The Radiohead Song Inspired by Hatred for Jim Morrison
- by Jordan Potter
Despite being a crude and tangled precursor to the refined beauty heard in The Bends (1995) and OK Computer (1997), Pablo Honey still has a great deal to offer. The album represents an important stage of Radiohead’s early development; the group were still only in their early-to-mid-20s when recording the album, so it shows signs of their lack of experience and immaturity while revealing a smorgasbord of ideas that can be seen as a proverbial launchpad.
The obvious highlight of the album is the casual Radiohead fan’s favourite, ‘Creep’. The song is a perfectly moody indie anthem that was depressing enough for the BBC to ban it from radio stations in the early 1990s following its release. While the controversial ‘Creep’ was the most memorable song on Pablo Honey, there are some very intriguing tracks in the album’s undercarriage.
The second single on the album, following ‘Creep’, was ‘Anyone Can Play Guitar’. The track’s main angle of attack is Thom Yorke’s scathing jab at desperate and unskilled people looking for the fast track to becoming a rockstar. But in the playful spirit of their youth, Radiohead decided to take the song’s title very literally in the studio.
