High and Dry
Encyclopedia
"High and Dry" is a song by the English
alternative rock
band Radiohead
, and was the first single
released from their second album, The Bends
(1995). It was as a double A-side with album opener "Planet Telex
". "High and Dry" was released in the UK on 5 March 1995 and remains one of the band's most popular radio hits, despite reaching only #17 upon release.
"High and Dry" was recorded during the Pablo Honey
sessions but was dismissed by the band, who thought that it sounded like a Rod Stewart
song. However, during the sessions for The Bends it was rediscovered and remastered, as it was felt that it worked well with the rest of the album's content. The version that appears on the album is the original demo
; it was never re-recorded.
The song is widely regarded as Radiohead's most accessible pop hit, and was a live favorite, though it has not been performed in a decade. In a 2007 interview with Pitchfork Media
, Thom Yorke
stated that he did not like the song, saying "It's not bad... it's very bad". He also stated that he was pressured into including the song on The Bends.
. The first version, directed by Paul Cunningham, stars the band in a diner (Dick's Restaurant & Cocktails, in San Leandro, California
), where other patrons are involved in dramas of their own, which are revealed through the use of flashback
s. A couple and the diner's cook are involved in an unspecified crime. A businessman is hiding something in his briefcase. In the end, the two dramas are resolved when the guilty parties are betrayed, the cook gives the couple a time bomb and the businessman is ambushed and killed (though the murder is only suggested).
The British version of the video is in black and white, directed by David Mould. It shows the band performing in a desert setting amidst trucks and filming equipment. By the end of the video, it rains on the band, but they continue playing. This was actually the first version of the video produced, but the band expressed dissatisfaction with it, leading to the other video. Only the US version appears on the band's 1998 video compilation 7 Television Commercials
, and both the UK and US versions appear on the Radiohead: The Best Of
DVD
released in 2008 by EMI
.
of the song appears on English pop
-jazz
singer Jamie Cullum
's album Pointless Nostalgic
, and on some international versions of his subsequent album Twentysomething
. Uruguay
an singer Jorge Drexler
covered the song in English
and with an acoustic guitar on his album 12 segundos de oscuridad. A version of the song with Spanish
lyrics and in a timba
style was recorded by Cuba
n band Los Van Van
for the collaborative nonprofit album Rhythms del Mundo
. American pop/punk band Yellowcard
covered this song for AOL Sessions Under Cover
. Soul
singer Bilal covered the song for the Radiohead tribute album Exit Music: Songs with Radio Heads
. Emily Osment
did a cover of "High & Dry" live on tour.
The song was also covered by jacksoul
on their 2006 album mySOUL
. Something Corporate
also covered the song, recording a demo of it during their Galaxy Sessions.
The song has been covered by Amanda Palmer
and appears on her 2010 album, Amanda Palmer Performs the Popular Hits of Radiohead on Her Magical Ukulele
.
The country music band Lady Antebellum
covered the song during their 2010 summer UK tour.
American Idol (Season 7)
winner David Cook
covered the song at VH1's studio.
The song has been also covered by the Israeli singer Ninet Tayeb and the Israeli rock band Red Band on the T.V. series Red Band and appears later on their album Red Band in 2011.
Nerina Pallot
covered the song in her session at Abbey Road Studios
for the BBC on 23rd November 2011
. The song is also featured in the 2011 film 50/50.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
, and was the first single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
released from their second album, The Bends
The Bends
The Bends is the second studio album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, released on 13 March 1995 by Parlophone. The Bends was produced by John Leckie at EMI's studios in London, and engineered by Nigel Godrich, who would go on to produce all future albums by the band...
(1995). It was as a double A-side with album opener "Planet Telex
Planet Telex
"Planet Telex" is a song written by Radiohead and is the opening track of their 1995 album The Bends. It was released as a double A-side single with "High and Dry", although receiving far less airplay...
". "High and Dry" was released in the UK on 5 March 1995 and remains one of the band's most popular radio hits, despite reaching only #17 upon release.
"High and Dry" was recorded during the Pablo Honey
Pablo Honey
Pablo Honey is the debut studio album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, released in February 1993. The album was produced by Sean Slade and Paul Q. Kolderie and was recorded at Chipping Norton Studio and Courtyard Studio, Oxfordshire from September to November 1992...
sessions but was dismissed by the band, who thought that it sounded like a Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
song. However, during the sessions for The Bends it was rediscovered and remastered, as it was felt that it worked well with the rest of the album's content. The version that appears on the album is the original demo
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
; it was never re-recorded.
The song is widely regarded as Radiohead's most accessible pop hit, and was a live favorite, though it has not been performed in a decade. In a 2007 interview with Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
, Thom Yorke
Thom Yorke
Thomas "Thom" Edward Yorke is an English musician who is the lead vocalist and principal songwriter for Radiohead. He mainly plays guitar and piano, but he has also played drums and bass guitar...
stated that he did not like the song, saying "It's not bad... it's very bad". He also stated that he was pressured into including the song on The Bends.
CD1
- "High and Dry" - 4:17
- "Planet Telex" - 4:18
- "Maquiladora" - 3:27
- "Planet Telex (Hexidecimal Mix)" - 6:44
CD2
- "Planet Telex" - 4:18
- "High and Dry" - 4:17
- "Killer Cars" - 3:02
- "Planet Telex (L.F.O. JD Mix)" - 4:40
12" vinyl
- "Planet Telex (Hexidecimal Mix)" - 6:44
- "Planet Telex (L.F.O. JD Mix)" - 4:40
- "Planet Telex (Hexidecimal Dub)" - 7:32
- "High and Dry" - 4:17
U.S.
- "High and Dry" - 4:16
- "India Rubber" - 3:26
- "Maquiladora" - 3:26
- "How Can You Be Sure" - 4:21
- "Just" (live at the forum) - 3:47
Music videos
Two music videos were created for "High and Dry", one produced for the American market and another for BritainUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. The first version, directed by Paul Cunningham, stars the band in a diner (Dick's Restaurant & Cocktails, in San Leandro, California
San Leandro, California
San Leandro is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is considered a suburb of Oakland and San Francisco. The population was 84,950 as of 2010 census. The climate of the city is mild throughout the year.-Geography and water resources:...
), where other patrons are involved in dramas of their own, which are revealed through the use of flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
s. A couple and the diner's cook are involved in an unspecified crime. A businessman is hiding something in his briefcase. In the end, the two dramas are resolved when the guilty parties are betrayed, the cook gives the couple a time bomb and the businessman is ambushed and killed (though the murder is only suggested).
The British version of the video is in black and white, directed by David Mould. It shows the band performing in a desert setting amidst trucks and filming equipment. By the end of the video, it rains on the band, but they continue playing. This was actually the first version of the video produced, but the band expressed dissatisfaction with it, leading to the other video. Only the US version appears on the band's 1998 video compilation 7 Television Commercials
7 Television Commercials
7 Television Commercials is a collection of music videos from English alternative rock band Radiohead, covering the period from their The Bends and OK Computer .-Release:...
, and both the UK and US versions appear on the Radiohead: The Best Of
Radiohead: The Best Of
-DVD:#"Creep" #"Anyone Can Play Guitar" #"Pop Is Dead" #"Stop Whispering" #"My Iron Lung"...
DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
released in 2008 by EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
.
Cover versions
A cover versionCover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of the song appears on English pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
-jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
singer Jamie Cullum
Jamie Cullum
Jamie Cullum is an English pop and jazz-pop singer-songwriter. Though he is primarily a vocalist/pianist he also accompanies himself on other instruments including guitar and drums. Since April 2010, he has been presenting a weekly jazz show on BBC Radio 2, broadcast on Tuesdays from 19:00.- Early...
's album Pointless Nostalgic
Pointless Nostalgic
Pointless Nostalgic is Jamie Cullum's second album but his first major release on a record label. It was released in 2002 through Candid Records.-Track listing:# "You and the Night and the Music" – 4:09...
, and on some international versions of his subsequent album Twentysomething
Twentysomething (album)
Twentysomething is the third album by Jamie Cullum. It was released in 2003 in his native UK, and in May 2004 in the United States.On this release Cullum performs some original material as well as some covers and standards...
. Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
an singer Jorge Drexler
Jorge Drexler
Jorge Drexler is an Uruguayan musician and actor.In 2004 Drexler won wide acclaim after becoming the first Uruguayan ever to win an Academy Award...
covered the song in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and with an acoustic guitar on his album 12 segundos de oscuridad. A version of the song with Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
lyrics and in a timba
Timba
Timba is a Cuban genre of music sometimes referred as salsa cubana . However, the historical development of timba has been quite independent of the development of salsa in the United States and Puerto Rico and the music has its own trademark aspects due to the Cuban embargo and strong Afro-Cuban...
style was recorded by Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n band Los Van Van
Los Van Van
Los Van Van is a Cuban band led by bassist Juan Formell, it is one of the most recognized post-revolution Cuban bands, while Juan Formell has arguably become the most important figure in contemporary Cuban music....
for the collaborative nonprofit album Rhythms del Mundo
Rhythms del Mundo
Rhythms del Mundo is a nonprofit collaborative album, which fuses an all-star cast of Cuban musicians including Ibrahim Ferrer and Omara Portuondo of the Buena Vista Social Club with tracks from US, UK and Irish artists such as Dido, Arctic Monkeys, U2, Coldplay, Sting, Jack Johnson, Maroon 5,...
. American pop/punk band Yellowcard
Yellowcard
Yellowcard is an American pop punk/alternative rock band formed in Jacksonville, Florida in 1997, and based in Los Angeles, California since 2000. Their music features the use of a violin, unusual for the genre...
covered this song for AOL Sessions Under Cover
Sessions@AOL
Sessions@AOL is a special avenue of programming conducted by AOL Music. Originally an AOL exclusive, Sessions@AOL can now also be seen as an avenue for non-AOL users as well. Sessions@AOL consists of exclusive and intimate performances of songs by popular musicians, with likes of bands such as...
. Soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
singer Bilal covered the song for the Radiohead tribute album Exit Music: Songs with Radio Heads
Exit Music: Songs with Radio Heads
Exit Music: Songs with Radio Heads is a tribute album to British band Radiohead released in 2006 on Rapster Records and Barely Breaking Even Records...
. Emily Osment
Emily Osment
Emily Jordan Osment is an American teen actress, singer-songwriter and voice actress born in Los Angeles, California. After working in several television films in her childhood, she gained fame for co-starring as Gerti Giggles in Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams and Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over...
did a cover of "High & Dry" live on tour.
The song was also covered by jacksoul
Jacksoul
jacksoul, sometimes stylized as jackSOUL, was a Canadian soul and R&B band. Based in Toronto, the band was fronted by singer Haydain Neale, and was best known for their hits "Can't Stop" and "Still Believe in Love"....
on their 2006 album mySOUL
MySOUL
mySOUL is the fourth album by Canadian R&B/soul band jacksoul, released in 2006. The album comprises mainly covers of rock, pop and soul songs, although it also includes one original song by jacksoul singer and songwriter Haydain Neale....
. Something Corporate
Something Corporate
Something Corporate is an American rock band from Orange County, California, formed in 1998. Their current line-up includes pianist and vocalist Andrew McMahon, guitarist Josh Partington, bassist Kevin Page and drummer Brian Ireland....
also covered the song, recording a demo of it during their Galaxy Sessions.
The song has been covered by Amanda Palmer
Amanda Palmer
Amanda MacKinnon Gaiman Palmer , sometimes known as Amanda Fucking Palmer, is an American performer who first rose to prominence as the lead singer, pianist, and lyricist/composer of the duo The Dresden Dolls...
and appears on her 2010 album, Amanda Palmer Performs the Popular Hits of Radiohead on Her Magical Ukulele
Amanda Palmer Performs the Popular Hits of Radiohead on Her Magical Ukulele
Amanda Palmer Performs the Popular Hits of Radiohead on Her Magical Ukulele is an EP by musician Amanda Palmer. It is composed entirely of twee pop cover versions of songs by the band Radiohead, performed by Palmer on the ukulele. It was released on July 20, 2010.- Reception :Paste Magazine listed...
.
The country music band Lady Antebellum
Lady Antebellum
Lady Antebellum is an American country pop music group formed in Nashville, Tennessee in 2006. The trio is composed of Charles Kelley , Dave Haywood and Hillary Scott .The group made its debut in 2007 as guest vocalists on Jim Brickman's single "Never Alone", before signing to Capitol...
covered the song during their 2010 summer UK tour.
American Idol (Season 7)
American Idol (season 7)
The seventh season of American Idol, the annual reality show and singing competition, began on January 15, 2008 and concluded on May 21, 2008. Ryan Seacrest continued to host the show with Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and Randy Jackson returning as judges...
winner David Cook
David Cook (singer)
David Roland Cook is an American rock singer-songwriter, who rose to fame after winning the seventh season of the reality television show American Idol...
covered the song at VH1's studio.
The song has been also covered by the Israeli singer Ninet Tayeb and the Israeli rock band Red Band on the T.V. series Red Band and appears later on their album Red Band in 2011.
Nerina Pallot
Nerina Pallot
Nerina Pallot is a platinum selling, BRIT Award and Ivor Novello Award nominated British singer and songwriter. Although born in London, Pallot was brought up in Jersey to a half-French father and mother from Allahabad, India.-Early life:Pallot played piano as a child and wrote her first song...
covered the song in her session at Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios is a recording studio located at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music company EMI, its present owner...
for the BBC on 23rd November 2011
Other appearances
The song is heard in the background of a scene in the film I Now Pronounce You Chuck and LarryI Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry is a 2007 comedy film directed by Dennis Dugan, written by Barry Fanaro, and starring Adam Sandler and Kevin James as the title characters. The film was released on July 20, 2007, in the U.S., August 16, 2007, in Australia and on September 21, 2007, in the UK and...
. The song is also featured in the 2011 film 50/50.