Main Index Pablo Honey The Bends OK Computer Kid A Amnesiac Hail to the Thief In Rainbows The King of Limbs A Moon Shaped Pool Thom Yorke Jonny Greenwood Ed O'Brien Colin Greenwood Philip Selway
This drawing by Thom, which depicts the "corridor", "stalactites and stalagmites" and "rows of never opened doors" was used in the booklet of Kid A, where it was printed on transparent paper, and also appeared in the 'scrapbook' section of Dead Air Space from circa 2005 onwards. The page also has scribbled lyrics that would later be used in "Sail to the Moon".

This text from a Kid A era page of radiohead.com, titled 'spectator sport', might be one of the sources for the lyrics. At any rate, it gives more insight into the "cows to the thunderbolt" line:

dream 172.

 there is a certain time of year
when all the cows on the farm
go to slaughter.


jersey cows
trample you under foot.
you have to let them know
that
gods
voice is on your side
howl
and make them realise.


you aint havin none of it.
otherwise theyll trample you under foot as they stampede as they run screaming wailing with sad panic in their eyes as the farmer hangman comes for them to lead them to the electric exterminating thunderbolt.

 



Two lines similar to the lyrics above appeared in the 'scrapbook' section of radiohead.com in 2004:


This page dated to 1999 has some lyrics for the track:
This page appeared in radiohead.com during the Kid A period under the title 'K I N G R A T'. These lyrics indicated that the song was around during the Kid A sessions already, and indeed Ed confirmed in an interview from july 2008 for this website that he and Thom had done some work on the song back then. According to the source code the original html file of this page was created on january 4th 2000:

.WAF







all i know this doesn't feel right

  • all i know a tissue of lies

all i know is what i fantessized

going in a circle

your the one who makes me empty

like anerve gas slowly escaping

like apoison killing sofftlly

like a victim left in agony

all i know is ive madea mistake

tell that to my face

  •  
tell that to my face

all i know is there is no E scape

  •  
the face at the edge of the frame

 

 

you r the fly waitin in my OinTMENT

 

 

just when i had lost all feeling

just when i had glued back all the pieces

 

your the cream in my airport coffeee

your the power wiping out my batteries

and i know im not together

and i know i might stay like this forever

 

 

 

 

 

today i have run out of excuses.

 

 

i am a
A page of lyrics for the song can be found in the Kid A Mnesia Exhibition's files. Faint text in the background suggests the track may have had a working title of "Piano Evangelists". A transcription appears below.

if you try to strangle the skylark if you try to cut it up see how it works
you will stop its heart from beating you will stop its mouth from singing
and if you go leave him now he's lost
he's lost
today he has run of excuses
today he's replaced all of his fuses
     burnt up all of his ????
said hello to all lost his guardian angels
staring him in the face like guardian angels
when he's up he's up
when he's down he's down
when he's halfway up
he's neither up nor down
he's neither up nor down

come and look and take a few
??????????? ???
????? ???? ????????
???????

come inside his brain
take a ??????????? his heart
come inside his wasteland
come and pull him apart.
all he knows he's not together
all he knows he might stay like this forever
but if you go now he's lost
he's lost.

you're the lights wiping out my batteries
you're the cream in his my airport coffee
i don't know why i stick with you
if i had a choice
when i'm up i'm up
when i'm down i'm down
when i'm halfway up
i'm neither up nor down
i'm neither up nor down
piano evangelists

if you try
to strangle a
skylark
if you try to
cut it up
to see how it works
you will stop
its hart from beating
you will stop its
moout from singing
and anyway you turn
you loose.

??? it dont
???
???
?????????
on a
screen
  anywayyou turn
youloose

and i know
???? no ??????
no ???????
and no ??????
and when the sweeper
sweeps up
im lost.

your the cream
in my airport coffes
your the power wiping
out my batteries
and i know im not
together
i am scared i might stay like this forever
and if you go too
im lost.

today i just ran out of excuses
an amnesiac falling down a hill

your on your own
your lease is up.
This image is taken from the Dead Children Playing book that accompanied the exhibition that Stanley held at Iguapop Gallery in Barcelona in 2006. It had been used before for the Amnesiac artwork. In the lower left half you can read the lines "i don't why i stick with you/if i had a voice" (click image for full size):

The song had its live debut during Radiohead's fourth webcast on december 18th 2002. Thom played it on a Fender Rhodes on his own. Whether 'I Froze Up' was seriously attempted during sessions for Hail To the Thief is unknown:
For more than 7 years nothing was known about the song until Thom performed it again on February 25th 2010 at his solo gig for the benefit of the Green Party at the Corn Exchange in Cambridge. The lyrics here suggest that the "skylark" and "corridor" verses had been contracted to one verse in the webcast version from 2002 because Thom forgot some lines then:
2. february 25th 2010 Corn Exchange Cambridge UK Link
As part of the initial touring for the "Atoms For Peace" project, the song was played once during Thom's solo section: