THESE ARE MY TWISTED WORDS, by the British rock band Radiohead, is my all-time top favorite song. It never was released as a single and appears on none of their albums. The only reason I ever discovered its existence was that in late 2010 I happened to be on the band's website and they were offering it as a free download. Download it I did, then put it on my MP3 player...and during the dark and dreary days of that winter...the last truly cold one we've experienced here in Gainesville... I listened to it often on my ultra-long distance runs through one neighborhood after another. Looking back I cannot listen to it without associating it with that wonderful and interesting time...but association alone doesn't make a song Number One, does it? These Are My Twisted Words begins with a two-and-a-half minute dreamy instrumental sequence of layered guitars...along with an electronic cello-sounding background: definitely a "going down the rabbit role" kind of listening experience. Eventually front man Thom Yorke breaks in with his plaintive singing style...he tackles his role here with much passion, evoking a sense of forlornness that I've seldom heard in a song. It's a very moody piece, appealing to an often very moody person...namely, myself. Although Radiohead didn't promote it in their recordings, they have performed it in concert...why it's such a relatively unknown work of theirs is beyond me. In a funny way it shows that great rock doesn't have to be complicated...this song certainly has a simple basic structure, beyond the instrumental texturing. It's been going on ten years now since I first heard it and my estimation of it has only increased...sometimes those overlooked, lost tracks are the best...
And that's it with my Top 500 list of personal all-time favorite songs. Guess I'll be starting on a different "top favorites" list about something else before long...
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