Man of War

Album: OK COMPUTER OKNOTOK 1997 2017 (2017)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song was originally titled "Big Boots" and was written around the time of The Bends. It was first performed by Radiohead on October 2, 1995 at New York's Mercury Lounge. After being played 16 times in 1995 the track was discarded from the band's setlist, until 2002, when it was performed during a concert in Salamanca, Spain.
  • The song was recorded in March 1998, in Abbey Road Studios, for the soundtrack of The Avengers, but was later scrapped. The tune did feature in the 1998 tour documentary Meeting People is Easy but was never officially released until 2017 when it was one of three unreleased tracks on OKNOTOK, the 20th anniversary reissue of OK Computer.
  • The song starts off by comparing somebody to a slow-sailing Man-O-War jellyfish

    Drift all you like from ocean to ocean
    Search the whole world


    However as the tune develops we hear the typically cynical and wary lyrical content found on Radiohead's late 1990s material.

    So unplug the phones, stop all the taps
    It all comes flooding back
    To poison clouds and poisoned dwarves
  • The music video was filmed in Brooklyn, New York and helmed by skate video director Colin Read. It features a disheveled man increasingly descending into paranoia as he is followed by unknown forces.

Comments: 1

  • Shrek from Shrek's SwampDonkey! Get outta mah swamp!
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Gilby Clarke

Gilby ClarkeSongwriter Interviews

The Guns N' Roses rhythm guitarist in the early '90s, Gilby talks about the band's implosion and the side projects it spawned.

Ron and Russell Mael of Sparks

Ron and Russell Mael of SparksSongwriter Interviews

The men of Sparks on their album Hippopotamus, and how Morrissey handled it when they suggested he lighten up.

Sam Hollander

Sam HollanderSongwriter Interviews

The hitmaking songwriter/producer Sam Hollander with stories about songs for Weezer, Panic! At The Disco, Train, Pentatonix, and Fitz And The Tantrums.

Dave Edmunds

Dave EdmundsSongwriter Interviews

A renowned guitarist and rock revivalist, Dave took "I Hear You Knocking" to the top of the UK charts and was the first to record Elvis Costello's "Girls Talk."

Church Lyrics

Church LyricsMusic Quiz

Here is the church, here is the steeple - see if you can identify these lyrics that reference church.

Martin Page

Martin PageSongwriter Interviews

With Bernie Taupin, Martin co-wrote the #1 hits "We Built This City" and "These Dreams." After writing the Pretty Woman song for Go West, he had his own hit with "In the House of Stone and Light."