The song speaks to someone who wants badly to love and care for someone but is restrained and restricted by chance, circumstances, and also just by the nature of his character. I feel like these lyrics capture the darkness, paranoia, and refusal to trust that’s inherent to the Bond character (at least as he’s portrayed by Daniel Craig). Now follow along with this edit of the song placed along with Spectre’s titles (this is a Youtube link so apologies if at some point the content gets taken down). This song was written by Philip James Selway, Edward John O’brien, Jonathan Richard Guy Greenwood, Thomas Edward Yorke, and Colin Charles Greenwood.

Obviously, the copyright belongs to the rights holders. For the purpose of this article, here are the lyrics. This time, I made a point of finding the lyrics and following along with Thom Yorke’s vocal delivery, and it’s a world of a difference. I simply listened to the song and moved on like most people. When Radiohead first released the song, I hadn’t bothered to look for the lyrics. I recently came across a few fan edits that incorporated Radiohead’s Spectre into the credits sequence, and I must say I’ve discovered a newly found appreciation for the song. Overall, I would say I still enjoy the band, but I’m not an over-zealous fan of their music. I still haven’t listened to A Moon Shaped Pool, but I plan to get around to it at some point. I still listen to music from Pablo Honey, The Bends, OK Computer, Kid A, Amnesiac, and Hail to the Thief, but the music on In Rainbows and King of Limbs didn’t really grab me. I do enjoy listening to Radiohead, but much of their recent output doesn’t do much for me. For my part I wasn’t very impressed with the song the first time I heard it. So, Bond fans got to hear the song that Radiohead wrote and recorded for Spectre.

May the force be with you.” The cover art for Radiohead’s Spectre As the year closes we thought you might like to hear it. It didn’t work out, but became something of our own, which we love very much. “Last year we were asked to write a theme tune for the Bond movie Spectre. I haven’t seen the movie and I think they ended up with something more suitable for it, but in terms of making A Moon Shaped Pool it caused a stop right when we were in the middle of it.”įor his part, singer Thom Yorke was far more conciliatory. We stopped doing what we were doing and had to concentrate on that for awhile since we were told it was something that was going to come to fruition. Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich later lamented the fact that the band took time away from recording their album A Moon Shaped Pool. Some rejected themes end up as B-Sides (such as Pulp’s “Tomorrow Never Lies”) or get re-worked with different lyrics on their albums (see Ace of Base’s “The Juvenile”). There have been many rejected themes over the years by many notable artists, but I don’t recall if the release of a rejected theme was ever done this close to the release of their would be Bond film. For Bond fans, the knowledge of rejected Bond themes isn’t anything new. Their style of sonic experimentation and cryptic existential lyrics seem a bit problematic when paired with a franchise seeking the kind of blockbuster box office numbers and crossover appeal that Skyfall and its title song performed by Adele achieved in 2012.īy September 2015, however, Sam Smith announced that he had landed the gig of singing the Bond theme, and the rest was history until on Christmas Day in 2015, Radiohead decided to release their rejected song for Spectre. It was thought to be an unlikely match, and many fans no doubt still consider Radiohead to be an odd choice for Bond. In July of 2015, rumors that Radiohead had been selected as the artists for Spectre’s title song emerged when a bookmaker suspended betting once a customer placed a £15,000 bet on the group through its website.

Radiohead spectre cover