What Is That You See?

blood on the corner, pictures in chalk making some noise with a big red ? ? over the sky spinning around as you gaze at the sun what is that you see why don’t you talk to me what is that you see black and blue fingers 'round my neck I see the grass is still where me made our beds I see the billy boy right at its edge I see your holy Jesus and the ? I see the ghost of you and me ? what is that you see why don’t you talk to me what is that you see black and blue fingers 'round my neck there’s something out there but I don’t know what the hell it is there’s something out there as you gaze at the sun

The song first appeared on the summer 1990 demo compilation tape:

This is the only recording from that demo compilation where Phil plays drums. While he was in Ireland the band had recorded with Nigel Powell instead. When Phil returned the band recorded another demo track at Nuneham Courtenay Village Hall, 'What Is That You See?', significant because it was the first time Jonny moved from keyboards to guitar. The song was the only one from this period that remained in the set up until just prior to the deal with Parlophone.

A reworked version was recorded in april 1991 at Dungeon Studios:

The only available live recording of the song comes from 1991, being the oldest live recording of the band circulating in public. The otherwise unknown gig took place perhaps late in the year around the time First Tapes was recorded.

			Date (contains Link)	Venue	City	Country	Notes
		01.	1991	[unknown venue]	[unknown city]	England

Jonny later mentioned 'What Is That You See' 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