Song Spotlight: Nude

Title: Nude

Album: In Rainbows

Music Video: Scotch Mist Version

Fun Facts:

• The working title for most of it's existence was "Big Ideas".

• Nude was written in 1997 and the band began to perform it live soon after. However, a recording was not included on any Radiohead album until 10 years later.

• Though this recording was originally hailed as a "great success" by members of the band, they eventually soured on it. A few more attempts were made to record "Nude" for inclusion on OK Computer, but the album did not feature the song.

• What brought the song back into serious consideration was a new bassline Colin had found, and also a new approach for Thom how to sing it. If it hadn't been for these two changes, 'Nude' probably would have remained unreleased.

• On January 23rd 1998, Thom premiered the song live at the Akasaka Blitz in Tokyo as a solo acoustic renditon. At this point it still features another chorus after the "you'll go to hell..." line and an additional verse, that will be taken out later and probably explains the title 'Nude', a connection which is not apparent anymore in the following incarnations of the song, which miss these lines:

she stands stark naked and she beckons you to bed | don't go, you'll only want to come back again

• It became known as "Big Ideas", with the parenthetical "(Don't Get Any)" often added. Apparently this title was at the suggestion of fans, as the song officially had no title yet, but appeared on some setlists as "Nude" or "Neut".

• In the 1998 documentary Meeting People is Easy, singer Thom Yorke joked to journalist Matt Pinfield that the full title was actually supposed to be "Your Home Is At Risk If You Do Not Keep Up Repayments"

• After 1998, the band initially planned the track for their next album Kid A (2000), but scrapped efforts to record it; the song did not appear on the band's next two albums, either. During this period, it was performed only rarely, notably on request at a 2002 concert in Salamanca, but usually by Yorke in solo acoustic versions. Band members professed admiration for the song but said they had not figured out the best way to approach it in the studio.

• On September 30th 2005, 'Nude' was one of the titles seen on the first of two blackboards, a picture of which was posted on Dead Air Space. The photo shows a list of songs Radiohead had been working on during the two weeks of rehearsals from September 19th to 30th, and gave rise to hopes that this "lost classic" might finally see the light of day on an album.

• In 2005, the band began new recording sessions with Mark Stent and posted a list of songs they were working on, including the now-officially titled "Nude", on their blog, Dead Air Space. This was confirmed in early 2006, when the band revealed that they had been recording "Nude" with a string quartet, and that a new string arrangement had been written by Jonny Greenwood.

• To promote the release of the single, the band began a competition for fans to create their own remixes of the song, from the individual tracks of guitar, drums, bass, vocals and strings. These were made available to download, via iTunes, on April 1, 2008, with all entries available to listen to at the remix website.

• "Thom Yorke joked at the ridiculousness of [the remix] in an interview for NPR radio, hinting that they set the competition 'for a laugh' and to find out what would come out of such an impossible task," Houston said. "I decided to take the piss a bit, as the contest seemed to be in that spirit." The difficulty with traditional electronic musicians remixing "Nude" is that it's in 6/8 time with only 63 bpm, while most club-type music clocks around 120 bpm and is in 4/4 timing. As Houston points out, "It's near impossible to mix a waltz beat into a DJ set ... This resulted in lots of generic entries consisting of a typical 4/4 beat, but with arbitrary clips from 'Nude' thrown in so that they qualified for the contest.

• In April 2008 it became their most successful single since Creep in 1993

Remixes:

• Holy Fuck Remix

• Saycet Remix

• Silent Rider Remix

• Spor Remix

• Three Leaves & A Head Remix

Covers:

• James Houston Cover Using Computer Hardware

• The Radiohead Ensemble at Berklee College of Music

• /u/warrenlain's Cover

• Daria & Roberto Live Acoustic Loop

Other Stuff:

• Nude Instrumental

• Nude Backwards

• /u/warrenlain's Acoustic Guitar Tutorial - Nude

Notable Performances

• Big Ideas Soundcheck First Known Recording 7-9-1997

• Big Ideas First True Live Performance 1-23-1998

• Big Ideas 4-2-1998 Full Band Arrangement

• Big Ideas 4-16-2005 Trade Justice Movement Rally Thom Yorke Acoustic

• Nude 5-6-2006 Debut of Final Arrangement

• Nude 1-16-2008 Live @ 93 Feet East

• Nude 5-3-2008 Live From The Basement

• Nude 8-23-2009 Live in Praha

• Nude Live Fuji Rock Festival 2012

(If you know of any more notable performances please comment and I'll add them)

Click here to download all of the audio clips below

Big Ideas (soundcheck 7-9-1997) - First ever known recording of the song.

Big Ideas (acoustic 1998) - First ever known performance of the song.

Big Ideas (don't get any) 1998 - Probably my favorite version. Very early with organ and it jams.

Nude Sound Check April 17th 1998 at New York City's Radio City Music Hall (from meeting people is easy) - working on the song during sound check

Big Ideas (Intro 2000) - Just an interesting intro

Big Ideas (false start 7-8-2002) - yay

Big Ideas (7-8-2002) - apparently this was the first time they had the complete lyrics for the song omitting the "she stands stark naked/she kisses you with tongues" (even though citizen insane says otherwise)

Big Ideas (acoustic) 2005 - From citizen insane: On April 16th 2005, Thom performed the song at the Trade Justic vigil in London, which was the first sign that it might be considered for the seventh studio album. It is the first live rendition that substitutes the second chorus after the "you'll go to hell..." line with a beautiful wordless tune based on what Jonny had played in the arrangement from the OK Computer tour. Also for the first time, Thom sings "you paint yourself white" instead of "you paint your house white"

Nude (5-6-2006) - Debut of finalized version for In Rainbows

Nude (Live @ toronto 6-8-2006) - Just another 2006 version I like.

Nude (live at 93 feet east 1-16-2008) - One of my favorite radiohead live shows. Check out the video if you can find it.

Nude (2-27-2012) miami - Just a 2012 version I wanted to post for comparison