Premier live : 14 août 1996
Sortie sur album : 21 mai 1997 (OK Computer)
Remixes : 25 août 1997 (Zero 7 / Fila Brazilia)

C’est assurément une chanson qui parle des peurs profondes enfouies au plus profond de nous-mêmes… de nos monstres cachés. Thom s’est peut-être inspiré pour cette chanson de son expérience de garçon de salle en hôpital psychiatrique, un de ses petits boulots quand il était jeune.

[quote cite=”Thom Yorke / The Times, 13 juin 1997″]You don’t need drugs to make extreme music,” Yorke chides. “Just reading the papers makes you feel extreme. Climbing Up The Walls, for instance. I used to work in a mental hospital around the time the Government was getting passionate about Care in the community, and everyone just knew what was going to happen. It was one of the scariest things that ever happened in this country, because a lot of them weren’t harmless. It’s like those huge 18th-century paintings, if you get really close to them, you ca see these little figures in the corners, these amorphous little monsters. And that’s what some big towns are like now: the shadows contain amorphous little monsters.[/quote]

Il dit d’ailleurs dans Select en juin 1997 :

[quote cite=”Thom Yorke / “]This is about the unspeakable. Literally skull-crushing. I used to work in a mental hospital around the time that Care In The Community started, and we all just knew what was going to happen. And it’s one of the scariest things to happen in this country, because a lot of them weren’t just harmless… It was hailing vilently when we recorded this. It seemed to add to the mood.[/quote]

La musique classique semble avoir pas mal inspiré l’œuvre du groupe, et c’est d’autant plus remarquable à la fin de cette chanson, où sur le dernier accord, seize violons jouent tous ensemble, mais tous à un quart de ton d’écart.

[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’]  le mercredi 14 août 1996 [/button]

[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’] le 21 mai 1997 [/button]

En live, Jonny utilise une radio portable dont il met en mémoire des stations qui parlent avant le concert ; et pendant celui-ci, il passe de l’une à l’autre en ajoutant des tonnes d’effets par dessus. C’est un procédé qu’il a repris dans The National Anthem.

[quote cite=”Jonny Greenwood / Select, janvier 1998″]When you play the radio onstage during ‘Climbing Up The Walls’, what are you doing?
I’m tuning at random. I find two or three classical stations and two or three talking stations at the soundcheck and use them during the gig. I know what kind of music it is advance – I don’t want ‘Size Of A Cow’ to come out during the show [laughs].[/quote]

Le groupe communique alors sur la genèse de la chanson, son enregistrement  et le sens des paroles. L’enregistrement s’est fait dans la salle de ball du manoir de Jame Seymour, d’où une ambiance gothique… Thom éclaire la phrase “In the crack of your waning smile/15 blows to the skull…” avec une citation :

[quote cite=”Melody Maker, 31 mai 1997″]
‘CLIMBING UP THE WALLS’
Even bigger, even scarier rock track. Thom Yorke does his best to sound demented, but is out-done by the monumental chaos going on behind him.
Colin: “It’s quite horrible, isn’t it?”
Ed: “We always knew that song had an atmosphere and it was very easy to capture. The white noise is loads of violins.”
Colin: “We recorded it in the ballroom of this old stately home. Dare we say there was something Gothic about the environment? It was certainly very New Grave of New Grave.”
Key Lyric: “In the crack of your waning smile/15 blows to the skull…”
Thom: ” ‘Was it an accident that of the 10 largest mass-murderers in American History, eight have occurred since 1980, typically acts of middle-aged white men in their 30s and 40s after a prolonged period of being lonely, frustrated and full of rage and of 10 precipitated by a catastrophe in their lives such as losing their jobs or divorce?’ “New York Times October 17 1991 – quoted by Eric Hobsbawn in ‘Age of Extremes’.”[/quote]

Seize violons ont été utilisés pour faire le bruit sur le refrain et vers la fin de la piste. En fait, le groupe n’avait pas l’intention de rendre la chanson terrifiante, mais c’est plus ou moins venu tout seul.

[quote cite=”NME, 31 mai 1997”]Another particularly noisy track, “Climbing Up The Walls,” is distinguished by the use of several tape loops (Thom: “We had tape running around the room on that one”), as well as a bassline played by Colin on a Novation Bass Station synth. “There’s no distortion on it; it just gets that squelchy analog sound naturally. Jonny told me the notes to play,” Colin says dryly, “’cause I’d never seen a keyboard. Now for the gigs we’ve got colored dots on the keys so I don’t get it wrong.” “Karma Police” ends with an explosion of distorted guitar peppered with ugly dropouts, courtesy of a rackmount AMS digital delay. “That machine malfunctions wonderfully,” Thom says. “Ed played the notes that started it, but basically it’s the machine playing itself.” Ed explains that the noise was made by turning up the delay’s regeneration, then slowly turning the delay speed down.[/quote]

[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’] juin 1997[/button]

Des rumeurs courent sur des futurs remixes de la chanson. On parle alors de Massive Attack !

[quote cite=”Jam Showbiz !” avatar=”2 juin 1997″]In the meantime, look for Radiohead to return to Canada in August. They’re also teaming up with influential British band Massive Attack, who will likely end up remixing the claustrophobic track “Climbing Up The Walls” for future release as a single.[/quote]

[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’] le lundi 25 août 1997 [/button]

[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’] le mercredi 1er décembre 1999 [/button]