Murder Ballads: Radiohead: Knives Out
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Radiohead's Knives Out is the next song in Treblezine's Murder Ballad feature.
http://treblezine.com/features/171.html
Radiohead "Knives Out"
from Amnesiac
"Knives Out" is one of the most traditional sounding songs on Amnesiac, and the structure of Ed O'Brien's chords was heavily influenced by the guitar stylings of Johnny Marr of The Smiths. Yet, Thom Yorke's lyrics were a little more unconventional. Whether unintentional or not, "Knives Out" is one of Yorke's very own murder ballads. "Knives Out" seems to be about a wife telling her kids, "I want you to know/ He's not coming back." that their father has gone never to return. But the further the song develops, you, as the listener feel uneasy, that something sinister is amiss. Then you discover as Yorke sings, "So knives out/cook him up/squash his head/put him in the pot," the wife cooks him like the rabbit in Fatal Attraction.
The fact that she feels little or no shame of feeding his remains as cannibalistic supper to her children is quite unsettling. The very disturbed wife refers to her husband as "the mouse" as she squashes his head inside of the pot. The way that Yorke sings the song, I imagine the mother telling the kids a bedtime story about how their father ran away. But in twisted form of reality he's always going to be inside of them because of the sick last supper she cooked her family. Just like "Henry Lee" if you listen to the chords and the rhythm you would never have guessed this song is a murder ballad about cannibalizing your straying husband. You will never hear "Knives Out" the same way again. Who's hungry for another serving of Amnesiac?
Adrian Ernesto Cepeda
10.27.2008
Comments (2)
I LOVE Murder Ballads. there should be a master compilation of both old and new songs that touch upon this topic.
Some of my fav's, both new/old:
Westfall - Okkervil River
One For the Cutters - The Hold Steady
Caleb Meyer - Gillian Welch
St. James Infirmary Blues (aka The Unfortunate Rake, aka The Young Man Cut Down in His Prime) by thousands... a good version done by the White Stripes
Sink Hole - Drive By Truckers
Kathy Keller - Okkervil River
Oh, the Dreadful Wind and Rain - Jerry Garcia (and a thousand others)
Two Sisters (a variation on "Wind and Rain") Tom Waits
A good take of "Henry Lee" by Jolie Holland called "Oh, Henry"
my favorite would have to by "Oh The Dreadful Wind and Rain"...
"There were two sisters came walking down the stream,
oh the wind and rain!
The one, behind, pushed the other one in,
oh! the dreadful wind and rain"
Oh man...I've been listening to Amnesiac all week. Maybe that's why I'm so down in the dumps...
Another Radiohead goodie: "Climbing Up Walls." It's such an eerie, sensual song