Puneet Varma (Editor)

Go to Sleep

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Released
  
18 August 2003

Recorded
  
2002

Label
  
Parlophone Capitol

Format
  
CD 12"

Length
  
3:21

B-side
  
"Gagging Order" "I Am a Wicked Child"

"Go to Sleep. (Little Man being Erased.)", commonly referred to as "Go to Sleep", is a song by the English rock band Radiohead, released as the second single from their sixth studio album Hail to the Thief (2003) on 18 August 2003. The song reached #12 on the UK Singles Chart and reached #39 on the Australian ARIA Charts.

Contents

Composition

"Go to Sleep" is composed in alternating bars of 4/4 and 6/4, with an acoustic guitar riff written by Ed O'Brien played by Thom Yorke. After 11 bars of guitar and vocals, the rest of the band comes in. In the second half of the song, the time signature remains in 4/4 and the guitars change to a different riff; the song fades out with a guitar solo played by Jonny Greenwood. The guitar-work at the end of this track was achieved by Jonny Greenwood playing a sequence of random notes on his guitar that were being processed through a digital patch for software called Max/MSP, which is musical software frequently used by electronica or experimental artists.

Music video

Directed by Alex Rutterford, the song's CGI-animated music video shows a full-blossom red rose swaying in the wind, and proceeds to show Yorke sitting on a park bench singing the song while around him men and women in business suits walk by rapidly. In the middle of the video, the buildings, in classical architecture style, spontaneously crumble into pieces and moments later reassemble themselves, only to have become modern in style. The shot returns to the rose shown in the beginning, which is now closed in a bud.

Track listings

The B-sides for this single are "Gagging Order" and "I Am a Wicked Child". The former is a solo acoustic guitar song and the latter is a blues song with harmonica work by Jonny Greenwood.

UK versions

  • CD 1 CDR6613
    1. "Go to Sleep"
    2. "I Am Citizen Insane"
    3. "Fog (Again)" (Live)
  • CD 2 CDRS6613
    1. "Go to Sleep"
    2. "Gagging Order"
    3. "I Am a Wicked Child"
  • 12" 12R6613
    1. "Go to Sleep"
    2. "I Am Citizen Insane"
    3. "I Am a Wicked Child"

    US Version

  • CD 52953 released 3 September 2003 by Capitol Records
    1. "Go to Sleep"
    2. "Gagging Order"
    3. "I Am a Wicked Child"
  • 12" R-19218
    1. "Go to Sleep"
    2. "I Am Citizen Insane"

    Canada Version

  • CD
    1. "Go to Sleep"
    2. "I Am Citizen Insane"
    3. "Fog (Again)" (Live)

    Personnel

  • Thom Yorke - vocals, guitar
  • Jonny Greenwood - guitar, laptop, toy piano
  • Ed O'Brien - guitar, backing vocals
  • Colin Greenwood - bass
  • Philip Selway - drums

    • References

    Go to Sleep Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA