Let Down

Don't get sentimental...it always ends up drivel.

the following original thoughts by bobby murphy


In light of my most recent entry about cover wars, I decided to dig up this short piece that I threw together one lazy afternoon while listening to the Easy Star All-Stars' collaboration album, Radiodread.  Falling between Dub Side of the Moon and Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band, this work brings together the widest range of talent to pay tribute to one of the most significant steps forward by a band in my lifetime: Radiohead's creation of OK Computer.  To make an album of this magnitude immediately following something as straight forward as The Bends was the turning point of Radiohead's career, and a golden ticket into the not-fucking-around club.  That was lucky for them, because as Thom put it, "None of us fucking knew any more whether it was good or bad. What really blew my head off was the fact that people got all the things, all the textures and the sounds and the atmospheres we were trying to create."  Yup, we got it all right.

The song we will be looking at is one of my favorites from the original album, and appropriately covered by the most talented group of the bunch.  Radiodread is a good listen all the way through, but pay close attention, because this makes it great.  Even if you're familiar with both versions, for the sake of this blog you should listen to the original first, followed by the cover.


Radiohead - "Let Down"

Toots & The Maytals - "Let Down"


The beauty of a cover like this is that you get two very different experiences from the same song, and not strictly because it's a dub version of a not-dub song.  In the original there is a sense of urgency in Thom's voice during the chorus that can easily be lost unto the rest of the song.  "Let Down" is very musically driven, very layered, and it seems as though the vocals are carried throughout the song by the wave of music that takes over as soon as the first chorus comes in.  (Don't be fooled, Thom's voice is as much an integral part of the music as Jonny's guitar.)  The harmonies that kick in at 4:00 bring the whole sound together for the ensuing :30 in ways that I can't even begin to explain, but before that point it's easy to get distracted by the wall of music, and not pay enough attention to his voice, or the words (which is a BIG mistake because both are phenomenal).

When "Let Down" is stripped and morphed into a reggae song, the music takes a much lesser role and the words become the main point of focus and the driving force to the song, as is the nature of reggae music.  As a result, the urgency that can be heard in Thom's voice is magnified 100x, creating this extremely moving display of vocals by Toots & the Maytals.  The song becomes powerful in a completely different way, and is easily the best song on Radiodread and probably one of the best covers I have ever heard.