Sam Smith Doesn’t Know Who Thom Yorke Is, Hasn’t Heard Radiohead’s “Spectre”
Sam Smith’s Bond theme “Writing’s On The Wall” won a Golden Globe on Sunday, but all the real heads know Radiohead’s rejected “Spectre” is the more masterful of the two tracks. Why, just last week I was emoting all over my keyboard about it. Let’s all just listen to it again.
If I was Sam Smith, purveyor of a decent but unremarkable Bond theme, I might be a little bit threatened by such competition. I might be afraid to listen to Radiohead’s song. I might just go on pretending that Radiohead’s song doesn’t exist. I might even pretend Radiohead didn’t exist, convincing myself that the members of Radiohead were never even born while nervously humming the melody from “Latch” to myself.
And it seems that’s exactly what the mom-beloved divo opted to do! In newly shared footage from a Golden Globes press conference, Smith responds to a question about whether he was surprised Thom Yorke released his own Spectre theme on Christmas by asking, confusedly, “Thom Yorke?” After “Writing’s On The Wall” co-writer Jimmy Napes clarifies the matter, Smith replies, “Yeah, I was a little bit surprised. Not going to lie, a little bit surprised, but I haven’t listened to it personally because I did the Spectre theme song.” You can watch the victor gloat about his spoils below.
Has Sam Smith listened to Radiohead’s #Spectre theme song…
Has SAM SMITH listened to Radiohead’s “Spectre” theme song? #GoldenGlobes
Posted by Variety on Monday, January 11, 2016
There are plenty of people who’ll make the case that Radiohead poisoned the UK music scene, but given that Smith doesn’t appear to know who Yorke is and fellow English milquetoast merchant Ed Sheeran has never even listened to Radiohead, it seems like there’s a stronger case that a lack of Radiohead awareness is poisoning the UK music scene. Get these two sad boys copies of OK Computer and maybe next album cycle they’ll find a more artful outlet for their angst.