19: karma police-- radiohead

i vividly remember my first experience with this song. i was at home, watching mtv (i wasnt afraid at this point and they still played videos), mom was in the kitchen, it was almost time for dinner. then 'karma police' came on and i froze. this song, this eerie tune and bizarre video hypnotized me, mesmerized me. of course, it was one of those moments when mom started yelling that dinner was ready and i wasnt ready and she kept yelling and i didnt want to move and she came in the room and i was knocked out of my trance and forced to eat baked chicken or whatever it was. but i couldn't get that song out of my head. it was unlike anything i had heard at the time and i was intrigued. the video was almost unsettling, and i liked that (reminded me of my earlier mtv experiences). i remember watching mtv like a hawk after i saw that video, hoping that i would see it again. and i did, and it was as fantastic as before. i later saw the video for 'paranoid android' which was equally as puzzling. i eventually got 'ok computer' and it became one of my favorite albums.

this song gained new life for me in the summer of 2001 when i was in france. for some reason, i gravitated toward it again. i remember sitting on my makeshift bed (it was really a psychotherapist's couch) after my host family had gone to bed (there was still light outside) and staring out the window onto the rooftops of slightlydecaying paris and listening to this song on my portable cd player. i guess my earlier experience with this song connected well with the strange situation i was going through at the time. it just fit so well. and, for a second time, this song blew my mind.

i still think this song is amazing. i thought then, as i do now, that it sounds very modern and very much a part of the world that is going on right now. it has a way of seeming both spooky and calming. the song changes shapes as it progresses, but it all fits together perfectly. it is, in a word, exceptional. it played a big part in opening my mind to more music that challenged me. and it has provided a monumental background for several key moments in the past decade of my life. this list would be incomplete without it.

the vid is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LeLAELIxKY