke this down wonderfully.

There is a lot of flotsam and jetsam on the net, but when you see someone articulate, approachable, modest, talented and humourous it is a breath of freah air. Thank you Michael

Greetings from Germany - I grew up with Radiohead, so thank you so much for this! Keep up your good work!

Thom Yorke playing The Clock live on the Henry Rollins show is a truly mindblowing performance, I'd love to see a reaction to that

"Just" is a wonderful guitar Radiohead song to react!

Wolf at the door, wolf at the door, wolf at the door!!!!!!? It deserves a break down lol the one at super sonic in Japan, is the best

Radioheads use of half steps, especially the bass line in nude, but with his vocals here and numerous others songs always give me such a vibe. Idk if they just do it better or why no one can figure it out but it’s so tasty every time Radiohead does that. Thanks for saying so mike! Love to feel vindicated 😂

probably the most 90s performance. the hair, mellow song, japan tour, clothes....

That lick he plays in the beginning reminds me of the guitar lick in the song “the smoke” by Thom and Jonny’s band “the smile” check it out!

You know, I highly, highly recommend, maybe not for a reaction video because those two pieces are mainly made up of orchestral music and the latter is super long, a personal back-to-back listen to Burn The Witch, from their latest album A Moon Shaped Pool, and then to Jonny Greenwood's own Popcorn Superhet Receiver (where he originally came up with the idea for the percussive pizzicato on the strings that later made said song so punchy and contrasting with the rest of the otherwise mellow and borderline depressive - albeit extremely beautiful and touching - album, even by Radiohead standards, which is already saying something). I know this might sound a bit pedantic, but it is what it is: the main thing to bear in mind about Radiohead, especially their latest stuff, is that, sure, there's a lot of Thom Yorke's own lyrical, melodic and harmonic genius in the mix that makes them sound like, well, Radiohead, but the “brains” of the operation, likely the one who made many of their songs into the kind of reaaaaally complex, interweaving deal you've recognised in your first two react videos is actually Greenwood, a certified orchestral composer (mostly for soundtracks, but also standalone pieces like the one I mentioned). Case in point: I recall you saying that you likely had to process each instrument separately, as the “groove” wasn't exactly in sync, and that's no accident; their songs are constructed more like orchestral scores, and I'm pretty sure that if you looked at any of them in full score versions, you'd quickly and visually *see* the patterns and, to quote the Tool song, figure how the pieces fit right away. ;) Also, regarding your curiosity about how they went and still go about composing their stuff, you can compare and contrast their last couple of albums including and since OK Computer (their magnum opus, only equalled or bested by In Rainbows, and it's no accident that the first suggestions you got were from the latter) with their *massive* 18 MiniDisc archive leak, which they promptly edited to avoid copyright infringement (there were quite a few samples of material like snippets of soundtracks and whatnot) and put on sale, because that's how they roll. 😂 In those, it's extremely interesting to listen to Thom just fooling around with the guitar, while singing some ersatz, incomplete or otherwise deprecated lyrics, thus witnessing popular and beloved songs being born in real time, and also to piece together how some core ideas were eventually split into several different songs, reused, renamed, repurposed, flipped backwards, rearranged, etc. Only a band with such musical chops could so blatantly reuse material and, yet, turn it all into a certain “sound” and “feel”, without ever devolving into outright self-plagiarism. It boggles the mind, really. Anyway, because I couldn't finish this comment without a couple of actual reaction suggestions, I would go next with a few songs that go quite heavy and interesting on the guitar and which I greatly appreciate: Just, also from The Bends just like this one, and Electioneering, Paranoid Android (frequently compared, and rightly so, to Bohemian Rhapsody), Lucky (sounds a lot like something out of a Pink Floyd album) and The Tourist (with probably the most beautiful Picardy-like cadence I've ever heard in any piece of music, Classical or Rock, ever, repeated twice for good measure and closing the album in a completely obvious but still chilling note), from the unavoidable OK Computer.

Always love to see your excitement at the nuances musicians use! Appreciate your work and your sharing it with us. Looking forward to more Radiohead down the road.

That flat 6 in the melody you talk about at 3:30 was Beethoven’s jam.

Such a great album, and so evocative of my late-teenage years, easily up there with the best albums of the decade.

The full band versions are even better. There's some cool backing vocals, the drumming sounds like a ticking clock and Jonny also plays the synth with the end of the guitar (while playing the riff).

One of my favourite songs, off of one if my all time top5 albums. The Bends is amazing from start to finish but this is one epic track to finish on! Thanks Michael... Love seeing people discover this stuff☺️

When playing live, full band, Jonny plays that riff on the guitar, while he plays synth keys with the tip of his guitar, during the chorus

I love how technical you go in the music theory 💫🔥 pls. More from Radiohead 🙏🏻

I love you, Mike. This was such a joy to watch. I love your passion, your ability, and I love how you soak up songs.

I don’t play any musical instruments but I love your reactions to Radiohead, I know it’s magic but seeing you explain their spells as a fellow guitar wizard is all the confirmation I need, keep up the great work

Thom Yorke is an untrained but extremely instinctive composer. Jonny Greenwood *is* a classically trained composer who just happens to be an amazing guitarist. The great thing about Thom Yorke is that he uses his voice as an instrument instead of just a vehicle for lyrics. This performance is perfection - and proof that talented musicians do NOT need autotune and 100 takes and quantization.

If you enjoy these two together, without the band, check out out ‘The Numbers’ live, Jonny, Thom and a CR78 - just beautiful

Such a beautiful song

It's an underappreciated song but Scatterbrain is one of their best examples of intertwined guitar arpeggios imo

@michael palmisano keep up the good work! Radiohead are some of the most talented musicians ever!

love this particular performance . was lucky enough to see it when it first came out. this is the version that I share with people that havent heard it

Would love to see Michael palmisano react to Radiohead’s from the basement version of where I end and you begin!

Just perfect performance for the situation , great insights , stuff I’ve been listening to for decades without realising how the simple is made captivating ❤

Man I invite you to look up Thom Yorke's live performance of The Clock. He never struck me as a great guitar player but that performance.. he's just fully committed, it's magical.

It's my favorite song... not just from Radiohead.

Oh my second favorite Radiohead song. I'm glad you are converting.

loved playing this cover in the band i was in back in college.

good stuff as always Michael!

I fkn love this song

❤❤😊❤❤ So happy to have found this channel!

I think you would enjoy the video of them playing The Present Tense with just their guitar and a drum machine.

Please do the Studio album version of this beautiful song next, and compare the two, you’re missing so much from the full album version, the piano, the backing vocals, please! 🙏💚

Such an underrated song - he really needs to listen to the whole band play the studio or live version.

Radiohead is one of the best bands to have ever graced the planet. Also, you HAVE to do the studio version! It is so so good.

I love how Michael breaks those vocal melodies down on guitar. So helpful.

I like how the requester said this was not a good performance from Thom... if this is his B tier, we've been spoilt by greatness for too long. Mesmerizing

Just love that E7 at the end.

Love his dancing

This was one of the first songs I ever learned, even before I really got okay at chord changes because the chord shape is the same, but just down a string. I loved this song from the moment I heard it. Not the most complicated song to play, but still beautiful after all these years.

Going to become a member and put in the request for their two man set in France. It's sooooooo good

Love me some radiohead.

Been obsessing over this song lately. Somethings in the air

The vocals is what makes this song outstanding. 👏

More Radiohead!

Hallelujah! ❤ Wait.... Why this version?? You can hear the guitars too on the record version...Also the third guitar is missing here, cause Ed is not here. And the bass... And the beautiful drums... Sigh...And yepp, trust me, they know what they are doing. Really really missing the third guitar though!! Please please please do the original.

I have been saying for years that, for my money, tracks 9 through 12 on "The Bends" (Bullet Proof - Black Star - Sulk - Street Spirit) form the best 4-song-finale of any studio album I've listened to - which probably has something to with why that album is in my top 20 ...I would, however, love to ponder any arguments...

its been too long without radiohead

This one is definitely worth a listen to the Studio version, the percussion adds a whole new dimension to it. Very good song.

beautifully sad song

Love it ❤

And that's before diving to the lyrics, one of the strongest songs lyrics-wise

Loved this performance. Would love to see a Let Down breakdown before too long; Ive loved that song for decades now and would love to understand more about why musically the dual guitar lines are so affecting

I don’t believe they use E7 until that one time in the outro Michael… they certainly don’t on the studio recording. That E7 is specifically used only that one time in the outro (or should I call it “fade out”? 🤔😜). This has always been one of my favourite Radiohead songs. Ironically the guitarist who was the one who actually wrote that arpeggiated chordal riff is the only one of the three not on stage for this performance 🤔😉

What a great version of that song!

love the radiohead vids, need a KOTL in the basement selection next!

It’s on the record. This is brilliance.

Awesome!

They know exactly what they’re doing. Nothing is an accident with this band.

I don't know if this is true or not but its a pretty captivating. Allegedly Thom said this about this song. *Thom: "'Street Spirit' is our purest song, but I didn't write it.... It wrote itself. We were just its messengers... Its biological catylysts. It's core is a complete mystery to me... and (pause) you know, I wouldn't ever try to write something that hopeless... All of our saddest songs have somewhere in them at least a glimmer of resolve... 'Street Spirit' has no resolve... It is the dark tunnel without the light at the end. It represents all tragic emotion that is so hurtful that the sound of that melody is its only definition. We all have a way of dealing with that song... It's called detachment... Especially me.. I detach my emotional radar from that song, or I couldn't play it... I'd crack. I'd break down on stage.. that's why its lyrics are just a bunch of mini-stories or visual images as opposed to a cohesive explanation of its meaning... I used images set to the music that I thought would convey the emotional entirety of the lyric and music working together... That's what's meant by 'all these things are one to swallow whole'.. I meant the emotional entirety, because I didn't have it in me to articulate the emotion... (pause) I'd crack.... Our fans are braver than I to let that song penetrate them, or maybe they don't realize what they're listening to.. They don't realize that 'Street Spirit' is about staring the fucking devil right in the eyes... and knowing, no matter what the hell you do, he'll get the last laugh...and it's real...and true. The devil really will get the last laugh in all cases without exception, and if I let myself think about that to long, I'd crack. I can't believe we have fans that can deal emotionally with that song... That's why I'm convinced that they don't know what it's about. It's why we play it towards the end of our sets. It drains me, and it shakes me, and hurts like hell everytime I play it, looking out at thousands of people cheering and smiling, oblivious to the tragedy of it's meaning, like when you're going to have your dog put down and it's wagging it's tail on the way there. That's what they all look like, and it breaks my heart. I wish that song hadn't picked us as its catalysts, and so I don't claim it. It asks too much. (very long pause). I didn't write that song."

You said 'the yang-yin of major & minor' and my mind took flight...Thinking of my finger-picking grandpa who loved a minor 7th xx

Great vid, thx!

I'll just pop this hear for you. Thom Yorke and Radiohead were hugely inspired by seeing this man live. I believe Thom said something about him giving them confidence in their sound on The Bends "Its okay to do that" (be vulnerable). Jeff Buckley, an underrated guitarist, because that voice is so much. But always blows peoples minds in him technical complexities: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gbWag5SVnb3eeZs.htmlsi=L3dFZr65e9xF5hrI

Dude you gotta do a video watching Radiohead’s where I end and you begin (basement version)

How was this not a great vocal performance?? Anyway... thanks for this loving your reactions! You should check out Thom and Johnny's other band "The Smile - Bending Hectic" definitely not for everyone but very interesting! ☺️💕

took me a week to master the riff and sing at the same time. you just picked it up by ear and i had to look at a tab.