Fake Plastic Trees
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| "Fake Plastic Trees" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Single by Radiohead | ||
| from the album The Bends | ||
| Released | March 15, 1995 | |
| Format | CD and cassette single (two different CDs) | |
| Recorded | ? | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | 4:52 | |
| Label | Parlophone/EMI | |
| Producer(s) | John Leckie | |
| Chart positions | ||
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| Radiohead singles chronology | ||
| "Planet Telex/High and Dry" (1995) |
"Fake Plastic Trees" (1995) |
"Just" (1995) |
| The Bends track listing | ||
| "High and Dry" (3) |
"Fake Plastic Trees" (4) |
"Bones" (5) |
"Fake Plastic Trees" is a song by Radiohead, from their second album The Bends. It was also the third single to be released from that album.
The song seems to have been written about the world of mass marketing and mass consumption[1]. According to singer Thom Yorke, it is about Canary Wharf in London.
"Fake Plastic Trees" is often seen as a turning point in the band's early career, along with "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" from the same album. It is considered one of their best tracks by most fans, and has been played at most of the band's concerts. "Fake Plastic Trees" also placed a spot at #376 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time.
The band had just been to see Jeff Buckley play a set, and when they got back into the studio, Thom Yorke recorded the vocals in two takes and broke down in tears after doing so. In fact, the vocals heard on the song were originally meant to be a guide vocal, meaning that they would eventually be re-done after the rest of the band recorded their instruments. However, Thom's performance was flawless, so they kept it.
One source of frustration for the band at the time was their US record label, Capitol (a subsidiary of EMI), who wanted a strong track for American radio. Surprised that the slow paced "Fake Plastic Trees" was seen as a potential single to follow up "Creep," Yorke ultimately realized the label had remixed the track without his approval: "Last night I was called by the American record company insisting, well almost insisting, that we used a Bob Clearmountain mix of it. I said 'No way'. All the ghost-like keyboards sounds and weird strings were completely gutted out of his mix, like he'd gone in with a razor blade and chopped it all up. It was horrible."
In the United States, "Fake Plastic Trees" was ultimately released as the first single from The Bends, but in the original mix found on the album. It was edited only slightly for time.
The b-sides on the first part of the CD single include "India Rubber," a song in which Jonny Greenwood can be heard laughing, and "How Can You Be Sure?" which dates from the band's earliest On a Friday days and features backing vocals by a woman. The B-sides on the second part are acoustic versions by Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood recorded live at the Eve's Club in London.
The song has also been recorded by Christopher O'Riley and covered live by Alanis Morissette, Dashboard Confessional, Marillion, KT Tunstall and Bristol artist mr hopkinson's computer among others. A version by Alanis Morissette was used as the closing music to the film Closer (2004).
Contents |
[edit] CD Singles
[edit] CD 1
- "Fake Plastic Trees" - [4:50]
- "India Rubber" - [3:26]
- "How Can You Be Sure?" - [4:21]
[edit] CD 2
- "Fake Plastic Trees" - [4:50]
- "Fake Plastic Trees" (acoustic) - [4:41]
- "Bullet Proof..I Wish I Was" (acoustic) - [3:34]
- "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" (acoustic) - [4:26]
[edit] Music video
Directed by Jake Scott, it's set inside a supermarket where the band go around in shopping carts among several other characters, including clerks, children, an old man with a large beard who plays with toy guns, a woman in a large black hat, a bald man, a young man playing with a cart, etc. The director has said about the video: "The film is actually an allegory for death and reincarnation but if you can read that into it you must be as weird as the people who made it."[1]
[edit] References
- ^ Sourced from the page regarding the song on Green Plastic, a Radiohead fansite - retrieved August 29 2006
2. Fake Plastic Trees was dedicated to astronaut Willie McCool as a space shuttle wake-up song on 1/19/2003 during the ill-fated ST-107 mission.
[edit] External links
- Radiohead Official Site
- At Ease — song info and lyrics
- Green Plastic
| Radiohead |
| Thom Yorke | Jonny Greenwood | Ed O'Brien | Colin Greenwood | Phil Selway |
| Discography |
|---|
| Albums: Pablo Honey | The Bends | OK Computer | Kid A | Amnesiac | Hail to the Thief | TBA |
| EPs: Manic Hedgehog | Drill | Itch | My Iron Lung | No Surprises/Running from Demons | Airbag/How Am I Driving? | I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings | COM LAG Singles: Creep | Anyone Can Play Guitar | Pop Is Dead | Stop Whispering | My Iron Lung | High and Dry/Planet Telex | Fake Plastic Trees | Just Street Spirit (Fade Out) | Lucky | Paranoid Android | Karma Police | No Surprises | Pyramid Song | Knives Out | There There | Go to Sleep | 2 + 2 = 5 DVDs: Live at the Astoria | 7 Television Commercials | Meeting People Is Easy | The Most Gigantic Lying Mouth of All Time |
| Related articles |
| Nigel Godrich | Stanley Donwood | Dead Air Space | Covers of Radiohead songs | Trivia | "Scott Tenorman Must Die" |
| Other projects |
| Bodysong | The Eraser | Spitting Feathers |
