Nothing to Fear, Nothing to Doubt

I found some very interesting interpretations about my another ritual song that is Pyramid Song by Radiohead and wanted to share. This is written by Toni Raffini who is most probably a great Radiohead fan:

"I don't know if most radiohead fans already know about this but this could go into your description of "nothing to fear". It has big references to Dante's Inferno. Here is a reference for every line:

~(I jumped into the river black eyed angels swimming with me)

Apparently this is Thom repenting perhaps (I didn't know he believed in God) for in the Inferno you enter the first circle of hell after the Vestibule. The River is Acheron. The black eyed angels are demons. I think this is here just to let you know that Thom is in hell. Not literally, i think he had some wierd dream or is a big fan of the Inferno, i don't know.

~(A moon full of stars and astral cars all the figures I used to see) 

This is where it gets interesting. The last two lines of the Inferno are "The beautous shining of the Heavenly cars. And I walked out more beneath the stars." Thom's lyrics are from the viewpoint of Dante (the writer of the Inferno) because it is when he comes back to the surface through the mount of Purgatory, returning to the things he "used to see".

~(All my lovers were there with me All my past and futures) 

All the lovers of Thom that he has apparently seen on his voyage through hell. He is placing himself in the shoes of Dante. The past and futures part is interesting because the sinners of hell can see into the past and future but cannot see into the present.

~(And we all went to heaven in a little row boat)

Lines 130-135 of Canto XXXIV say right at the end before Purgatory: Down there, beginning a little further bound of Beezlebum's dim tomb, there is space not known by sight, but only by the sound of a little stream descending through the hollow it has eroded from the massive stone in its endlessly entwining lazy flow (There was nothing to fear and nothing to doubt) Dante is scared at the end of the Inferno, we can see here that Thom isn't."

Here with the video below we can join this astral travel:

Sources:
http://www.greenplastic.com
http://amazon.com

To Disappear and Be Re-born Ritual

How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found is a book by Doug Richmond, originally released in 1985, which is a how-to guide on starting a new identity. It has the subtitle "Planning a disappearance, arranging for new identification, finding work, establishing credit, pseudocide (creating the impression you're dead), and more."
The book recommends a method of disappearing by assuming the identity of a dead person with similar vital statistics and age, and also includes a section on avoiding paper trails which, due to the age of the book, may no longer be relevant or useful.
The song by Radiohead, on their album Kid A, is named "How To Disappear Completely (And Never Be Found)" and is allegedly about Thom Yorke coping with his depression and then the newly acquired pressures of fame.
Here you can find the tabs of How to Disappear Completely.
Here you can find something that was said by band members about the lyrics of the song.
Here you can find many ideas from different people about what this song interprets.


And the video below includes the background song of a disappearance and born-again ritual:



Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/

Story of "Paranoid Android"

"Paranoid Android" is a song by Radiohead, featured on their 1997 third studio album OK Computer. The lyrics of the darkly humorous song were written primarily by singer Thom Yorke, following an unpleasant experience in a Los Angeles bar. At more than six minutes long and containing four distinct sections, the track is significantly influenced by The Beatles' "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" and Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody". "Paranoid Android" takes its name from Marvin the Paranoid Android of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. It was used to be the ending song of the anime Ergo Proxy, in 2006. "Paranoid Android" was recorded in actress Jane Seymour's 15th century mansion (which Yorke was convinced was haunted) near the village of St Catherine, near Bath, Somerset.The first edit was over 14 minutes long and included a long organ interlude performed by Jonny Greenwood. Radiohead played this extended version during a tour with Alanis Morissette in September 1996. O'Brien said "when we started playing it live, it was completely hilarious. There was a rave down section and a Hammond organ outro, and we'd be pissing ourselves while we played. We'd bring out the glockenspiel and it would be really, really funny." Before the song's first live performance, Yorke told audiences that "[i]f you can have sex to this one, you're fucking weird." He also sarcastically referred to the version of the song played during the tour as "a Pink Floyd cover". Radiohead were inspired by the editing of The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour (described by Colin Greenwood as "brutal"), to shorten the song to a final six and a half minutes, a process that led to Jonny Greenwood's organ section being replaced by a substantially shorter guitar fade out. However, it took the band a year and a half to learn how to play the final version in live performance. "Paranoid Android" has four distinct sections, each played in standard tuning, and a 4/4 time signature, although several three-bar segments in the second section are played in 7/8 timing. The opening segment is played in the key of G minor with a tempo of 84 beats per minute (BPM), and begins with a mid-tempo acoustic guitar backed by shaken percussion before layered with electric guitar and Yorke's vocals. The melody of the these opening vocal lines span an octave and a third. The second section is written in the key of A minor and begins about two minutes into the song. Although the second section retains the tempo of the first, it differs rhythmically. Ending the second section is a distorted guitar solo played by Jonny Greenwood, which lasts from 2:43 to 3:33. The third section was written entirely by Jonny Greenwood, and reduces the tempo to 63 BPM and changes key to C minor/D minor. This section uses multi-tracked, choral vocal arrangement and according to Dai Griffiths, a "chord sequence [that ordinarily] would sound seedy, rather like something by the band Portishead".

The fourth and final section begins at 4:58, and is a coda that resolves to the tempo, key and musical patterns of the second movement. After a second solo, a brief guitar riff is introduced, which Jonny Greenwood says "was something I had floating around for awhile and the song needed a certain burn. It happened to be the right key and the right speed and it fit right in." The song ends, as does the second section, with a short chromatically descending guitar motif.

Remarking on the band's goals for the "Paranoid Android" music video, Yorke said that, "When it came time to make the video for that song, we had lots of people saying, 'Yeah, great, we can have another video like "Street Spirit", all moody and black and dark. Well, no. We had really good fun doing this song, so the video should make you laugh. I mean, it should be sick, too." Magnus Carlsson, Swedish creator of the animated series Robin, was commissioned by the band to make the video. Radiohead were fans of the show, and connected with the Robin character; Jonny Greenwood described him as "affectionate" and "vulnerable", while Yorke admitted that he found Robin "quite the vulnerable character, but he's also violently cynical and quite tough and would always get up again." At first Carlsson sought to work on a video for "No Surprises" and was uncertain as to how to approach "Paranoid Android". Eventually he devised a scenario to the band's liking after he locked himself in his office for over 12 hours to stare out of the window, while listening to the song on repeat while jotting down visual ideas. As Carlsson did not have access to the lyrics at the time, the concept for the video was based entirely on the song's sound. According to Yorke, the band "deliberately didn't send Magnus the lyrics" because they "didn't want [the video] to be too literal."

Like Robin, the "Paranoid Android" video is drawn in a simplistic style that emphasises bold colours and clear, strong lines. It features Robin and his friend Benjamin venturing into the world, running into miserable EU representatives, bullying pub patrons, two kissing leathermen, a drug addict, deranged businessmen, mermaids and an angel who plays table tennis with Robin. The band appears in cameo at a bar, where they are shown drinking while watching a man with a head coming out of his belly dancing on their table. However, in this cameo only the versions of Yorke and Jonny Greenwood resemble themselves; O'Brien said "If you freeze-frame it on the video, the guy with the five strands of hair slicked back, that's Colin. It looks nothing like him." Colin Greenwood said "there was no way that we could appear in it to perform in it because that would be so Spinal Tap" and that having animations that did not resemble the band members allowed the video to be "twisted and colourful which is how the song is anyway". Yorke was ultimately pleased with the video, saying that it "is really about the violence around [Robin], which is exactly like the song. Not the same specific violence as in the lyrics, but everything going on around him is deeply troubling and violent, but he's just drinking himself into oblivion. He's there, but he's not there. That's why it works. And that's why it does my head in every time I see it." 

Evan Sawdey of PopMatters described the video as "bizarre-yet-fitting", and Melody Maker said it represented a stunning "psycho-cartoon". Adrian Glover of Circus called the animation incredible and the video "really cool". MTV vice president of music Lewis Largent told Spin "You can watch 'Paranoid Android' a hundred times and not figure it all out."

Here is the interesting video clip of Paranoid Android:

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/