Rattlesnake

Poetry, like white in the snow Boys, one of these days He's going to poison you Boys, when he grows up He wants to be a rattlesnake Rattlesnake in the big city yeah Out, out of control boys Climbing out to the story warehouse He's just building it for his bimbo girlfriend When he found he sneaking out with his best friend Rattlesnake in the big city yeah 2x One of these days he's going to crash One of these days he's going to be dead boys Sun out, running out of luck Wait, wait by the door There something else Something napping around here I don't know and I don't care But if it comes in the front door Then I'm scared, yeah He said don't be scared man There's nothing hunting you Here I am, head onto sleep He's running around like he doesn't want to see me Rattlesnake One of these days he's going to crash One of these days he's going to be dead boys Sun out, running out of luck

The song appeared on the summer 1990 demo compilation tape:

With Phil living in Ireland temporarily this was one of the tracks that were recorded on a Portastudio 4-track over drum loops from Public Enemy and Soul To Soul. Since the band did not own a sampler, the loops were generated by Thom repeatedly recording from his walkman onto a track of the Portastudio. For 'Rattlesnake' he adjusted the EQ on his walkman as the loops were recorded, which gives the drum track its "texture".

Jonny later mentioned 'Rattlesnake' in a 1997 interview for Q magazine:

The four others remember tapes of Thom Yorke's early compositions as being 'schizophrenic'.

'One track, Rattlesnake, just had a drum loop that Thom did himself at home on a tape recorder with bad scratching over the top and kind of Prince vocals,' Jonny Greenwood remembers. 'The Chains had viola and was meant to sound like the Waterboys. What Is That You See was a feedback frenzy. After hearing it, I knew Thom was writing great songs and I knew what I wanted to do.'

Q #129, June 1997