Latest Radiohead News

Radiohead News posted by Adriaan Pels 55 Comments

Radiohead turn McCartney collaboration down

Paul McCartney was turned down by Thom Yorke when he asked for a collaboration with Radiohead.

According to The Sun former Beatle Paul McCartney approached Thom Yorke with a view to collaborating, but his request was turned down. Paul McCartney, who recorded with longtime Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich on his album ‘Chaos and Creation in the backyard’, explained Thom Yorke wasn’t comfortable playing anybody’s music apart from his own.

Macca said, “My daughter was putting an album together and she put us in touch. I asked Thom to do a duet, but he said he couldn’t because he only felt happy working on his own and Radiohead’s material.”


Radiohead news on this day..


  • Jimbop

    wow cop that “macca” personaly I think thoms gone mad!! I love Paul. However they make completely different music, dunno if it would work

  • http://Last.fm/user/No3pencil No3pencil

    Did he want to collaborate on a song or album?

  • MikaMika

    good!

  • walrus say

    wait, then what of modeselektor?

  • me

    ha

  • http://atease ReCreeper

    i think this is awesome. the next logical step after duet w/mccartney is dancing with the stars.

  • el guapo

    yeah recreeper, doing a duet with one of the greatest songwriters of all time and a living legend is only one step away from dancing with the stars. f’ing moron.

  • http://none neworderarmy

    “only happy working on his own and Radiohead’s material.”

    So what about Thom’s collaborations with PJ Harvey, Modeselektor, Bjork, DJ Shadow…

  • macca

    Nice excuse Thom, but what about Modeselektor, PJ Harvey, Bjork and R.E.M. among others? :D

    Clearly Thom has a distaste for the pop frontman of the Beatles…can’t say I blame him…I’m sure he wouldn’t have said no to George Harrison…

  • John

    McCartney… what a cunt.

  • Gabriel

    If it was 1967 then who wouldn’t? But sadly it is 2007. And Macca doesn’t write ‘em like he used to.

  • http://www.someangryindian.com Gaurav Kaushik

    thom wouldn’t have said no to john :-(

  • kaka

    if i remember correctly mccartney “collaborated” w/linkin park on mtv.

    good choice thom =)

  • James

    Awesome. I agree with ReCreeper though, if he did collaborate with with McCartney it’d definitely be a step towards selling his soul. Plus, Paul would flip if the music said, “By Yorke and McCartney”

  • tubby

    The S*N? Ffs. Nonsense.

  • http://www.myspace.com/elitebanda imatumbler

    thoms a douche!
    live a little thom!
    damn

    i bet he didnt want to do it just because its paul mccartney

    it could have been something great

  • NT

    You people are idiots.

  • Matt Robinson

    This is ridiculous Thom..

    Paul is the greatest, and even though he has been slipping, this would have been the perfect.

    What a shame/

  • fridge buzz

    good decision

  • http://plasticexplosives.net trip fontaine

    thom is an obsessive beatles fan. it’s not a sign of disrespect. it’s just an honest assessment that everything the man has done in the last 25 years has been embarrassing.

    the idea of mixing the beatles and radiohead is amazing, yeah, but paul 2007 is an obnoxious, MOR adult contemporary artist. like phil collins or something. good call, thom.

  • Chris

    I think Thom realized that McCartney has written a decent tune in decades, and moreso, that their styles wouldn’t mesh at all.

  • http://atease ReCreeper

    it doesn’t matter what mccartney was, the duet would take place in the present time, where mccartney is a old tosser and a sullied name.

  • Thomas

    Dun dun dun dun….

    Dun dun dun dun….

    JET!

  • Thomas

    Of course he didnt want to do it “just because its paul mccartney”. They guy is the devil incarnate.

    “macca” sold his soul many years ago. He isnt even my favourite member of Wings.

  • lalalala

    after Paul mysteriously disappear years ago, we don’t even know if this is really Paul anymore

  • http://www.khristopher.com Khristopher

    This doesn’t make any sense. I have a feeling that the Sun is not giving all of the facts, or Paul is not correctly quoting Thom.

  • lalala2)

    ok Thom didn’t want to do it, fine.
    But why make it public at all? Is it smth to be proud of?

  • what?

    yes and what their recent webcast, during which thom played nearly 50% covers?

  • b

    Doing covers of songs that you grew up with and/or heavily influenced your songwriting with your band is completely different from working on or performing on someone else’s album.

  • jho

    The head of state has called for me…but I don’t have time for him. I think that Faust Arp sounds kinda beatlesque or more like paul mcartney with wings when i first heard it.

  • The Suburbanite

    Whatever Thom’s reasons for declining –
    and let’s face it, it’s up to him – it’s
    a pity the story is the cue for a load
    of predictable, lazy, blinkered crap
    about McCartney

  • Sam

    good

  • flom k norke

    Shame about that Thom, tell the truth you just cant stand scousers, its alright I hate the thievin gypo’s as well.

  • chuzzle deluxe

    word

  • Pingback: down » Radiohead turns McCartney collaboration down

  • http://www.spittingoutteeth.com jay

    I heard they tried it, but Paul kept singing the lyrics to “Sexy Sadie” and Thom did “Karma Police” and it was all a big mess.

  • Edwin

    I dont like the music (&things) that McCartney do right now

    & I think he just wants to share radiohead’s light

    not a good idea at all

  • AJ

    This collaboration would have worked if Radiohead was around in 1960 something. Paul is Pop royalty, but good move Thom.

  • Erich

    Thom did the right thing. Let’s focus on Radiohead stuff only. Fuck Macca. He WAS good.

  • Mr. Bellamy

    Too bad. I love Thom, I love Paul. I think it would have worked perfectly.

    Some years ago Macca collaborated with Elvis Costello – and they produced wonterful songs.

  • RadioheadFanSincePabloHoney

    Good choice Thom .
    Just because you can doesn’t mean you
    should ;-)
    Two different genre’s and the voices
    alone are a clash to begin with as are
    the mindsets…

    Radiohead are Radiohead because of the
    choices that they have made .
    They have a right to individuality as
    much as the commoner ;-)

  • nudnik headache

    i watched the interview with paul on T4 and he was talking about how he can’t play instruments well except for on his song songs and he said thom felt the same he said he didn’t want to colaberate on the song as he could only play radiohead songs, thom didnt say it was because he didnt want to do anythng outside of radiohead

    guess it is a better story for the media if he did

  • kervin

    yay! great decision! way to go thom!

  • Juliet

    Read again, people. This was NOT a Paul McCartney album; it’s an album by one of his kids. It’s a vanity project which I assume she was trying to sell by having her dad perform on it, and Thom was asked to work not on a McCartney song, but McCartney’s daughter’s song. Who know who would have actually written it; it might have been Paul, but the album would still go out under Paul’s daughter’s name. She’s fishing for credibility with having her dad (who can’t really say no) and Thom (who is free to say no) on this record.

  • http://www.myspace.com/coldbazooka Derek Hixon

    The Beatles may be bigger then Jesus, but Radiohead is bigger then the Beatles. The rest of the math is easy…

  • http://www.myspace.com/seanholio Seanholio

    Nice one Thom. Anyone of us here would’ve done the same thing. I still maintain my logic that the wrong two Beatles died.

  • Julie

    Thom’s mad.

  • suzieq

    In 66 Lennon languishes at home in a
    haze and Mccartney seeks out Stockhausen,
    Berio, William Burroughs etc, all much
    older than him and working in a different genre,
    but food and drink for a young man’s creative needs.
    McCartney is a musician first and foremost and
    with far wider horizons than Yorke (see http://www.amazon.co.uk/Paul-McCartney-Avant-garde/dp/1903111366 if you dont mind challenging your preconceptions?) and a
    major figure in British musical history. Cheesy? Yes. But a genius also.
    Yorke, of course has an image he has to
    to maintain – you can infer that
    from some of the comments here. But Bjork and PJ Harvey, over
    McCartney? No… I don’t think so.

  • dale pantz

    I bet Thom was being sincere.
    I think it is an honor to be asked by him.
    What would you do?
    Thom was prolly shittin’ bricks
    that Macca even asked.
    Too unbeleivable I would guess!
    Where would they even start?

  • Spuff

    I can’t believe that everyone is taking a ‘news’ story from The Sun seriously…

    …but all I can think of is ‘Ebony & Ivory’…God help us all!

  • Spuff

    They did already work together on the Band Aid single, Thom on piano, Macca on bass – not sure if they were in the studio at the same time though…

  • Pingback: Radiohead In Rainbows Discussion. - Music Banter

  • Baal

    If Paul asked for a ‘duet’ (which is what he says he asked for in the T4 interview) then it’s no surprise that Thom didn’t fancy it. The very notion of ‘duets’ conjures up Tony Bennett (who did one with Macca recently) and Macca’s case for one wouldn’t be helped by ‘Ebony and Ivory’ or ‘Say Say Say’ would it?

    Paul should have asked him to collaborate on something funkier like one of his ‘off-broadway’ projects such as The Fireman.

    Actually, if he’s asked the whole of Radiohead to collab on instrumental stuff that could have been ultra-cool although, let’s face it, they’re ultra-cool by themselves.

  • Les squids fritolas

    Thomas said:
    “He isnt even my favourite member of Wings.”
    LOL a lot, and me too though, I’ve got a much warmer feeling about Denny Laine (the only other member I can identify .. oh no hold on, Sir Pauls late wife, rest in peace, with all due respect).

    Trip Fontaine said:
    “paul 2007 is an obnoxious, MOR adult contemporary artist. like phil collins or something”

    I agree completely. And (though I know I don’t know what the man is really like of course) he has always come across me as a shallow, even dishonest person. And a weak, nay boring personality (though not quite as bad as sir Cliffy (God bop his baloney).

  • mg

    huh? didn’t he remake new orders ceremony? I think its just because he thinks paul is a douche and I agree. Say Say Say I’m a douche.

comments powered by Disqus

Follow us

Recent Posts

Search