Good Morning Mr. Magpie (Morning M'lord)

"magpie: used in similes or comparisons to refer to a person who collects things, esp. things of little use or value, or a person who chatters idly." The magpie metaphor encompasses music pirating, the dissolution of the album as art form, and loss of capacity for concentration, contemplation and reflection.

music pirating:

• "You know you should (buy music) But you don't" -those who illegally download music have "stolen all my (yorke's) magic And took my (yorke's) melody". Stolen not his creative abilites, but rather the music he's created. -"You got some nerve Coming here" People who would never steal tangible goods seem to think its ok to pirate intangible music. Possibly b/c when the stolen good is intangible, moral instincts preventing stealing don't kick in. A musical adress to the pirate is an emotional appeal, an effort to make moral instincts kick in.

dissolution of the album as art form, and loss of capacity for concentration, contemplation and reflection:

• the magpie metaphor makes sense in light of Richard Foreman's edge.org analysis of information overload: "I come from a tradition of Western culture in which the ideal (my ideal) was the complex, dense and "cathedral-like" structure of the highly educated and articulate personality–a man or woman who carried inside themselves a personally constructed and unique version of the entire heritage of the West.

And such multi-faceted evolved personalities did not hesitate– especially during the final period of "Romanticism-Modernism"–to cut down , like lumberjacks, large forests of previous achievement in order to heroically stake new claim to the ancient inherited land– this was the ploy of the avant-garde.

But today, I see within us all (myself included) the replacement of complex inner density with a new kind of self-evolving under the pressure of information overload and the technology of the "instantly available". A new self that needs to contain less and less of an inner repertory of dense cultural inheritance–as we all become "pancake people"–spread wide and thin as we connect with that vast network of information accessed by the mere touch of a button." -Magpies collect "things of little use or value", soundbites, tweets, facebook statuses, headlines etc... As such, they're spread wide and thin, they lose capacity for concentration, contemplation, and reflection, their thoughts are reduced to idle chatter. Yorke, like so many of us in the information age, may feel as if information overload has reduced his creative capacity - “stolen all my (his) magic And took my (his) melody”. -“Nerve” could reference neurons and neuroplasticity. That is, the manner in which we ingest information literally reorganizes the structure of our brain. Mediums such as the book promote intense sustained concentration, deep thought etc.. Mediums such as fbook, twitter etc.. promote rapid but shallow information processing.

The ethos of the information age is one of songs, not albums.

I think this song has to do with writer's block, hence the line 'they've stolen all the magic and turned my melodies'. There is also a debate at the beginning of the song that has to do with what a lot of musicians go through. Whether to continue in the music industry or not, because their songs have to be changed ('turned') to make them more marketable. He is probably debating whether he is still able to get his message across with so many limitations on his art by the major labels.

I relate to this song on a personal level, I relate to the instillation of information into the individual mind and the mass mind. The idea that Mr magpie has stolen all the melody reminds me of walks in the countryside where my day can be influenced depending on how vulnerable I feel, by the recently acquired knowledge of the nursery rhyme:

One for sorrow Two for joy Three for a girl Four for a boy Five for silver Six for gold Seven for a secret, never to be told Eight for a wish Nine for a kiss Ten for a bird you must not miss

Why should I be pissed off by seeing merely one Magpie?, It destroys the melody of the minds wondering, created by myth, should I shit myself if I see three or four?, If i'm not in the habit of getting someone pregnant?

When I didn't know this rhyme, I was free to observe the bird, without an imprint. Yes, it is information such as this which steels creativity by diverting the mind into a battlefield and for me personally, creates another form of agressive creativity, based on attacked the imprints of western culture, whether its shackles are religion or materialistic manipulating advertising, crushing the breath and hijacking the evolvement of the true personal identity.

Living with an awareness of this kind of information, for me, creates an essential desire to transcend the feeling of living in some kind of simulation, where we are expected to keep somekind of fearful silence.

Even on registering to this site, I was subjected to an advert for a f** air freshener before I could acquire the code to join in.
Like Radiohead, anything that is worthwhile doesn't need to be promoted or advertised via commercialism or orthodox dogmatic, destructive ideals that divide humans, because it is true and real.

the video for this is on the most gigantic lying mouth of all time, i havent seen or heard it anywhere else...

premiered on their webcast along with "I Froze Up" on December 18th 2002.

this has the potential to be a radiohead classic. although not very long on the TMGLOAT dvd, it sounds incredible. i really hope it makes it on to the new album

It's very likely to be on they're next album. They've been recording for about a week.

it said on that deadairspace of their website, which has the bands blogs while they're recording that they were recording a song called mornin'm'lud or something like that, similar to the title here. so i'm thinking this is gunna be on the new album

yay!!!! new radiohead material .. this song has this eerie loveliness to it like fake plastic trees... ha. i stole this off the net-- live version.. rh is great live. . . kinda sad how a lot of their concert place thingies sound so empty..

on a live version of knives out, thom is like (at the end) "an applause would be good??" hahaha ... so sad....

This deserves to be on LP 7. My tab for it only does the middle section though. Anyone know wheres theres a tab of the intro?