Pyramid Song

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"Pyramid Song"
Single by Radiohead
from the album Amnesiac
Released	May 29, 2001 June 19, 2001 (Pt.1, Pt.2) December 11, 2001 (Japan CD)
Format	CD, 12"
Recorded	1999-2000
Genre	Art rock, Pop
Length	15 min 36 s 11 min 30 s (Pt. 1) 12 min 12 s (Pt. 2) 15 min 37 s (Japan CD)
Label	Parlophone, EMI
Producer(s)	Nigel Godrich, Radiohead
Chart positions
#5 (UK) #25 (Australian Singles Chart)
Radiohead singles chronology
"No Surprises" (1998)	"Pyramid Song" (2001)	"Knives Out" (2001)
Amnesiac track listing
"Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box" (1)	"Pyramid Song" (2)	"Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors" (3)

"Pyramid Song" is a song by the English band Radiohead. It was the first single from their 2001 album Amnesiac and the first Radiohead single released in over three years, after none were taken from their previous album Kid A.

"Pyramid Song" was issued in most parts of the world, except the United States (where "I Might Be Wrong" was the first, radio-only single). The UK public responded well, and the song made the top 5; it was also named NME's single of the week. The song was played on Top of the Pops in May 2001, although the performance never aired.^[1] A favourite among fans despite a lack of wide-scale radio play, it continues to be performed at Radiohead's live concerts. The band themselves consider it a high point of their career. According to guitarist Ed O'Brien, upon hearing an early version of the recording singer Thom Yorke declared it "the best thing we've committed to tape, ever."

[edit] Song details

[edit] Music and song history

"Pyramid Song" is a piano-driven piece with ethereal vocals and otherworldly lyrics by Yorke. It also features string orchestrations by band member Jonny Greenwood. The song builds to a climax with the introduction of Phil Selway's jazzy percussion and the siren-like wails of the Ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument also played by Jonny. Colin Greenwood plays upright bass rather than his usual electric; O'Brien adds subtle electric guitar to live versions. Yorke said "Pyramid Song" was heavily influenced by the Charles Mingus song "Freedom," and originally he had even wanted to include similar hand-claps. The song was produced by Nigel Godrich together with Radiohead.

At various times "Pyramid Song" has also been known as "Egyptian Song" and "Nothing to Fear," from a lyric in its chorus. It received its live debut in 1999 at the Tibetan Freedom Concert in Amsterdam, at which it was performed solo by Yorke on piano. Subsequently the full-band version became a part of Radiohead's anticipated concert tours in 2000, both before and after the release of Kid A. "Pyramid Song" was one of several new songs played live but not included on that album, leading some to criticize the band for leaving off their most melodic new material. Originally slated for a series of EPs or singles, "Pyramid Song" and the other unreleased songs (such as "You and Whose Army?" and "Knives Out") eventually came together as the follow-up Amnesiac, along with other material that had been recorded during the marathon Kid A sessions. "Pyramid Song" was in fact recorded during this time, although not included on Kid A; for example, its string parts were performed by the Orchestra of St. John's during the same day as those used in Kid A 's "How to Disappear Completely" (as well as Amnesiac 's "Dollars & Cents"). When "Pyramid Song" is performed live, Yorke usually sings the parts assigned to the strings in the studio version.

[edit] Influences on lyrics

The lyrics of "Pyramid Song" have been seen as largely based on Dante's Divine Comedy with references to the Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise, though Yorke has mentioned the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thodol), the Egyptian Book of the Dead, and Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha as other possible inspirations. The first two lines bear a resemblance to the beginning of the first verse of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." The line "and we all went to heaven in a little row boat" is nearly identical to a lyric found in Tom Waits' 1985 song "Clap Hands," which itself is taken from a 1965 hit by Shirley Ellis, "The Clapping Song."

[edit] Time Signature

• The song is infamous among fans for its time signature, which many find hard to discern or even consider non-existent. While its meter is indeed complex, "Pyramid Song" is not ametrical. One theorist notes that the song repeats a pattern sixteen quarter notes in duration; however, these sixteen beats are not divided evenly as one would expect (for example, 4-4-4-4), and thus cannot be considered to be in strict 4/4 time. Nor is the sixteen beat pattern subdivided randomly - the piano chords appear in one of two miniature patterns; either two chords sound evenly distributed over the course of three quarter beats (pattern A), or one chord sounds with a duration of exactly two quarter beats (pattern B). This pattern holds throughout the song as ABAABA or 3-2-3-3-2-3, which demonstrates retrograde symmetry and perhaps sheds some light on the "pyramidal" nature of the song. Complex metrical patterns such as these are not uncommon in twentieth century music, and are particularly notable in the music of French composer Olivier Messiaen.
• Another possible structure is in 4/4 time, where the pattern of notes is seen as two dotted eighth notes followed by a quarter note and two more dotted eighth notes.
• There exists the possibility of the time signature being written in 11/4 time. In this case, when considering a ten-note phrase, the first two notes are on the beats, but the next six are not hit on the beat. The last two notes of the phrase are hit on the beat.
• Alternately, one might divide the above pattern in two and examine each half independently, resulting in an interpretation of a basic unit in 16/8 time, with sixteen eighth notes grouped as follows: 3+3+4+3+3.
  

  

  Visual depiction of rhythmic and chordal cycle for Radiohead's Pyramid Song. With minor changes, this pattern persists throughout the entire song. The five-note, 3+3+4+3+3 pattern is clearly visible.
  This five note pattern repeats throughout, but the harmonic pattern, which is four cycles through the rhythmic pattern, make it a challenge for most people to accurately feel the meter. In other words, because 16/8 reduces to 8/4, and because meter refers to the grouping that best fits the recurring rhythmic patterns in the music, this song is not in 4/4 time. This analysis is used in teaching meter via the image shown.
• The percussion rhythm exposes that the meter is also in swing time within each of the 16 notes described in both interpretations above.

[edit] Music video

The unnamed character in the Pyramid Song video

The video for "Pyramid Song", directed by collective Shynola, features a combination of computer 3D and hand-drawn animation and was based on a dream that lead singer Thom Yorke once had. Following on from the more abstract Kid A promotional blips, it was the first Radiohead video not to feature any depiction of the band or singer (the animated "Paranoid Android" clip had briefly included a caricature of each member around a table in a pub). It tells the story of the a person (the figure is asexual) who survives the flooding of a city and submerges into the sea where the ruins of the city stand. The character swims into a house, sits on a chair and disconnects the lifeline. The video won several awards, including NME Carling's best video of the year.

[edit] Trivia

• In recent live performances Jonny has contributed guitar, played with a bow as in the music of Icelandic band Sigur Rós or English band Led Zeppelin. Sigur Rós opened for Radiohead in 2000 and also collaborated with them on Merce Cunningham Dance Company's Split Sides project in 2003.
• The end of "Pyramid Song" is sampled by the band in "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors," the following track on Amnesiac.
• The piano is sampled in the start of 'Missing Links' by Plan B

[edit] Track listing

[edit] Single

1. "Pyramid Song"
2. "The Amazing Sounds of Orgy"
3. "Trans-Atlantic Drawl"
4. "Kinetic"

[edit] Pt. 1

1. "Pyramid Song"
2. "The Amazing Sounds of Orgy"
3. "Trans-Atlantic Drawl"

[edit] Pt. 2

1. "Pyramid Song"
2. "Kinetic"
3. "Fast-Track"

[edit] Notes

1. ^ http://www.greenplastic.com/lyrics/pyramidsong.php