Follow me around
Inspiration pour la chanson : 1996
Premier live (soundcheck) : 21 janvier 1998 (dévoilé fin novembre 1998)
Travail en studio : juillet-décembre 1999
Premier live : 17 octobre 2000 (Toronto)
Travail en studio : mars 2009
Premier live (Thom Yorke solo) : 19 juillet 2009 (Lattitude Festival)
Premier live (Atoms for peace): 14 avril 2000
[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’]Â avril 1996 [/button]
Le magazine dazed&confused publie une “auto-interview” de Thom, et on y trouve quelques Questions-Réponses assez lourdes de sens :
[quote cite=”Thom Yorke / Dazed&Confused, avril 1996″]Thom: Do you enjoy getting drunk on your own, then, Thom?
Thom: Stuff comes out, and I like it because there’s a sort of comfort in it. Being pissed out of your head and on your own, but it’s a bit softer. I think that I should ask you some questions now. You’re the one that’s been trying to pick a fight with me. Why do you follow me around everywhere?
Thom: What do you mean, ‘follow you around’? I’m just another voice in the tape recorder, part of the interview. What do you mean, ‘follow you around’?
Thom: You know what I mean. Why do you make me do that stuff? Why do you make me hurt people?
Thom: You sound like some dodgy John Hurt serial killer character.
Thom: I don’t mean ‘hurt people’; people say I get in a state, and I think it’s because you’re around.
Thom: I think you’re just creating this as part of a convenient excuse for your bad behaviour.
Thom: You’ve always got a fucking answer, haven’t you? You’ve always got a fucking answer.
Thom: I think this sounds a little bit too much like a very bad ’80s thriller, or something. You’re trying to create some sort of persona thing. Anyway I don’t think this is really for the public domain. Do you?
Thom: No, but this is the first time I’ve ever talked to you.
Thom: No it’s not. That’s bullshit.
Thom: Everyone has different sides, and at least I don’t go and harm anybody. Except maybe the fish in the pond. I think maybe this house is haunted. I tell you about the fish. It was during a Christmas and I bought this house and there were these two beautiful oriental fish that lived in a pond at the bottom of the garden and my other half went away for a few days and one of the things that was left on a note was ‘look after the fish’, because at that time there was ice and snow covering the ground. It was like two foot deep or something ridiculous. Now I let these fish die because I couldn’t even be fucking bothered to get my shit together to go down to the bottom of the garden and knock a little hole in the ice to keep these fish alive. So when I eventually remembered that they were there, I saw them belly up in the ice and one of them was, his little mouth was right next to the last hole that had been made there in the pond. A last gasp for breath of air and I couldn’t even fucking manage that.
Thom: Poor little Thom.
Thom: You’re the wanker that wants me to sleep with all these women. But I haven’t done it, and I won’t.[/quote]
[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’]Â le 21 janvier 1998 [/button]
Lors des balances du concert de Fukuoka, Radiohead joue « Follow me around ». Il n’y a alors personne dans le public, mais la scène est enregistrée par les caméras de Grant Gee.
Les paroles de la chanson, alors :
Falling down the fastlane
Coming out to me
Warm lights belong to me
Crawling out to me
Crawling out to me
You follow me around (x4)
You are standing for the world
And I can see you now
And I’m being there, to come down
You follow me around.. (x4)
[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’] le 30 novembre 1998 [/button]
Le reportage « Meeting people is easy », qui dévoile les coulisses de l’interminable tournée de 1997, sort dans le commerce. Le public peut alors découvrir « Follow me around ».
[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’] le 28 juillet 1999 [/button]
Dans le journal qu’il tient en ligne (l’ancêtre d’un blog !), Ed raconte la période d’enregistrement de nouvelles chansons pour le futur album. Il explique que pour « Follow Me », le groupe a décidé de se réunir pour discuter de l’approche à donner à la chanson, contrairement à l’habitude qu’ils ont de jouer d’abord et réfléchir ensuite.
[quote cite=”Ed O’Brien / journal en ligne”]wednesday, july 28th 1999
it may well be that because we are working on completely new material it seems that we have not moved much today, like yesterday. but we discussed ‘ follow me around’ and how we would like to approach it, rather than just start playing and thereby fall into old habits. plank says he likes the ‘remain in light’ style jam we had which is good because we were pretty nonchalant about it. ‘de la soul’esque jam at end.[/quote]
[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’] le 5 août 1999 [/button]
Le travail en studio continue. Le groupe teste de nouvelles sonorités :
[quote cite=”Ed O’Brien / journal en ligne”]thursday, august 5th 1999
much better today… the sun shines in and out of our rehearsal room and we get a lot done… start with ’optimistic’ (still sounding great – jonny tries some cool ondes martenot on it – the high stuff is good, not however when he follows the main riff). move on to ’up the ladder’ – sounds better with more space. segway into ’follow me around’ and a reworking of the ’cminor song’ (in a stax stylee). jonny meanwhile is attempting to put the vocal mic through his analogue filters – which looks like a remake of an old telephone exchange. « hello vicar, yes ill put you through to mr kipling »… so the last two songs are punctuated by sudden bursts of unearthly noises, both extremely good and extremely bad.[/quote]
[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’] le 1er septembre 1999 [/button]
Il semblerait que le groupe soit insatisfait de l’avancée du travail sur follow me around.
[quote cite=”Ed O’Brien / journal en ligne”]wednesday, september 1st 1999 i read a rumour from the internet [never believe a single nuance – sd] that we are supposed to be collaborating with ’godspeed you black emperor’ on ’how to disappear’ – this person cited a number of chance occurences, including such impossible coincidences as ’they came to see us at a gig’. if that were sufficient corroborating evidence then, judging on the bands i’ve seen recently, you can hear us with ’the divine comedy’ and the mighty ’asian dub foundation’. twice around ’follow me around’ – mmm. not great, but salvaged by ’you and whose army’ – jonny thinks that voice and guitar are all that’s needed until the end part ; and it sounds right ; or at least it’s definitely a place to start. run through ’optimistic’, cuttooth’, and ’up on the ladder’ for nige, who’s down for the day to do some wiring and ’studio arranging’.[/quote]
[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’] le 8 décembre 1999 [/button]
Malgré les difficultés, le groupe n’a pas abandonné « Follow Me Around » et tente des arrangements avec protools.
[quote cite=”Ed O’Brien / journal en ligne”]wednesday, december 8th 1999
started by playing ’cuttooth’ again – the song needs stamina – sounding better than yesterday….just have to keep playing it. one of those days when it doesn’t feel as though we’ve done much. maybe it’s because everyone’s tired. there was some protool arranging on ’follow me around’ and an attempt to do vocal, piano and drums on ’egyptian song’. was sounding ok. tried playing ’keep the wolf from the door but it’s too late and needs thom’s rant on it. a bitty day. time to go home. saw only four hours of daylight – how do they cope in scandinavia during these months ?[/quote]
[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’] le 19 décembre 1999 [/button]
Le public est fou de « Follow Me Around » et la réclame d’autant plus qu’il sait que le groupe y travaille. Sur le Message board de radiohead.com , Thom explique l’état du travail plus précisément, mais dit aussi qu’il a besoin de faire une pause.
[quote cite=”Thom Yorke / Message Board, 19 décembre 1999“]there is a version running around. it is long. there is a cool drum machine on it. some piano. err. ed on bass. i need to take a break from it now. it has taken me months to write the words properly.[/quote]
[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’] le 25 février 2000 [/button]
Tout le monde veut savoir si la chanson sera sur KID A ! réponse de Nigel Godrich sur le message board :
[quote cite=”Nigel Godrich 25 février 2000, message board”]dont know yet. there is A version. very different now to MPIE.[/quote]
[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’]Â le 30 juin 2000 [/button]
Le groupe joue 20 secondes de la chanson lors d’un concert à Paris.
[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’]Â le 26 juillet 2000 [/button]
Toujours sur le message board, le public veut savoir ce qui est arrivé à Follow Me Around. Cette fois, c’est Stanley Donwood qui répond :
[quote cite=”Stanley Donwood Message Board, 26 juillet 2000″]been put in a cupboard wrapped in newspaper to see what happens to it. it was good though. i think. i dunno. im not very musical.[/quote]
[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’] fin 2000 [/button]
Dans le livret caché de KID A, on trouve ces paroles de Follow Me Around :
De même que l’on trouve quelques mentions à la chanson sur des pages ajoutées au site internet www.radiohead.com vers cette époque, comme par exemple sur la page ‘chickens bred bald‘ qui mèle des paroles de KID A et de follow me around.
[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’] le 17 octobre 2000 [/button]
La chanson est jouée pour la première fois devant public et en entier à Toronto lors d’un show acoustique.
Il faut dire que la communauté canadienne de fans, cristallisée autour du site www.followmearound.com, s’est mobilisée et l’a réclamée. Le show a lieu le jour de l’anniversaire de Beryl, webmastrice du site, bien évidemment présente au concert.
Les paroles « did you lie to us, Tony ? » sont ajoutés par rapport à la version 1998. C’est bien évidemment une attaque contre Tony Blair, inspiration centrale du groupe à cette époque.
Le lendemain, dans une interview, Ed explique malheureusement pour le public que le groupe ne sait pas quoi faire de cette chanson, et qu’elle est remisée pour l’instant :
[quote cite=”Ed O’Brien / Musique Plus, 18 octobre 2000″]So there’re always songs, you know, every band has songs that they’ve got lying around, that they just haven’t got around, you know, on Meeting People is Easy there’s a song called Follow Me Around that Thom played last night, on his own, and it’s there, and it’s a good song, but we just haven’t done a good version of it. So who knows, you know. Maybe we’ll do it in the future. [/quote]
[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’] en 2001 [/button]
quelques bribes de paroles qui apparaissaient au printemps 2001 sur le site radiohead.com :
De même sur la page ’and yu begin’.
[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’] le 1er août 2002 [/button]
Le facétieux Thom chante le refrain et un vers des paroles de la chanson à la fin de The National Anthem, lors d’un concert à San Sebastien. Forcément, le public adore !
[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’] 21 novembre 2003 [/button]
De passage dans une émission de Radio, Thom joue la chanson. Forcément, les présentateurs veulent en savoir plus…
[quote cite=”Thom Yorke / BBC Radio 1 ‘Mark & Lard’, 21 novembre 2003″]Mark: “(laughs) Ok, Fair enough. What are you going to play for us?
Thom: “I’m actually going to do a song called Follow Me Around, which isn’t really out as yet….
Mark: “Great
Thom: “…as such, per se
Mark: “Right
Thom: “Just as I get my foot stool ready (shuffles about) (part eight ends here) (part nine starts here)
Thom: “Plays acoustic version of Follow Me Around (part nine ends here) (part ten starts here)
Lard: “(claps) Oh, yeah!
Mark: “(claps) Terrific!
Ed: “(claps) Yay!
Mark: “Terrific
Lard: “Oh, wow!
Mark: “That sounded…….that sounded really great. Have you got any plans to release that? Is that a newish thing?
Thom: “Well, it’s actually been kicking around since…sort of since the heady days of OK Computer
Ed: “(laughs)
Mark: “Right ok, so we might find that on one of the new EPs at some point?
Thom: “I don’t know exactly what to do with it really to be honest
Mark: “Playing it live, or…?
Lard: “I think you’ll probably find that on the internet later today
Thom: “Could be
Mark: “(laughs) Brilliant, thanks very much for that
Lard: “Fantastic [/quote]
[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’]Â en 2004 [/button]
En première page du site radiohead.com, on trouve une ligne des paroles de « follow me around » pleine de sens :
 |
[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’]Â 29 juin 2006 [/button]
Thom fait une nouvelle piqûre de rappel au public en jouant le début de Fog en intro de Everything In Its Right Place à Los Angeles :
[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’]Â en janvier 2008 [/button]
Ed fait frémir les fans de Radiohead en expliquant dans une interview pour Rock&Folk que parmi les nouveautés, on pourrait trouver « Follow Me Around », qui est sa préférée (mais souvenez vous, Ed est un blagueur)
[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’] 1er avril 2008 [/button]
Comme en 2003, Thom est de passage dans l’émission de Mark Radcliffe sur la BBC2. A l’époque, il avait joué Follow Me Around, et expliqué que la chanson pourrait sortir… mais en 5 ans, rien n’était venu. Le présentateur lui fait donc remarquer…
[quote cite=”Thom Yorke / BBC Radio 2 ‘Mark Radcliffe’, 1er avril 2008″]Mark: “I mean, do you have, do you have a big archive? I remember you came in on the afternoon show on Radio one and you did “Follow me Around”.
Thom: “Yes! We are very…
Mark: “Which is a good one which has never emerged.
Thom: “I know! We still haven’t got rid of it by now!
Mark: “NUDE took ten years to come around, didn’t it?
Thom: “Yeah…yeah.
Mark: “Are there loads more like that?
Thom: “Yeah.
Mark: “In your head, or on tapes, or what?
Thom: “Mostly in my head!
Mark: “Right!
Thom: “Or in our heads anyway.
Mark: “Yeah…
Thom: “Yes. Yeah Um: Yeah, it’s very confusing! There’s lot of hard disks with things I can’t remember on them!
Mark: “Yeah…
Thom: “But that’s just the way it is. You know… [/quote]
[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’] le 19 mars 2009 [/button]
Le groupe a décidé de changer un peu de stratégie de communication et offre de longues interviews à des fans, qui ne manquent pas de poser des questions plus précises que les journalistes.
[quote cite=”Ed O’Brien / Italo Rossi’s Breakfast with Ed O’Brien, 19 mars 2009”]Italo: … and his song was, you know, like, real nice. It sounds a lot like “Follow Me Around 
Ed: Right.
Italo: … that’s what people say.
Ed: Well, okay… that’s interesting. [Laughs.]
Italo: Yeah, I mean, and talking about that song, is there any chance, you know– maybe your fans ask this all the time, I mean–to see, again, stuff like “Follow Me Around†or “Big Bootsâ€, or “Liftâ€?
Ed: We rehearsed… we rehearsed, um… We rehearsed “Follow Me Aroundâ€, um… when we were in the studio two weeks ago. We played it.
Italo: Really?
Ed: Yup.
Italo: Is there any chance you might play it somewhere?
Ed: Obrigado…
Ed: Um, not on this tour… because it’s too rough. [/quote]
[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’]Â le 19 juillet 2009 [/button]
Lors d’un show solo au Latitude festival, Thom fait la surprise au public de reprendre « Follow Me Around » (on est moins surpris maintenant qu’on sait qu’elle avait été répétée peu de temps auparavant.
[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’]Â le 14 avril 2010 [/button]
Cette fois-ci, c’est avec son groupe « Atoms for Peace » que Thom joue « Follow Me Around ».
Comme on le voit sur la vidéo, Thom explique à Flea les accords pour cette chanson, preuve que le coup n’était pas prévue et que les autres membres d’AFP ne connaissaient pas la chanson… On peut penser que Radiohead a du travailler en studio la chanson et que Thom a envie de l’essayer…
[button icon=’iconic-cd’ fullwidth=’true’] le 17 avril 2012 [/button]
Italo Rossi obtient un nouveau moment privilégié avec un membre du groupe, cette fois COlin. A nouveau, on parle de Follow Me Around, et Colin ne laisse pas vraiment d’espoir…
[quote cite=”Colin Greenwood ” avatar=”http://www.radiohead.fr/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/colin05-150×150.jpg”]Italo Rossi: There’s always people wondering whatever happened to other songs, and maybe you’re sick of hearing this but, what’s up with “Big Boots†or “Follow Me Aroundâ€.
Colin Greenwood: Oh yeah…!
Italo Rossi: Do you always keep trying to do these songs or you already…?
Colin Greenwood: No no, they might pop up in some strange shape or form.
Italo Rossi: Do you think there might be any chance to dig up into the archives of Radiohead at some point?
Colin Greenwood: I think it’s… no, I don’t… I don’t know… it’s always good to move forward and deal with it by going on tour and playing old songs and b-sides
Italo Rossi: But no obscure session versions or anything?
Colin Greenwood: Oh! I see what you’re saying… uh… I don’t think so… no, because anything we end up doing with these songs is just out there, so…
Italo Rossi: Because you know… I think it was Neil Young who did it.
Colin Greenwood: Ah yeah, that’s right!
Italo Rossi: and he reckons there was some good stuff and some crap stuff.
Colin Greenwood: Yeah, amazing![/quote]
No Comment