Washing Up B-Sides (Jackpot January #27)

Thom sat at the piano and sang a song while his girlfriend, Rachel, did the washing-up. This is the story of ‘How I Made My Millions.’

That’s the title of the final song on the extended version of OK Computer. It’s the last of the B sides. In the background of the song, if you listen closely, you can hear strange clicks and soft thumps. The band have said that lead singer Thom Yorke recorded the song on his piano at home while Rachel Owen, his girlfriend, did the dishes. It was only meant to be a demo version; he would take it to the rest of the band and they’d work on it from there. However, his bandmates were so blown away by the recording that they decided to release it unaltered.

It is a truly charming story for a sweet sad song. The acoustics are messy and the vocals are muffled due to the recording setup. It sounds homemade, not studio-produced, which is the source of the song’s power.

Thom sings about being ‘stronger’ and ‘better’ how he ‘picked you out’ and begs, ‘Don’t say a word.’ There’s a remarkable vulnerability that contrasts with the title. ‘How I Made My Millions’ is, at first blush, tongue-in-cheek. It places the song in an ironic context: ‘I got rich off of dreary shit like this.’ On the surface level, it’s mocking.

But the song is too deep for that. The band (and Thom in particular) struggled a great deal with their sudden rise to fame. They felt alienated and suffered from a sense that authentic connection was breaking down. This is why the documentary about them losing their minds on the OK Computer tour is sarcastically called ‘Meeting People is Easy.’

Given this context, the lyrics really evoke this yearning for connection. It’s about homesickness. Home, a place to be comfortable, is the opposite of fame. Publicity uproots you, and the title adds an extra sense of defeat. The fear is ‘No matter how much I show my true feelings, it keeps making me money, which only pushes me further away from people.’

Love feels just out of reach. And behind Thom is his girlfriend, doing the washing-up.

There’s another B-side from the previous album called ‘You Never Wash Up After Yourself.’ The song begins with the couplet, ‘I must get out once in a while,/ Everything is starting to die.’ The longed-for home in ‘Millions’ is a prison in ‘Wash Up.’

So, home isn’t necessarily comfortable. Thom transitions from this allusion to death to the image of himself getting fat. ‘Yesterday’s meal is hugging the plate,/ You never wash up after yourself.’ That last line is interesting because it’s the only one where a ‘you’ is mentioned. Up until this point, the singer has been the only character.

The dying of ‘everything’ is complemented by this image of stains and rot on the plate. It all feels very post-coital. Energy is running out, a big feast is drying on the crockery. So when this ethereal ‘you’ appears, we imagine this ‘you’ has just snuck out of the house. It’s a song about a hookup, a one-night stand, a dispassionate fuck.

But how do the lyrics suggest disconnection? By complaining that the washing-up hasn’t been done. Innuendo aside, this non-sequitur is apparently so important that it is both the song’s final line and its title. This pre-eminence positions washing-up as an ultimate act of love, as an intimate and affectionate act of service. That’s why its absence stings.

It’s also why, in spite of everything, ‘Millions’ ultimately feels hopeful. It’s such a sad song, so full of loss, but in the background is the homely sound of kitchen cleaning. Misery and disconnection are the crushing results of fame, and it seems they’ve marked Thom… but he still has Rachel there to take care of him, and he can take care of her. He picked her out, after all.

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Thom Yorke and Rachel Owen were together for 23 years and married in 2003. In August 2015, they separated and the following year, Rachel Owen died of cancer. A few months prior, Radiohead had released their most recent album A Moon Shaped Pool.

AMSP is, among other things, a breakup album. Most of its songs reflect on love, loss, and the act of reconciling with someone after the romantic stage of your relationship is over. This becomes apparent from the second song in the album ‘Daydreaming.’

In the ‘Daydreaming’ music video, Thom walks through a series of doors with a mostly vacant expression. It’s the perfect representation of what it feels like to daydream: body present, mind absent, vaguely seeking something. But it also expresses the transience of the song, the sense of slipping through the years of your life that you shared with someone else. So many of the scenes are domestic, as if Thom is walking through a whole relationship at once.

Comedy YouTuber Brian David Gilbert parodies the music video in his short sketch, ‘Thom Yorke was raised in a barn.’ In the video, BDG plays a beleaguered mum chastising Thom for leaving the door open then walking away. It’s funny because it contrasts with the serious tone of the song, of course, but also the kitchen is so warm and well-lit, BDG’s scolding is affectionate. And the character he plays is stood at the sink, doing the washing-up…

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Let’s take a closer look at these three songs one final time. Cleaning the dishes in these songs forms part of a larger pattern which I think is a core aspect of the band’s appeal. As I’ve said, in ‘Wash Up’ it indicates broken connection. In ‘Millions’, Rachel washing up plays in the background of Thom’s humble admissions of disempowerment and vulnerability. And in ‘Daydreaming’, domestic ideas once again bring up this idea of service. My favourite line, and the most passionately delivered, is: ‘We are just happy to serve, just happy to serve/ You.’ BDG jokingly adds the washing-up image, but the joke works because it blends in so well.

Lyrically, Radiohead has a preoccupation with these emasculating moments of devotion. They are often the most memorable and touching parts. Another memorable example comes in ‘True Love Waits’ (another AMSP song), where Thom vows to ‘dress like your niece/ And wash your swollen feet’ if you promise not to leave. In this reversal of gender roles and the radical vulnerability it entails, lies bliss, freedom, true love.

Gratitude and devotion are the most profound sources of beauty. I think, fundamentally, that’s why I love the band so much. To take a dull chore and turn it into a sublime expression of pure love is the most moving and essential act, the highest value.

Thom and Rachel split in 2015. Then, in every song on the next Radiohead album, all Thom could do was sing about how much he cared about her and still wanted to be there for her at all costs.