Fake Plastic Trees

"Fake Plastic Trees" is a song by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, released on their second album, '' The Bends'' (1995). It was the third single from the album in the UK, and the first in the US. It charted on the UK Singles Chart, the New Zealand Singles Chart, the US Modern Rock Tracks chart, and the Canadian Rock/Alternative chart.

Writing

Singer Thom Yorke said "Fake Plastic Trees" was "the product of a joke that wasn't really a joke, a very lonely, drunken evening and, well, a breakdown of sorts".Black, Johnny.
The Greatest Songs Ever! Fake Plastic Trees
. Blender.com. 15 May 2003. Retrieved on 10 March 2010. He said the song arose from a melody he had "no idea what to do with". He did not take his usual approach of either keeping note "of whatever my head's singing at the particular moment" or forcing "some nifty phrases" he devised onto the melody. Instead, "That was not forced at all, it was just recording whatever was going on in my head, really. I mean, I wrote those words and laughed. I thought they were really funny, especially that bit about polystyrene."

Recording

Guitarist Ed O'Brien described early attempts to record "Fake Plastic Trees" at London's RAK Studios as sounding "like Guns N' Roses' 'November Rain'. It was so pompous and bombastic." Frustrated at being at the studio for a prolonged period one day, Yorke "threw a wobbly" in his own description, after which producer John Leckie sent the rest of the band away while Yorke recorded a guide track for featuring only guitar and vocals. Yorke performed three takes of the song and cried afterwards, according to guitarist Jonny Greenwood.

One source of frustration for the band at the time was their US record label, Capitol, which wanted a strong track for American radio to follow the success of their previous hit single, "Creep". Surprised that the slow-paced "Fake Plastic Trees" was seen as a potential single to follow up "Creep", Yorke realised that Capitol had Bob Clearmountain remix the track without the band's approval: "I said 'No way'. All the ghost-like keyboard sounds and weird strings were completely gutted out of his mix, like he'd gone in with a razor blade and chopped it all up. It was horrible."

Critical reception

Writing for '' NME'' in May 1995, John Mulvey felt that "Fake Plastic Trees" lacked substance, and drew comparisons with the stadium rock of U2. It placed at number 385 on ''Rolling Stone's'' list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and at number 28 on Triple J Radio's Hottest 100 of All Time countdown. The acoustic version of "Fake Plastic Trees" was used in the 1995 film ''Clueless'' and is credited for introducing Radiohead to a larger American audience.

Music video

The song's music video, directed by Jake Scott, is set inside a supermarket, where the band are pushed around in shopping carts among several other characters, including clerks, children, an old man with a large beard who plays with toy guns, a woman in a large black hat, art director Stanley Donwood in basketball jersey who shaves his head with an electric razor, a young man playing with a shopping cart, etc. The director has said about the video: "The film is actually an allegory for death and reincarnation, but if you can read that into it you must be as weird as the people who made it."

Track listings

All tracks are written by Radiohead (Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, Colin Greenwood, Philip Selway).

* UK and European single (CD1)
* UK and New Zealand single (cassette)
* Australian single (CD)
# "Fake Plastic Trees" – 4:52
# "India Rubber" – 3:26
# "How Can You Be Sure?" – 4:21

* UK and European single (CD2)
# "Fake Plastic Trees" – 4:52
# "Fake Plastic Trees" (acoustic) – 4:41
# "Bullet Proof..I Wish I Was" (acoustic) – 3:34
# "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" (acoustic) – 4:26

* UK and US promo (CD)
# "Fake Plastic Trees" (edit) – 4:11
# "Fake Plastic Trees" (album version) – 4:50

* US single (CD)
# "Fake Plastic Trees" (album version) – 4:50
# " Planet Telex" (Hexidecimal Mix) – 6:44
# "Killer Cars" – 3:02
# "Fake Plastic Trees" (acoustic version) – 4:45

* US jukebox single (7")
# "Fake Plastic Trees" – 4:50
# " The Bends" – 4:03

* Dutch single (CD)
# "Fake Plastic Trees" – 4:52
# "India Rubber" – 3:26
# "How Can You Be Sure?" – 4:21
# "Fake Plastic Trees" (acoustic) – 4:43

Personnel

* Thom Yorke – vocals, acoustic guitar
* Jonny Greenwood – electric guitar, Hammond organ
* Ed O'Brien – electric guitar
* Colin Greenwood – bass
* Philip Selway – drums
* Caroline Lavelle – cello
* John Matthias – viola, violin

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

See also

* Artificial trees used for

Notes

Footnotes

Citations

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fake Plastic Trees
Radiohead songs
1995 singles
Parlophone singles
Environmental songs
Rock ballads
Songs written by Thom Yorke
Songs written by Colin Greenwood
Songs written by Jonny Greenwood
Songs written by Philip Selway
Songs written by Ed O'Brien
Song recordings produced by John Leckie
Music videos directed by Jake Scott (director)
1990s ballads