Radiohead’s all-time classic album OK Computer came out in 1997; for those of you doing the math at home, that’s 20 years ago now. To celebrate, the band is releasing a 20th anniversary edition of the album, called OKNOTOK, and it includes a remastered version of the album along with eight B-sides and three previously unreleased tracks: “Lift,” “I Promise,” and “Man Of War.”
We’ve already heard “I Promise,” which was recorded during the OK Computer sessions, and we’ll likely have to wait until Friday to hear “Lift,” when OKNOTOK will be released. The good news is that we can hear “Man Of War” now, via a music video that the band shared today (via NME).
The clip is a slice-of-life video of a guy who is seemingly being followed, which he realizes and which causes him to descend increasingly into paranoia. In its early days, the song was originally called “Big Boots” and was written around the time that The Bends was being recorded, so presumably between 1994 and its release in 1995.
Before OKNOTOK, “Man Of War” wasn’t exactly a mystery to dedicated Radiohead fans: It has been performed live before, and there are recordings of those performances (like the one below), but this marks its first official release. Finally hearing a studio version, it’s clear that the song fits right into the OK Computer era, so this is a real treat for fans of the album, a group made up of just about everybody who’s ever heard it, we assume.
Listen to “Man Of War” above and an early life performance of it below, and let us know in the comments if this is your favorite new track from OKNOTOK or if one of the other two takes the cake.
Featured image: Murray Chalmers PR
