"Karma Police"
Single by Radiohead from the album OK Computer
Released	25 August 1997
Format	CD, 7", 12"
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	4:21
Label	Parlophone
Producer	Nigel Godrich
Radiohead singles chronology
"Paranoid Android" (1997) "Karma Police" (1997) "No Surprises" (1998)
OK Computer track listing
"Airbag" "Paranoid Android" "Subterranean Homesick Alien" "Exit Music (For a Film)" "Let Down" "Karma Police" "fitter happier" "Electioneering" "Climbing Up the Walls" "No Surprises" "Lucky" "The Tourist"

"Karma Police" is the second single from Radiohead's acclaimed 1997 album OK Computer, and is perhaps Radiohead's best known hit worldwide, apart from "Creep." Image File history File links This image is the cover of an album or single. ... A collection of various CD singles In music, a single is a short recording of one or more separate tracks. ... Radiohead are an English rock band. ... OK Computer is the third album by the English rock band Radiohead, released in 1997. ... is the 237th day of the year (238th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the band, see 1997 (band). ... CD redirects here. ... A 12-inch record (left), a 7-inch record (right), and a CD (above) Two 7 singles (left), two colored 7 singles (middle), and two 7 singles with large spindle holes (right). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Alternative music redirects here. ... In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. ... Parlophone is a record label, founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company. ... In the music industry, a record producer (or music producer) has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, organizing and scheduling production budget and resources, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering processes. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Radiohead are an English rock band. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... OK Computer track listing Airbag Paranoid Android Subterranean Homesick Alien Exit Music (For a Film) Let Down Karma Police fitter happier Electioneering Climbing Up the Walls No Surprises Lucky The Tourist No Surprises is the third single from Radioheads 1997 album OK Computer. ... OK Computer is the third album by the English rock band Radiohead, released in 1997. ... Airbag is the opening track of Radioheads popular 1997 album OK Computer. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Exit Music (For a Film) is a song by Radiohead, written specifically for the ending credits of the 1996 film Romeo + Juliet. ... For the let-down reflex, see Breastfeeding. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Electioneering is a song by Radiohead, from the bands 1997 album OK Computer. ... Climbing Up the Walls is a song from the 1997 Radiohead album OK Computer. ... OK Computer track listing Airbag Paranoid Android Subterranean Homesick Alien Exit Music (For a Film) Let Down Karma Police fitter happier Electioneering Climbing Up the Walls No Surprises Lucky The Tourist No Surprises is the third single from Radioheads 1997 album OK Computer. ... Lucky was a promotional single for Radiohead. ... OK Computer is the third album by British rock band Radiohead. ... Radiohead are an English rock band. ... For the band, see 1997 (band). ... OK Computer is the third album by the English rock band Radiohead, released in 1997. ... Creep is the first single (not counting the Drill EP) released by the English rock band Radiohead, and a track on their 1993 debut album Pablo Honey. ...

While few songs from 1995's The Bends became hits outside the UK, and the six-and-a-half-minute "Paranoid Android" (first single from OK Computer) received MTV promotion but was hardly played on radio, "Karma Police" became an alternative radio anthem. In the UK, however, the single peaked at #8, hardly the band's best showing. OK Computer's popularity was largely not seen to be single-driven. The song also appears on the inaugural Now That's What I Call Music compilation in the United States, which is highly unusual since the song did not manage to break the Top 40 in the country (It was, however a successful song on US Modern Rock radio, hitting #14 on the chart) . This article is about the album by Radiohead. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Now Thats What I Call Music! or Now 1 was released in 1998. ... Modern Rock Tracks is a music chart that has appeared in Billboard magazine since September 10, 1988. ...

Similarities have often been noted between the piano riff of "Karma Police" and The Beatles' "Sexy Sadie". The band has apparently acknowledged the similarity,^{[citation needed]} though the rest of each song is quite different. While recording OK Computer, they listened to late Beatles albums, among other music (such as Miles Davis, DJ Shadow and Ennio Morricone), for inspiration. The White Album, see The Beatles (album). ... Sexy Sadie is the name of a song by The Beatles, written by John Lennon (and Paul McCartney) in India. ... Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991) was an American jazz musician, widely considered to be one of the most influential of the 20th century. ... DJ Shadow (born Josh Davis on January 1, 1973) is an American DJ, turntablist, music producer and songwriter. ... Ennio Morricone (born November 10, 1928; sometimes also credited as Dan Savio or Leo Nichols) is an Italian composer especially noted for his film scores. ...

The sound at the end of the song was created by Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien by "feeding sound through a digital delay machine".^[1] This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

"Karma Police", like several other songs that would make up OK Computer, was debuted live in 1996, when the band briefly supported Alanis Morissette on an American tour. A live version of "Karma Police", performed with a Rhodes piano on The Late Show with David Letterman, is captured in the Radiohead documentary Meeting People Is Easy. Today the song is usually an audience singalong when performed at live concerts, often as an encore. As of 2006, it continues to be played by the band somewhat regularly, though not at each show. Alanis redirects here. ... A Rhodes piano A Rhodes piano is an electromechanical musical instrument, a brand of electric piano. ... Late Show with David Letterman is an hour-long weeknight comedy and talk show broadcast by CBS from the Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway in New York City. ... cover of original VHS release Meeting People Is Easy (1998) is a rockumentary by Grant Gee following British alternative rock band Radiohead on their exhaustive world tour following the success of their 1997 album OK Computer. ... The encore is an additional extra performance of a musical piece at the end of the regular concert, which is not listed in the event setlist. ...

Meaning

Radiohead members used to tell one another that they would call "the karma police" on them if they did something wrong. The joke was incorporated as the title of the song.^[2] For other uses, see Karma (disambiguation). ...

Thom Yorke explained the idea of the lyrics to The Independent newspaper in 2006. "It's for someone who has to work for a large company. This is a song against bosses. Fuck the middle management!" He also said it was about those who are judgmental.^[1] Middle management is a layer of management in an organization whose primary job responsibility is to monitor activities of subordinates and to generate reports for upper management. ...

Music video

Thom Yorke in the "Karma Police" video

The music video for the song was directed by Jonathan Glazer, previously responsible for Radiohead's "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" clip. The video premiered in August 1997 and featured Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke as well as Hungarian actor Lajos Kovács. Image File history File links This image is the cover of an album or single. ... Image File history File links This image is the cover of an album or single. ... Thomas Edward Yorke (born October 7, 1968 in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England) is an English musician, best known as the lead singer of the band Radiohead. ... Jonathan Glazer Jonathan Glazer (born 1966 in London) is an English director of films, commercials and music videos. ... Street Spirit (Fade Out) (commonly called Street Spirit) is a single by Radiohead, released in 1996, from their 1995 album The Bends. ... Lajos Nems Kovács (27 April 1894 - ?), was a Hungarian footballer and manager from Budapest. ...

Glazer won MTV's Director of the Year award in 1997 for his work on this, as well as Jamiroquai's "Virtual Insanity". Glazer however revealed in an interview that he considers this video to be a failed attempt "I regard 'Karma Police' as a complete failure, because I decided to do a very minimalist, subjective use of camera, and tried to do something hypnotic and dramatic from one perspective, and it was very hard to achieve and I feel that I didn't achieve it". This article is about the original U.S. music television channel. ... Jamiroquai (A portmanteau of Jam and iroquai, loosely based on the native American Indian tribe the Iroquois) is a Grammy Award-winning English funk / soul / disco band. ... Virtual Insanity is a single by the band Jamiroquai, and can be found on their 1996 album Travelling without Moving. ...

Plot

The video presents a short story during night. For more than half of it, the camera shows the view from the driver's seat of a car. Someone that we never see, enters the car and starts driving down a road, only illuminated by the car's headlights. All of a sudden, in the distance, a man appears further down the road having been running away from where the car was stopped in the beginning. The camera turns around and shows the backseat of the car, where Yorke is sitting and singing along. The camera returns to its previous position, where we see the car has closed in on the running man. He is desperately trying to get away, looking back a few times. Another rotation of the camera later, the take is interrupted and we see a close-up shot of the man's head as he continues running. He is exhausted, and starts to slow down until he stops and falls to his knees. The car stops as well and the man stands and faces it. We see the car from the man's point of view, but neither the driver nor Yorke are visible due to the strong headlights. The car goes back in reverse a few metres. The man then notices that the car is leaking petrol and has left a trail of it on the road. The man then reaches in his back pocket and takes out a matchbook whose cover features a fetus with an umbilical cord. Holding the matchbook behind his back, he tries to light a match. From the drivers point of view, we see that he succeeds and throws the match to the petrol trail. The driver begins to pull back, but the fire catches up and the bonnet of the car flames up. The camera rotates frantically and shows that the back seat is empty. Perspective when used in the context of vision and visual perception refers to the way in which objects appear to the eye based on their spatial attributes or dimension and the position of the eye relative to the objects. ... Matchbook (open) A matchbook is a small cardboard container that holds a quantity of matches inside and has a coarse striking surface on the exterior. ...

Alternate lyrics

In most live shows/bootlegs you will hear Thom Yorke sing alternative lines.

Early version

Karma police, arrest this girl, she stares at me, as if she owns the world

And I crashed her party

CD version

Karma police, arrest this girl, her Hitler hairdo, is making me feel ill

And we have crashed her party

Early version

This is what you'll get, this is what you'll get

This is what you'll get, when you mess with ME

CD version

This is what you get, this is what you get

This is what you get, when you mess with us

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945, standard German pronunciation in the IPA) was the Führer (leader) of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party) and of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. ...

Track listing

• CD1 CDNODATAS03

1. "Karma Police"
2. "Meeting in the Aisle"
3. "Lull"

• CD2 CDNODATA03

1. "Karma Police"
2. "Climbing Up the Walls (Zero 7 Mix)"
3. "Climbing Up the Walls (Fila Brazillia Mix)"

Zero 7 is a Grammy nominated downtempo styled musical duo comprising Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker from the United Kingdom. ... Fila Brazillia are a music group from Hull in North-East England. ...

Covers

The song was covered in 2003 by Christopher O'Riley on his first Radiohead tribute album True Love Waits: Christopher O'Riley Plays Radiohead. The song has also been covered by Panic! at the Disco, The Arrogant Sons of Bitches, The Dresden Dolls, moe, Tori Amos, and John Vanderslice. Jazz trio The Bad Plus contributed their cover of the song to the tribute album Exit Music: Songs with Radio Heads. Fifth-season Canadian Idol winner Brian Melo covered the song during the top 5 round of the competition, earning a standing ovation from the celebrity judges, the audience and guest mentor Kelly Clarkson. Christopher ORiley is an American classical pianist and public radio show host, who is also known for his piano arrangements of songs by alternative pop artists. ... True Love Waits: Christopher ORiley Plays Radiohead is the first tribute album by classical pianist Christopher ORiley of rock songs by the band Radiohead. ... Panic! at the Disco is an alternative rock band from Las Vegas, Nevada. ... The Arrogant Sons of Bitches (ASOB for short) are a 6 piece ska punk band originally from Long Island, New York and currently located in Baldwin, Nassau County, New York. ... The Dresden Dolls are an American musical duo from Boston, Massachusetts. ... Moe, MOE, MoE or Moé may refer to: // A shortened form of the name Mohammad Moe, Victoria (pronounced Mo-ee), a town in Victoria, Australia Kool Moe Dee, American old-school rapper prominent in the late 1980s and early 1990s Moe Howard, one of the Three Stooges Moe Jaffe, songwriter... Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos on August 22, 1963) is an American pianist and singer-songwriter. ... John Vanderslice (born in Gainesville, Florida in 1967) is an American musician, formerly of mk Ultra but now performing with his own band. ... The Bad Plus are a jazz trio, consisting of pianist Ethan Iverson, bassist Reid Anderson, and drummer Dave King. ... Canadian Idol is a reality television show on the Canadian television network CTV, based on the popular British show Pop Idol and its American counterpart American Idol. ... Brian Melo (born 15 August 1982) is a Canadian recording artist and winner of the fifth season of Canadian Idol in 2007. ... Kelly Brianne Clarkson (born April 24, 1982) is an American pop rock singer. ...

References

External links

• "Karma Police" music video on IFILM