Main Index Pablo Honey The Bends OK Computer Kid A Amnesiac Hail to the Thief The Eraser In Rainbows The King of Limbs Amok Tomorrow's Modern Boxes A Moon Shaped Pool Anima Thom Yorke Jonny Greenwood Ed O'Brien Colin Greenwood Philip Selway
After Radiohead had closed the chapter on In Rainbows in august 2009, Thom finally put together a proper tour based on his first solo album The Eraser, released three years earlier. He would seize the opportunity offered by this project to finish writing a new song, 'Judge, Jury & Executioner', elements of which had been around for a while. Having recruited Nigel Godrich, Flea, Mauro Refosco and Joey Waronker, Thom and his newly formed band rehearsed in Los Angeles throughout september 2009, focussing mainly on arranging and performing the songs from The Eraser, the recently released Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses/The Hollow Earth single and 'Paperbag Writer', a Hail to the Thief b-side Radiohead had never played live, and which interestingly bears strong thematic connections to 'Judge, Jury & Executioner', which emerged as the only new song from these rehearsals. While it is clear that at least some rough ideas or key elements of the song already existed and were expanded upon by the band, it is not known how developed those ideas were when Thom brought them into these rehearsals.
The title phrase had been used before, as the subtitle or alternate title of 'Myxomatosis', and it's possible to see some thematic connection between both songs. In hindsight, though, Thom admitted to having forgotten that he had used that phrase already when this new song was put together, so any connection between both songs is not intentional.
TY: It's funny, because when I write lyrics and am using them in the rehearsal, people are like, "Well, I like that line, and I like that line, and blah blah blah" and usually, it's the lines I'm on the verge of throwing out. [Radiohead multi-instrumentalist] Jonny Greenwood is the best for that. I was writing this song the other day, and there's a line about voices down echo chambers, and I was literally about to delete it when Jonny goes, "That's the line I like!" It's the same thing on "Bodysnatchers," there's the line, "Has the light gone out for you? Because the light's gone for me." I was a bit unsure about it. When people respond positively to it, that's what stays in.
Another phrase from the lyrics, "a horned reptile that has crawled upon the earth", had appared as the title to a post on Dead Air Space on january 29th 2009:
Judge, Jury and Executioner
On October 2nd 2009, the song had its live debut at the Echoplex in Los Angeles at the first gig of Thom's then unnamed band, consisting of himself, Flea, Nigel Godrich, Joey Waronker and Mauro Refosco:
Another set of shows followed in April 2010, and the tour ended with a solitary gig in august 2010 in Japan. Each night, the main set would consist of the The Eraser played in its entirety, followed by a Thom solo acoustic section, after which the band would play another constant group of songs, which also included 'Judge, Jury & Executioner':
European Fish Fry:
14. september 17th 2011 European Fish Fry Crackington Haven UK Link