About
The experimental “Like Spinning Plates” is a time distorted backing track (partly made up of Hail to the Thief’s “I Will”) and Thom’s vocals played backwards, which sound like actual words, because he sang them backwards. An unconfirmed source points to the yet unknown inspiration for the song:
I was listening to Woman’s Hour [popular BBC Radio 4 programme]. 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.
During a live performance of this song, in Montreal, 2003, Thom Yorke introduced it by saying:
This is dedicated to our glorious leaders, or at least some of them who saw fit to take us to a war that nobody wanted, kill thousands, if not tens of thousands of innocent people. And they should go to their graves with that on their consciousness.
He was surely talking about Tony Blair and George W. Bush and other politicians in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars of the early 2000s. Watch below.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
- 2.Kid A
- 5.Treefingers
- 6.Optimistic
- 7.In Limbo
- 8.Idioteque
- 9.Morning Bell
- 11.Untitled
- 13.Pyramid Song
- 16.I Might Be Wrong
- 17.Knives Out
- 20.Hunting Bears
- 21.Like Spinning Plates
- 24.Untitled v1
- 27.Follow Me Around
- 29.Untitled v2
- 31.Pyramid Strings
- 32.Alt. Fast Track
- 33.Untitled v3