Radiohead’s "Harry Patch"

(Harry Patch at the 90th anniversary of Armistice Day in London in 2008. Photograph: Alessia Pierdomenico/PA)

I first saw that Radiohead had a new song in a Wall Street Journal article by Jim Fusilli. “Harry Patch (In Memory Of)” (5:33) is a tribute to the last British veteran of World War I who died on July 25 at age 111. I am now on my tenth (and counting) listen. Not rock but slow with big strings — elegiac.

Harry Patch (In Memory Of) lyrics:
I am the only one that got through
The others died where ever they fell
It was an ambush
They came up from all sides
Give your leaders each a gun and then let them fight it out themselves
I've seen devils coming up from the ground
I've seen hell upon this earth
The next will be chemical but they will never learn

I am always interested in what inspires. Thom Yorke used some of Patch’s own words from a 2005 BBC interview (9:57), so I went there, and quickly understood. Even though Harry Patch is only one of the veterans interviewed, his whispery voice is scratchy, lyrical, and incredibly haunting. (Perhaps even more so after the hassle of making RealPlayer work, what with the “invalid socket errors,” two upgrades, and multiple restarts.) Picture Clint Eastwood in thirty years being asked if the First World War was worth it. “No, they never learn. They had two world wars. The Third World War will be chemical. I don’t want to say it.” (4:06)