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Radiohead · S1 E2
Thom Yorke
Born with a paralysed left eye, bullied relentlessly, and already writing songs at school. The anger has to go somewhere.
A six-year-old boy wakes up from his fifth eye surgery and the doctor tells his parents it went well. The eye still droops, but the boy learns something useful: people will tell you things are fine when they aren't.
"Lift", Radiohead, official music video (2017). A single unbroken shot of Thom walking through a public space while everyone around him stands frozen. He is the only person moving. The perfect visual for this episode: a boy who always felt out of step, who learned to keep walking anyway.
The Boy from Wellingborough
Thomas Edward Yorke is born on October 7, 1968 in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, with his left eye paralysed from birth. Five corrective surgeries before age six leave him with a drooping eyelid that becomes both his most recognizable feature and his deepest childhood wound. His family moves constantly for his father's work, which means every new school brings a fresh start and a fresh set of bullies.
“I spent a lot of time as a kid being very, very angry. If you get stared at enough, you either fold inward or you learn to stare back harder.”
— Thom Yorke, Mojo, October 1997
Young Thom
Lift
"Lift" was written during the OK Computer sessions in 1996. The band considered it too anthemic, too accessible, too much like a hit, and shelved it for twenty-one years. The melody is enormous and Thom sounds like he's singing directly to one person. For a frontman who spent his childhood learning to hide behind anger, the vulnerability here is the whole point.
TAP TO REVEAL: What did Thom Yorke make at age ten that predicted Kid A two decades early?
Bullet Proof..I Wish I Was
Bullet Proof..I Wish I Was, Radiohead (The Bends, 1995). The title is the thesis of Thom Yorke's childhood: the wish to be invulnerable, written by someone who learned very young that he wasn't. Sparse and aching, built on acoustic guitar and Thom's most exposed vocal. Listen to it knowing the singer had five eye surgeries before age six.
Thom Yorke chose not to pursue further corrective surgery on his distinctive drooping eyelid later in life. Why?
Thom is the voice, the anger, and the vision. Next: Jonny Greenwood, the quiet genius who makes Radiohead impossible to copy.
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