Radiohead Wrote An Entire, Unused Movie Theme For James Bond's Spectre
For a wildly popular rock band like Radiohead, it would seem that rejection is a scarce sentiment the group has to face when it comes to their artistic material. After all, the band's contributions to alternative rock remain significant, with several of their albums — including the masterful "OK Computer" and the beautiful, bizarre "Kid A" — completely redefining the meaning of experimental music within the confines of the genre. Moreover, one will often stumble upon a Radiohead track being used in films to heighten ambience, key examples of which include the use of "Codex" to capture the escalating dread of "Prisoners" or the surreal use of "Everything in its Right Place" in "Vanilla Sky."
In 2015, when the band was approached to conceive a theme song for "Spectre," it was expected that their rendition of the theme would end up being used in the film. However, director Sam Mendes decided that the theme Radiohead cooked up did not jive well with what "Spectre" was all about, and went on to finalize Sam Smith's "Writing's on the Wall" in the end. Smith's theme song went on to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, along with other accolades, but it would have been interesting if "Spectre" were to use Radiohead's moody, melancholic rendition, which you can listen to here.
Nigel Godrich, who is best known for his work as a music producer for Radiohead (along with his collaborations with U2, Paul McCartney, and R.E.M), spoke to Rolling Stone about the unused theme for the "James Bond" movie, and here's what he had to say.
Too melancholy
When Mendes approached the band in 2015, they were in the midst of recording for their ninth studio album, "A Moon Shaped Pool," which is now known for hits such as "Burn the Witch" and "True Love Waits." Understandably, the process of pausing a primary project to work on a commission was rather time consuming, and the rejection didn't exactly make things any better. Godrich talked about the setbacks the "Spectre" theme commission caused for "A Moon Shaped Pool" in terms of planning and time management:
"That f***ing 'James Bond' movie threw us a massive curveball. It was a real waste of energy. We stopped doing what we were doing and had to concentrate on that for a while since we were told it was something that was going to come to fruition. I haven't seen the movie and I think they ended up with something more suitable for it, but in terms of making 'A Moon Shaped Pool', it caused a stop right when we were in the middle of it."
This does sound like a bummer, but now that the song has been released as a gift to Radiohead fans, it can be appreciated as a standalone without being confined by a set amount of expectations. The band has also snuck this track into their live setlists over the years, and fans seem to adore it. In the end, that's all that matters.