Rocktrospectiva: The Rare And Fan Only "My Iron Lung EP" Turns 30

 

Released on 26 September 1994, "My Iron Lung" was the third EP by English alternative rock band Radiohead, produced by John Leckie and Nigel Godrich, it marked Radiohead's first collaborations with Godrich and the artist Stanley Donwood, who have worked on every Radiohead release since. 

 

Radiohead recorded most of the songs during the sessions for their second album, The Bends, released the following year. So this EP consists of the Bends song "My Iron Lung" plus several non-album tracks. Radiohead wrote "My Iron Lung" in response to the success of their debut single, "Creep". The EP spawned a single "My Iron Lung" that reached No. 24 on the UK singles chart.

 

Radiohead recorded most of the songs on My Iron Lung at RAK Studios, London, during the sessions for their second album, The Bends. According to Thom Yorke, the EP was "just for fans", and described it as a collection of songs that did not fit on the album rather than outtakes: "We think they're good, otherwise we wouldn't have plugged them on, as an especial raritie, the EP also includes an acoustic version of Radiohead's debut single, "Creep" which was taken from a performance on KROQ-FM on July 13, 1993. 

 

This EP was Radiohead's first collaboration with the producer Nigel Godrich, who was assisting the producer John Leckie at RAK as a tape engineer, also it was also Radiohead's first collaboration with the cover artist Stanley Donwood. Donwood was not a fan of rock music, and said he took the work because he knew Yorke from their time as art students at the University of Exeter.

 

As a rare fact, only "My Iron Lung" was included on The Bends album and practically the song marks the counterpart of success of "Creep" their responde to label EMI who wanted the band to record a similar track was: The caustic lyrics use an iron lung as a metaphor for the way "Creep" had both sustained and constrained them: "This is our new song / Just like the last one / A total waste of time / My iron lung". There was an awful feeling for the band in terms of the success of "Creep", so Yorke said in 1995: "People have defined our emotional range with that one song, 'Creep'. I saw reviews of 'My Iron Lung' that said it was just like 'Creep'. When you're up against things like that, it's like: 'Fuck you.' These people are never going to listen."

 

"My Iron Lung" was released as a single in the UK in September 26 in four versions, each with different track order, to encourage fans to buy multiple copies, EMI released two CD singles; one included the B-sides "The Trickster", "Punchdrunk Lovesick Singalong", and "Lozenge of Love", while the other included the B-sides "Lewis (Mistreated)", "Permanent Daylight", and "You Never Wash Up After Yourself". EMI later issued a My Iron Lung EP compiled all the B-sides.

 

The single reached number 24 on the UK singles chart, meanwhile in the US, it topped the college radio charts, but sold only around 20,000 copies. Obviously for Yorke and Greenwood there was a sense of disappointment that Capitol, EMI's American subsidiary, had not promoted it more. As a response, The A&R vice president, Perry Watts-Russel, said Capitol had not pursued radio play as "My Iron Lung" was intended for fans rather than as the lead single for The Bends, and unlike the UK, the US was not a major market for singles, and that the sales instead indicated that Radiohead had built an audience in America.

 

The EP and especially the single initially received mixed reviews, with critics likening its verse-chorus dynamic to the 1993 Nirvana song "Heart-Shaped Box". Although there is a growing sophistication and diversity in their songwriting that felt Radiohead were building their own identity, other tracks such as "The Trickster" and "Punchdrunk Lovesing Singalong" are more developed tracks in the line of Sonic Youth. Some other critics praised the EP because of the tracks consistence and the perfect sequencing, it plays and feels more like a real album than a B-sides collection

 

My Iron Lung Ep Track List: 

 

1. My Iron Lung

2. The Trickster

3. Lewis (Mistreated)

4. Punchdrunk Lovesick Singalong

5. Permanent Daylight

6. Lozenge Of Love

7. Yo Never Wash Up After Yourself (live)

8. Creep (Acoustic)