Harrowdown Hill

Last updated
"Harrowdown Hill"
Harrowdown Hill.jpg
Single by Thom Yorke
from the album The Eraser
B-side
  • "Jetstream",
  • "The Drunkk Machine"
Released21 August 2006
Genre Alternative rock, electronic
Length4:38
Label XL
Songwriter(s) Thom Yorke
Producer(s) Nigel Godrich
Thom Yorke singles chronology
"Black Swan"
(2006)		"Harrowdown Hill"
(2006)		"Analyse"
(2006)

"Harrowdown Hill" is a song by the English musician Thom Yorke, released on 21 August 2006 as the first single from his debut solo album, The Eraser . Yorke wrote it about the death of David Kelly, a British weapons expert who told a reporter that the British government had falsely identified weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. "Harrowdown Hill" reached number 23 on the UK Singles Chart. A music video was released on 31 July 2006.

Contents

Writing

"Harrowdown Hill" was released on Yorke's debut solo album, The Eraser (2006), recorded while Yorke's band Radiohead were on hiatus. [1] According to The Globe and Mail , it resembles a love song with a sense of "menace" and "grim political showdown". [2] Yorke said the song had been "kicking around" during the sessions for Radiohead's sixth album, Hail to the Thief (2003), but that it could not have worked as a Radiohead song. [3]

The lyrics are about David Kelly, a British weapons expert who allegedly killed himself in 2003 after telling a reporter that the British government had falsely identified weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Kelly's body was found in the woods of Harrowdown Hill, near Yorke's former school in Oxfordshire. [4] Yorke was uncomfortable about the subject matter and conscious of Kelly's grieving family, but felt that "not to write it would perhaps have been worse". [2] In an interview with The Observer , he said it was "the most angry song" he had ever written. [5] He told The Globe and Mail: "The government and the Ministry of Defence were implicated in his death. They were directly responsible for outing him and that put him in a position of unbearable pressure that he couldn't deal with, and they knew they were doing it and what it would do to him." [2]

Music video

The "Harrowdown Hill" music video was directed by Chel White of BENT Image Lab in 2006. It features stop-motion eagle animation by David Russo, time-lapse footage by Mark Eiffert, and a miniaturizing technique known as Smallgantics. It was released on 31 July 2006 and was first played on Channel 4. [6]

Release

"Harrowdown Hill" was released as a single on 21 August 2006, and reached number 23 in the UK Singles Chart. [7] In 2008, to celebrate the election of US President Barack Obama, Yorke released a remixed version of "Harrowdown Hill" as a free download. [8]

Track listings

  1. "Harrowdown Hill" (Early Fade)
  2. "Harrowdown Hill" (Full Length)
  1. "Harrowdown Hill" - 4:38
  2. "Jetstream" - 3:44
  1. "Harrowdown Hill" - 4:38
  2. "The Drunkk Machine" - 4:07
  3. "Harrowdown Hill" (extended mix) - 7:01
  1. "Harrowdown Hill" (extended mix) - 7:01
  2. "The Drunkk Machine" - 4:07
  1. "Harrowdown Hill" (extended mix) - 7:01
  2. "The Drunkk Machine" - 4:07
  3. "Jetstream" - 3:44

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References

  1. ↑ Fricke, David (1 June 2006). "Radiohead's Thom Yorke on going solo". Rolling Stone . Retrieved 16 July 2006.
  2. 1 2 3 Evert-Green, Robert (June 14, 2006). "Radiohead retooled". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  3. ↑ "Thom Yorke: 'Why I made a solo album'". NME . 2 July 2006. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  4. ↑ Powers, Ann (28 June 2006). "Thom Yorke, free agent". Los Angeles Times . ISSN   0458-3035 . Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  5. ↑ Mclean, Craig (18 June 2006). "All Messed Up". Observer Music Monthly . Archived from the original on 23 July 2008. Retrieved 18 June 2006.
  6. ↑ "Harrowdown Hill". 28 July 2006. Archived from the original on 10 August 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-06.
  7. ↑ "Harrowdown Hill | Full Official Chart History". UK Singles Chart . Retrieved 2021-08-22.
  8. ↑ Kreps, Daniel (6 November 2008). "Thom Yorke Celebrates Obama Victory With Free Track". Rolling Stone . Retrieved 21 July 2018.