Karma Police
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| "Karma Police" | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Single by Radiohead | ||
| from the album OK Computer | ||
| Released | August 25, 1997 | |
| Format | CD, 7", 12" | |
| Recorded | ? | |
| Genre | Alternative | |
| Length | 4:21 | |
| Label | Parlophone | |
| Producer(s) | Nigel Godrich | |
| Chart positions | ||
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| Radiohead singles chronology | ||
| "Paranoid Android" (1997) |
"Karma Police" (1997) |
"No Surprises" (1998) |
| OK Computer track listing | ||
| "Let Down" (5) |
"Karma Police" (6) |
"Fitter Happier" (7) |
"Karma Police" was the second single from Radiohead's acclaimed 1997 album OK Computer, and is perhaps Radiohead's best known hit worldwide, apart from "Creep."
While few songs from 1995's The Bends became hits outside the UK, and the six-and-a-half-minute "Paranoid Android" (first single from OK Computer) received MTV promotion but was hardly played on radio, "Karma Police" became an alternative radio anthem, even meriting inclusion on a Now That's What I Call Music! compilation. In the UK, however, the single peaked at number 8, hardly the band's best showing. OK Computer's popularity was largely not seen to be single-driven.
Similarities have often been noted between the piano riff of "Karma Police" and The Beatles' "Sexy Sadie." The band has apparently acknowledged the similarity, though the rest of each song is quite different. While recording OK Computer, they listened to late Beatles albums, among other music (such as Miles Davis, DJ Shadow and Ennio Morricone), for inspiration.
The sound at the end of the song was created by Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien by "feeding sound through a digital delay machine".[1]
"Karma Police," like several other songs that would make up OK Computer, was debuted live in 1996, when the band briefly supported Alanis Morissette on an American tour. A live version of "Karma Police," performed with a Rhodes piano on The Late Show with David Letterman, is captured in the Radiohead documentary Meeting People Is Easy. Today the song is usually an audience singalong when performed at live concerts, often as an encore. As of 2006, it continues to be played by the band somewhat regularly, though not at each show.
The song was covered in 2003 by Christopher O'Riley on his first Radiohead tribute album True Love Waits: Christopher O'Riley Plays Radiohead.
The song has also been covered by Panic! at the Disco, in their live shows, and The Arrogent Sonsd of Bitches, on their live Radiohead cover album 'This Is What You Get.'
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[edit] Meaning
Radiohead members used to tell one another that they would call "the karma police" on them if they did something wrong. The joke was incorporated as the title of the song.[2]
Thom Yorke explained the idea of the lyrics to The Independent newspaper in 2006. "It's for someone who has to work for a large company. This is a song against bosses. Fuck the middle management!" He also said it was about those who are judgmental.[3]
[edit] Music video
A music video was made for the song, featuring lead singer Thom Yorke as the only passenger in a driverless car as it chases a man (Hungarian actor Lajos Kovács) down a deserted highway. Finally, when it looks like the car is finally going to run the man over, it instead reverses, leaving a trail of gasoline, which the man sets alight. The camera then pans to show the back seat where Yorke was sitting, but he has disappeared. The video was directed by Jonathan Glazer, previously responsible for Radiohead's "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" clip. Glazer won MTV's director of the year award in 1997 for his work on this, as well as Jamiroquai's "Virtual Insanity."
[edit] Alternate Lyrics
There is a very rare version of "Karma Police" finding its way into people's collections.[citation needed] It is a bootleg recorded from a live show and has different lyrics.
- Early Version
- Karma police, arrest this girl, she stares at me, as if she owns the world
- And I crashed her party
- CD Version
- Karma police, arrest this girl, her Hitler hairdo, is making me feel ill
- And we have crashed her party
- Early Version
- This is what you'll get, this is what you'll get
- This is what you'll get, when you mess with ME
- CD Version
- This is what you get, this is what you get
- This is what you get, when you mess with us
[edit] Track listing
- CD1 CDNODATAS03
- "Karma Police"
- "Meeting in the Aisle"
- "Lull"
- CD2 CDNODATA03
- "Karma Police"
- "Climbing Up the Walls (Zero 7 Mix)"
- "Climbing Up the Walls (Fila Brazillia Mix)"
| 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 |
| Other projects |
| Bodysong • The Eraser • Spitting Feathers |
