Street Spirit (Fade Out)

Radiohead's songwriter, Thom Yorke, said "Street Spirit" was inspired by the American band R.E.M. and the 1991 novel The Famished Road by Ben Okri. It features a guitar arpeggio written by Yorke and played by Ed O'Brien. In 2018, Pitchfork wrote that the song "channels a sense of capitalist dread that even class-conscious Britpop artists repressed". == Recording ==

Radiohead recorded several versions of "Street Spirit" before settling on the final version. The members felt it was a breakthrough in their songwriting. Yorke said later: "If I ever forget why I started this as a career, then ['Street Spirit'] is why I started ... We spent a day going round in circles until I was thinking, 'This is never going to happen.' Then suddenly something happened and I was transported to a place that I'd been willing myself to be in for months on end." ==Music video==

The music video for "Street Spirit" was directed by Jonathan Glazer. Glazer described it as a "turning point" for his work. He felt that Radiohead had "found their own voices as an artist" and that "I got close to whatever mine was, and I felt confident that I could do things that emoted, that had some kind of poetic as well as prosaic value". == Release ==

"Street Spirit" was released as the fifth single from Radiohead's second album, The Bends (1995), on 22 January 1996. It reached number five on the UK singles chart, Radiohead’s highest position up to that point. After Radiohead's previous singles had failed to match the success of their 1992 debut, "Creep", "Street Spirit" demonstrated that they were not one-hit wonders. In 2008, "Street Spirit" was included on Radiohead: The Best Of. == Reception ==

In 2015, Stereogum said "Street Spirit" was "one of the all-time great album closers ... a perfectly rendered slice of doomy, incantatory psychedelia that made it sound like Radiohead could do anything". In 2020, the Guardian named "Street Spirit" the 12th-greatest Radiohead song, writing that it "makes for a spectacular showdown – a grand, doomed surrender". ==Covers==

The Darkness performed "Street Spirit" in their live shows in 2003; the critic Steven Poole wrote that they "reinvent it brilliantly by alternating speed-metal verses with half-time power-grunge choruses". They included their cover on their 2012 album Hot Cakes. Peter Gabriel recorded a slower, orchestral cover of "Street Spirit" for his album Scratch My Back (2010). Gabriel described his version as an "existential cry of mortality". According to Gabriel, Radiohead ceased communication after he sent them his version of "Street Spirit". Gabriel said his rendition was "pretty extreme" and had since heard that Radiohead did not like it. In 2020, the System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan released a cover of "Street Spirit" with M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine on his album These Grey Men. ==Track listing==

CD 1 • "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" – 4:13 • "Talk Show Host" – 4:41 • "Bishop's Robes" – 3:25 CD 2 • "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" – 4:13 • "Banana Co." – 2:20 • "Molasses" – 2:27 ==Personnel==

All personnel adapted from the liner notes. Radiohead • Thom Yorke • Jonny Greenwood • Ed O'Brien • Colin Greenwood • Philip Selway Production • John Leckie – production "(Street Spirit", "Banana Co."), mixing "(Street Spirit"), engineering "(Street Spirit") • Nigel Godrich – production ("Talk Show Host", "Bishop's Robes", "Molasses"), engineering ("Street Spirit"), mixing ("Talk Show Host", "Molasses") • Chris Brown – engineering • Chris Blair – mastering • Jim Warren – initial production ("Banana Co.") • Sean Slade – mixing ("Banana Co.") • Paul Q. Kolderie – mixing ("Banana Co.") Design • Stanley Donwood – art • The White Chocolate Farm – art ==Charts==

Year-end charts ==Certifications==