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Harrowdown Hill

"Harrowdown Hill"
Single by Thom Yorke
from the album The Eraser
B-side
  • "Jetstream",
  • "The Drunkk Machine"
Released21 August 2006
GenreAlternative rock, electronic
Length4:38
LabelXL
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 first solo album, The Eraser. Yorke wrote it about David Kelly, a British weapons expert who killed himself in 2003 after telling 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.

Writing

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"Harrowdown Hill" was released on Yorke's first solo album, The Eraser (2006), which he recorded while his band Radiohead were on hiatus.[1] Yorke said it existed during the sessions for Radiohead's sixth album, Hail to the Thief (2003), but could not have worked as a Radiohead song.[2]

According to The Globe and Mail, "Harrowdown Hill" resembles a love song with a sense of "menace" and "grim political showdown".[3] The lyrics are about David Kelly, a British weapons expert who 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] The 1990 poll tax riots were also an inspiration.[4] Yorke felt "Harrowdown Hill" was a "poetic" name that sounded like the site of a historic battle.[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".[3] 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."[3] Yorke said "Harrowdown Hill" was the angriest song he had written.[5]

Music video

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The "Harrowdown Hill" music video was directed by Chel White. It features stop-motion eagle animation by David Russo, time-lapse footage by Mark Eiffert and an early use of tilt–shift photography. It was released on 31 July 2006 and was first played on Channel 4.[6][7][8] The video won the jury award for best music video at the 2006 South by Southwest festival.[9]

Release

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"Harrowdown Hill" was released as a single on 21 August 2006, and reached number 23 in the UK singles chart.[10] In 2008, to celebrate the election of US President Barack Obama, Yorke released a remixed version of "Harrowdown Hill" as a free download.[11] The Los Angeles Times critic Ann Powers wrote that "'Harrowdown Hill' makes its point through startling sounds and shards of emotionally charged speech; it's as political as a private, even secret, moment can be. Its startling beauty is typical of The Eraser."[4]

Track listings

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  • Promo CD
  1. "Harrowdown Hill" (Early Fade)
  2. "Harrowdown Hill" (Full Length)
  • 7" XLS238, limited to 5,000 copies
  1. "Harrowdown Hill" - 4:38
  2. "Jetstream" - 3:44
  • CD XLS238CD, limited to 10,000 copies
  1. "Harrowdown Hill" - 4:38
  2. "The Drunkk Machine" - 4:07
  3. "Harrowdown Hill" (extended mix) - 7:01
  • 12" XLT238, limited to 3,000 copies
  1. "Harrowdown Hill" (extended mix) - 7:01
  2. "The Drunkk Machine" - 4:07
  • 12" XLT238US
  1. "Harrowdown Hill" (extended mix) - 7:01
  2. "The Drunkk Machine" - 4:07
  3. "Jetstream" - 3:44

References

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  1. ^ Fricke, David (1 June 2006). "Radiohead's Thom Yorke on going solo". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 16 July 2006.
  2. ^ "Thom Yorke: 'Why I made a solo album'". NME. 2 July 2006. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  3. ^ a b c Evert-Green, Robert (14 June 2006). "Radiohead retooled". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  4. ^ a b c d 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 6 August 2006.
  7. ^ "'Itty,' 'Billy' win SXSW jury awards". The Hollywood Reporter. 14 March 2007.
  8. ^ Vankin, Deborah (4 July 2012). "Tilt shift's shrinking technique is a growing effect". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
  9. ^ "SXSW Film Awards Archive". SXSW. Retrieved 15 September 2024.
  10. ^ "Harrowdown Hill | Full Official Chart History". UK Singles Chart. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  11. ^ Kreps, Daniel (6 November 2008). "Thom Yorke Celebrates Obama Victory With Free Track". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
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