Radiohead took to the BBC this morning with a sparse new track entitled Harry Patch (In Memory Of). The song is a tribute not to shaven pubic regions but to Harry Patch, the last living World War I veteran to fight in the trenches. He died on July 25th at the impressive age of 111.
As Thom Yorke writes on Radiohead’s Dead Air Space Website, a “very emotional” interview Patch gave to the BBC in 2005 was the inspiration for the song. “The way he talked about war had a profound effect on me,” Yorke writes. “It became the inspiration for a song that we happened to record a few weeks before his death.”
“Too many died. War isn’t worth one life,” said Mr Patch in the interview prior to his death. He said war was the “calculated and condoned slaughter of human beings.”
The strings on Harry Patch were arranged by guitarist Jonny Greenwood, and the song features Yorke singing lyrics either inspired by or previously spoken by Harry Patch himself. “I very much hope the song does justice to his memory as the last survivor,” Yorke writes.
The song is available now through Radiohead’s Waste digital music store for the price of one pound, or about $1.70. Proceeds from the song will benefit the British Legion.
Read on for the song’s lyrics and Thom’s words about the man:
Harry Patch (In Memory Of)
“i am the only one that got through
the others died where ever they fell
it was an ambush
they came up from all sides
give your leaders each a gun and then let them fight it out themselves
i’ve seen devils coming up from the ground
i’ve seen hell upon this earth
the next will be chemical but they will never learn”
Recently the last remaining UK veteran of the 1st world war Harry Patch died at the age of 111.
I had heard a very emotional interview with him a few years ago on the Today program on Radio4.
The way he talked about war had a profound effect on me.
It became the inspiration for a song that we happened to record a few weeks before his death.
It was done live in an abbey. The strings were arranged by Jonny.
I very much hope the song does justice to his memory as the last survivor.
It would be very easy for our generation to forget the true horror of war, without the likes of Harry to remind us.
I hope we do not forget.
As Harry himself said,
“Irrespective of the uniforms we wore, we were all victims.”
This morning the Today program played the song for the first time and now it is available to download from our website.
Please click here to download.
The proceeds of this song will go to the British Legion.
To peace and understanding.
Thom
Yeah this is one of their best works… from the arrangement to Thom’s deliberately literal approach to the lyrics. It’s probably the closest anyone’s gonna get to a Orwell essay, musically speaking.
I’d like to hear his original interview, but the site only has some Real Player bullshit.
vlc for mac plays real audio… and pretty much every other audio / video format known to man. worked for me. free download. check versiontracker.
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