Street Spirit (Fade Out)

"Street Spirit (Fade Out)" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released on their second studio album, The Bends (1995). It was released as a single on 22 January 1996.

Radiohead considered "Street Spirit" a breakthrough in their songwriting. It was accompanied by a music video by Jonathan Glazer, and it has been covered by acts including Peter Gabriel and the Darkness.

"Street Spirit" reached number five on the UK singles chart, Radiohead's highest position up to that point. The success demonstrated that Radiohead were not one-hit wonders after their previous singles had failed to match the success of their 1992 debut, "Creep".

Composition

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 it "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. It was filmed in black and white over two nights in a desert outside Los Angeles. 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 2012, the Pitchfork critic Stuart Berman described "Street Spirit" as a "crucial, transitory track" that bridged the "futuristic Britpop" of The Bends and Radiohead's next album, the "dystopian" OK Computer (1997). In 2015, Stereogum said it 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

Peter Gabriel recorded a slower, orchestral cover of "Street Spirit" for his album Scratch My Back (2010). He described his version as an "existential cry of mortality". He hoped that, in return, Radiohead would record a version of his 1982 song "Wallflower" for his album And I'll Scratch Yours (2013). According to Gabriel, Radiohead ceased communication after he sent them his version of "Street Spirit". He said his rendition was "pretty extreme" and that he later heard that Radiohead did not like it.

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 recorded their cover for their 2012 album Hot Cakes. It includes a quote of another Radiohead song, "Just" (1995). In Pitchfork, Stuart Berman wrote that the Darkness's version translates "the original's dreamy intensity into a battlefield-conquering rallying cry" in the style of 1980s hair metal. 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

1. "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" – 4:13
2. "Talk Show Host" – 4:41
3. "Bishop's Robes" – 3:25

CD 2

1. "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" – 4:13
2. "Banana Co." – 2:20
3. "Molasses" – 2:27

Personnel

All personnel adapted from the liner notes.

Charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

External links

• atAllMusic
• atMusicBrainz(list of releases)
• "" atDiscogs(list of releases)
• from The Guardian with Jonathan Glazer talking about the video