Dissect - S11E9 - House of Cards by Radiohead

Episode Date: November 21, 2023

Our season long dissection of Radiohead's In Rainbows continues with an analysis of "House of Cards" - an immersive, reverb-soaked musing on the nature of desire and escape. We'll also cover the musical oddities in the track, including Jonny Greenwood's infamous "coin trick" on guitar and even the rumored dog barks in the background of the verses. Shop Dissect Season 11 Merch. Follow @dissectpodcast on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. Host/Writer/EP: Cole Cuchna Additional Analysis: Dr. Brad Osborn Song Recreations: Andrew Atwood Audio Editing: Kevin Pooler Theme Music: Birocratic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From Spotify and The Ringer, this is Dissect, long-form musical analysis broken into short digestible episodes. This is episode 9 of our season-long dissection of radioheads and rainbows. I'm your host, Cole Kushner. Last time I dissect, we discussed in Rainbow's seventh track, Reckoner, a song dedicated to all human beings and described by Tom as the centerpiece of the album. Over the course of the song, we experience an evolution of sorts, as the narrator, facing the idea of the Reckoner, came to accept death and celebrated the connection among all of us, in this life and perhaps hereafter.

We also observed how these sentiments marked a definitive change in tone and theme from the first half of the album, which reflected Tom's view that there are two sides of In Rainbows, a more aggressive, panicked, anxious side one, and a more accepting, calm, sentimental, and elated side two. As we continue our exploration of In Rainbows, this division will become even clearer with the album's next song, the subject of our episode today, House of Cards. House of Cards dates back to at least spring 2005, as it was during this time Tom performed an early acoustic version of the song at Trade Justice Vigil in London.

This early version underwent the typical radiohead process of trying out a number of different arrangements. When Pitchfork noted to Colin Greenwood that House of Card sounds extremely effortless, like an Al Green song, Colin responded by saying, quote, It's funny you say that because we had different versions of it. There was one where Johnny had this bass riff that made it sound. more like REM, but then Phil and Tom reworked it and came up with this amazing rhythm. This new rhythm Colin speaks of centers on the interplay between Tom's guitar and Phil's drums. Let's first listen to the drums alone.

It's very minimal, and what makes this part somewhat unique is the lack of snare drum. Typically a snare drum, which sounds like this. It's played on beats 2 and 4. Here's how the drumbeat would sound like with these snare drum hits. It's pretty clear the snare hits were omitted to maintain the song's intimacy, as it's its tone is pretty harsh and commanding. But what's cool is how the absence of the snare is made up for with Tom's guitar part, which feature percussive strikes on beats 2 and 4. This sound is created by quote-unquote muting the guitar strings so that when they're strummed, no notes are played, just the sound of

the guitar pick raking across the strings. Let's listen to the full guitar part, observing how those muted percussive rakes effectively replaced the snare drum, almost becoming a part of the drums themselves. This interplay between Tom's guitar and Phil's drums as the amazing rhythm Colin spoke of. I'd also be remiss of failing to mention Tom's beautiful guitar tone throughout the song, produced by his vintage 1964 Gibson S.G. It joins songs like Weird Fishes and Reckoner that also features similar warm, round, rich, clean guitar tones. Tones, according to Tom, the band spent a considerable amount of time really perfecting. Somewhat oddly, it's just Tom and Phil, a single guitar and minimal drums that play together during the majority of the verses.

This keeps the dynamic floor of the song very low, so that when they do want to intensify in volume, they don't have to crank things up to the max. Rather, the smallest additions will make a substantial difference, preserving the crucial intimacy of the song while still creating a piece that has dynamic range. Like we talked about on nude, this dynamic mastery is really a hallmark of radiohead's mature work, and is only made possible because of the egoless, self-sacrifice each member of the band has seemingly committed to. They are all in service of the song, of the art itself, even when that means some of them must remain absent or have a minimal presence for big stretches of the song, which is certainly the case here on House of Cards, as Colin, Ed,

and Johnny pick their spots with supreme care. Indeed, as we'll hear and point out later, these members mostly join in on the song when there's a chord change away from the primary F major ad 9 Tom plays throughout much of the verse. But that's not to say their presence isn't felt throughout the verses, as Colin and Johnny both tinker around with obscure sounds made by playing their guitar in unconventional ways. For example, you'll hear echoey percussive plucks that accent beats two and four we talked about earlier. We'll also hear a similar technique in which Johnny quickly rakes across his music guitar strings, producing another percussive effect. For me, one of the reasons House of Cards is so replayable is the fact that you can listen only to the background of the

song and almost always finds some new little obscure sound you've never caught before. Now, the first time Tom enters the song with beautiful, wordless falsetto vocals is about 20 seconds in, where he's briefly joined by Colin on bass for a few measures. As we listen, pay attention to the heavy reverb on his voice, the effect that makes it sound distant, echoey, almost cavernous. Tom sings a wordless melody in high falsetto. Interestingly, the reverb on his voice was created from a recording producer Nigel Godridge made at Totenheim. Tom House, the run-down, haunted mansion the band stayed out for a few weeks while recording the album. Colin Greenwood said, quote,

Nigel recorded the smudges and fingerprints of those rooms and put them back into the sound later, like the reverb on the House of Cards vocal. His computer is like a rattlebag. He can pick out any sound, irrespective of where he recorded it, then map it on to a track we recorded somewhere else. Amazing. Tom's opening lyric is perhaps one of the most memorable in all of Radiohead's catalog. I don't want to be your friend, I just want to be your lover.

Its brevity cuts right to the heart of attraction and desire. About this line, guitarist Ed O'Brien commented, quote, one of the things I love about Tom's lyrics on in rainbows is their timelessness. I don't want to be your friend, I just want to be your lover, could be taken from a song by Sam Cook, Stevie Wonder, or Prince. These words hit the nail on the head and something very intimate, unquote. This opening line also sets off the song's narrative, which we'll see explores either an extramarital affair, a casual sexual relationship, or even a swinger party.

When discussing the song with Rolling Stone, Tom, who was married at the time, made clear that the song was not based on its personal life. And so for that reason, we're going to interpret Tom's first person's perspective in the song as a character he's using to explore themes of passion and desire. The following couplet offers more context, no matter how it ends, no matter how it starts. This seems to imply an abandonment of the normal anxiety and fear around the possible consequences of acting spontaneously, of giving in to your primal desire. Things could be starting fast, as in they sleep with each other soon after meeting. Things could end badly, their partners could find out, their marriage could end, their feelings could get hurt, or any number of potential consequences of a sexual relationship.

But there's that voice in one's head, the one driven by primal desire, that tells you it could all be worth it, if just for a night. Tom sings the refrain, Forget about your house of cards, and I'll do mine. He then repeats it, almost as if it's now being said by the other person, each of them formally committing to the same philosophy of abandoning precaution. Drawing from the elaborate structures that can be made from stacks of playing cards, the idiom House of Cards is used to describe a plan, structure, or institution

that has an unstable or flimsy foundation and is in constant danger of collapse. Within the context of the song so far, it feels like House of Cards is being used to refer to the concert of the lives we build for ourselves. Our jobs, our relationships, our children, or any of the responsibilities were obligated to on a daily basis. We work hard to build and maintain these pillars in our lives, understanding their importance to our practical survival and our emotional well-being. But with responsibility almost always comes sacrifice, and maintaining our house of cards requires us to reject certain temptations or pleasures or experiences almost daily.

We do so because we intuitively understand the fragility of the structures we build. one wrong decision, and the entire house could crumble. At the same time, if you're not careful, such sacrifices can result in a monotonous routine where you experience very little pleasure or excitement, where you sacrifice so much to support your house of cards that you become numb or repressed or generally unhappy, a theme we heard explored in Faustarp. The idea of forgetting about your house of cards thus feels like a momentary rejection of these responsibilities in order to not only experience unadulterated passion or pleasure, but also the freedom in making this decision, as it's a reminder of your autonomy.

And of course, there's the adrenaline rush that comes with risking it all. As House of Cards continues, we get our first real sustained chord change from the verse's emphasis on F major ad 9, over which Tom sings and fall off the table get swept under. This seems to continue the imagery of the House of Cards, which I've seemingly collapsed by the decision to pursue this affair. After falling off the table, they are swept under, an allusion to the idiom swept under the rug, used to mean hiding or ignoring a problem. This continues to forget about your house of cards mentality, indulging for the moment and letting the chips fall where they may, ignoring the consequences of this decision in order to fully immerse yourself in the moment,

to extract all possible pleasure from the experience. As the song continues, there's an extended instrumental passage that showcases a lead melody played by Johnny. It's one of the more unique sounds in the song, as it's produced through a technique dubbed by Radiohead fans as his coin trick. Let's first hear it in action, then I'll tell you how it's done. All right, so instead of a guitar pick, Johnny here vigorously rubs a serrated coin, like a quarter or a British tenpence, directly on his guitar string above the fretboard where you usually place your fingers. Doing this produces the desired pitch, but with a unique, metallic, almost bowed sound. Johnny used this coin trick as far back as the bends, appearing on the introduction of High and Dry.

Johnny also employed the technique on the song Exit Music from Ok Computer. Rather than play discernible notes, Johnny glides the coin across the strings rapidly to create an abstract swirling effect. Now, midway through Johnny's coin lead, we hear House of Cards chorus, or the closest thing it has to one. While it's just one word repeated twice, the word itself will not only apply to the affair theme we've been discussing, but it'll also force us to consider a totally new interpretation of the House of Cards idiom. That's right after the break. Welcome back to dissect. Before the break, we approached House of Cards' two-word chorus. It's here the song momentarily shifts to a G minor chord, and Colin, Ed, and Johnny

join the mix with subtle additions to the song's romantic soundscape. Before addressing the lyric, we should first observe how this quote-unquote chorus is made possible by the restraint Colin, Ed, and Johnny showed throughout most of the verse, because it's here that Colin enters with a bass line. And we also hear, alongside Johnny's coin trick, Ed playing a guitar lick. These subtle additions feel substantially more impactful because of the verse's instrumental restraint, increasing the dynamics without disturbing the intimacy at the core of this romantic arrangement.

Over this, Tom sings, Denial, Denial. On the surface, this extends the sweeping under the rug and ignoring your house of cards analogies, as denial is to convince yourself of something untrue, like the house won't collapse, like the things swept under the rug won't come back to haunt you. On one hand, Tom could be encouraging this person to deny the existence of the house of cards, if only temporarily. On the other hand, Tom, as a narrator, could be exposing the truth beneath his previous statements, or at least acknowledging that living in denial is required to participate in such indulgence. Because while it's possible to live in denial temporarily, the truth or reality of what's being denied

will ultimately surface sooner or later, bringing with it a day of reckoning. Now, outside the context of the song to this point, the repeated denial-denial became extremely important to Tom in relation to his decades-long activism regarding climate change. When a journalist proposed an interpretation of weird fishes being about the deadly effects of global warming, Tom pointed to this moment of House of Cards as being the only time he was consciously aware of any political meaning in his lyrics on in rainbows. Quote, the entire time I was busy writing, I wanted to get a way to be a way to from these things. I was worried about those political themes entering my work, but it was just there,

whether I wanted it or not. To me, the most important line on this record is the word denial and House of Cards, because that's what it all comes from. Denial in every possible meaning. It was the only time I was aware of that, unquote. Tom also spoke about this line before performing the song live on Conan O'Brien. Instead of flying from the UK to perform in NBC's New York studio, they taped their performance from their own studio in London. Tom began by noting how doing this saved the equivalent of driving a car for a whole year in carbon emissions and then brought up the denial chorus. The chorus of this song is denial denial, dedicated to that who walked away from the Kyoto agreement. Now what was his name again? I wonder. It's a little hard to make out but Tom said dedicated to that

Twat that walked away from the Kyoto Agreement. He's referring to the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 international treaty that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. President Bill Clinton signed the protocol in 1998, but it was never ratified by the Senate. And then in March of 2001, President George W. Bush, the Twat Tom was alluding to, formerly announced that the U.S. had no plans to adhere to the Kyoto Protocol, citing unrealistic goals, unsound science, and potentially damaging effects to the U.S. economy. Kyoto is in many ways unrealistic. Many countries cannot meet their Kyoto targets.

The targets themselves were arbitrary and not based upon science. For America complying with those mandates would have a negative economic impact with layoffs of workers and price increases for consumers. And when you evaluate all these flaws, most reasonable people will understand that it's not sound public policy. Many saw Bush's decision as yet another example of the West prioritizing business at the expense of the environment. In other words, living in denial or denying the reality of climate change. Here's Tom seemingly making that connection in conversation with Brian Draper, quote, I focus on the most eminent ecological things. You know, there are so many scenarios

on the horizon at the moment that will result in mass suffering, and that to me is what everybody should be thinking about. That's what I spend most of my time thinking about. It wouldn't take that much for people to turn their heads and see that we have just been looking the wrong way, that our priorities are wrong. For the most part in the West, we worship a certain type of economics, which is like worshipping a false god. It's like the Incas sacrificing children to try to get immortal life. Politicians are willing to sacrifice the well-being of the people in their country in order to fit into this economic straitjacket which actually doesn't benefit anyone. It's a theory about economics which will collapse, and the sooner people realize that, the quicker they will be able to be. be able to understand how we should be engaging with the world around us. Hopefully they will

realize it before it collapses. To me, it's like spinning plates. I'm not sure how long we can keep this trick going." Tom here is essentially describing a house of cards, an unsustainable economic doctrine that will eventually collapse, that is only surviving today by denying the reality and imminent danger of climate change tomorrow. Thus we can see how Tom viewed denial-denial as a potent critique of the twots in power. Tom begins verse two singing, The infrastructure will collapse from voltage spikes. Infrastructure here continues the house motif, while collapse formally acknowledges the

eminent destruction inherit in the central house of cards metaphor. Given Tom's insight regarding one reading of denial-denial, this line seems to clearly make the climate change thread more transparent, as one of the dangers of global warming is the perfect storm of increased temperatures, more electricity consumption, and aging power infrastructure. Indeed, experts agree that the current power grid in the United States is ill-equipped to handle the effects of climate change, including the extreme weather events that come with it. In the last decade, power outages have increased 64% compared to the previous decade, and that number is only expected to go up. This seems to be what's implied in Tom's

from voltage spikes, which refers to quick surges and electrical circuits that can damage or destroy equipment and shut down power supply. Now, seeing how every other line in the song follows the relationship sexual theme, we should also consider how this line might continue that motif. And to me, it's pretty clear in this reading that Tom has created a discrete sexual innuendo, with voltage spikes referring to orgasms, and the infrastructure collapsing being the previously established house of cards, a marriage, a relationship, or whatever life they might have built that this sexual affair endangers. Directly after Tom says voltage spikes, there's an urban legend that Johnny Greenwood's dog can be heard barking in the background. This rumor was started after the band

posted a photo of Johnny's dog in the studio, wearing headphones while being held up to a microphone, which set off fans to scour the album for sound that could possibly be the dog. However, there is no dog at this moment. Rather, what we hear is Ed O'Brien quickly and aggressively running his hand across his strings and down the fretboard of his guitar a number of times. Combined with the effects applied to his guitar and feedback from Johnny's guitar, it seems the moment overall is an imaginative attempt to emulate voltage spikes, or at least the feeling of them. Tom's next line in the verses, throw your keys in the bowl, kiss your husband, good night. On one hand, this seems to portray the woman in this scenario coming home, presumably after the

affair, with the husband confirming the adultery motif we've suspected throughout. There's a routine implied here, throwing the keys in the bowl, kissing good night. She has entered her house of cards. This is what would collapse that the affair were exposed. On the other hand, this is also a reference to what are known as key parties. These are swinger parties in which married couples would gather and the husbands would put their car keys in a bowl to be selected at random by the wives, determining who they would sleep with that night. In his interview with Rolling Stone, Tom confirmed this reference, and after making clear it's not something he actually participates in, he said, quote,

that key party stuff was a big thing here in the 70s and 80s, and it always fascinated me, unquote. In this reading, the woman kissing her husband goodnight insinuates that she's now leaving the party with another person to sleep with. This arrangement adds another dimension to the song to this point, as we assume this sexual openness is consensual, agreed upon by both the husband and wife. This then renders the subsequent refrain, forget about your house of cards, and I'll do mine, a little differently this time around. Now, as it applies to the Swinger party, it would seem the husband and wife have mutually agreed to forget about the house of cards they have constructed together in order to both enjoy a sexual

experience outside of this house. After this repetition of the House of Cards refrain, the song returns to the chorus Denial Denial. Only now, a new drawn-out vocal melody is introduced, filling the space between the repeated denials. What's being said here is, The phrase sung here, your ears should be burning, is a slight variation on the common idiom, your ears must be burning, which is said to someone who is being talked about. For example, two people are talking about Sally when Sally walks into the room, and they say to her, your ears must be burning, we were just talking about you.

The phrase seems to be used self-referentially here, like Tom is saying this to the woman, saying this song is about you. Your ears should be burning because I'm singing about you right now. There's also the possibility that Tom employed this phrase specifically for the word burning and the way it's commonly used when describing passion, as in burning with desire. Semantically, burning also goes quite nicely with the previous voltage spikes and the idea of a house catching fire, a variation of the collapsing house of cards. The overlapping denials in this context feel like a plea to the woman to stop living in denial,

to submit to what she knows is true between him, to stop denying this burning desire. Lyrically, this is where the song leaves us, with Tom's character wishing or willing this attraction to consummate. In this way, we observe how Tom is once again iterating on the album-long theme of in Rainbows, wishing beyond where he is, trying to grab something just out of reach. Now as House of Cards approaches its conclusion, it continues to play the musical backdrop of the chorus, only now Tom soars into a gorgeous, wordless, high falsetto melody, similar to what he began in the beginning, bringing the song full circle. This is followed by the band returning to the central guitar part that began the song,

with Johnny extending his coin bow trick to create a wash of atmosphere. Meanwhile, the rest of the group remains locked into the track's hypnotic groove that they clearly love so much, as it doesn't change throughout the entire five-and-a-half-minute track. Conclusions. At five-and-a-half minutes, House of Cards is one of the longest songs in Radiohead's entire catalog. Yet unlike the lengthy, multi-part suite, paranoid android, with its numerous key, tempo, and meter changes or the sprawling national anthem with its climactic horns, samples, and countless instrumental

oddities. House of Cards is one of the band's simplest songs to date. Indeed, it would seem that aside from its slower tempo, the song's length can be attributed to its mood, as the band seduces us into an incredibly warm, idyllic atmosphere, almost as if we are the one Tom's character is pursuing. We are then privileged and inhabit this beautiful world for five and a half minutes, encouraged as we are to forget about our own House of Cards and lose ourselves in this momentary musical escape. Indeed, guitarist Ed O'Brien talked about House of Cards as simplicity, noting that the lyrics of the song were so moving that there was a conscious effort made to ensure they remained in the forefront. Quote, one of the big things was the lyrics. Personally speaking, the main thing I realized

on the record about music is that accessibility is really about 80% vocals, what the guy is singing about and you're moving people. And 20% the music in the background is literally the backdrop to it. These lyrics were moving me when we were working on them and when I was playing the rough demos on the way home from the studio, unquote. As we've noted so many times this season, House of Cards is yet another example of Radiohead finding the perfect arrangement for this specific individual song, and for House of Cards, that arrangement was one that allowed the lyrics to take center stage, with the music becoming a modest but meticulously crafted backdrop that faithfully enhances the themes and emotional resonance of the text. The overall effect, like Reckner before it,

is another clear example of what Tom described as the elation in the album's second half, as he explores themes of sex, seduction, sin, and desire. And while Tom told Rolling Stone, it was not based on his personal life. I'll just say that the song very much feels like a fantasy created by a middle-aged man with small children who's been with the same woman since college, which Tom was at the time of writing it. And perhaps it was a fantasy acted out in song rather than reality, a creative, momentary escape into a carefree world where we're not bound by the rigor of responsibility and commitments, where we're untethered from the daily sacrifices and exhausting demands required to preserve our house of cards. Because that does sound kind of nice

once in a while, doesn't it? As In Rainbow's continues, so too to the themes of sexual seduction and desire in the album's next track, Jigsaw falling into place, a song about a drunken night out at the bar. A song will examine note by note, line by line, next time on Dysect. Today's episode of Dysect was written and produced by me, Cole Kushna. Additional analysis by Dr. Brad Osborne. Song Recreations by Andrew Atwood. Audio editing by Kevin Pooler. Theme music by Birocratic.

All right. Thanks, everyone. Talk to you next week.