New Radiohead Track Salutes WWI Vet

08/05/09 1:37pm

by Bianca Marcus (CHARTattack)

Respect your elders, kids — Radiohead sure do.

Thom Yorke and company debuted a new track on their website Wednesday morning as a tribute to Harry Patch, the last remaining WWI veteran to fight in the trenches. Harry Patch died July 25 at the age of 111.

The song, called "Harry Patch (In Memory Of)," was inspired by an interview Patch had done with the BBC before his death.

"Recently the last remaining UK veteran of the 1st world war Harry Patch died at the age of 111," wrote Yorke in a post on the band's website on Wednesday. "I had heard a very emotional interview with him a few years ago on the Today program on Radio4. The way he talked about war had a profound effect on me.

"It became the inspiration for a song that we happened to record a few weeks before his death," continued Yorke. "[…] It would be very easy for our generation to forget the true horror of war, without the likes of Harry to remind us. I hope we do not forget.

"As Harry himself said 'Irrespective of the uniforms we wore, we were all victims.'"

Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood arranged the strings on the track, which was recorded in an abbey and features Yorke singing lyrics spoken or inspired by Patch.

The track is now available for purchase through W.A.S.T.E., Radiohead's online store, for £1 ($1.82 Canadian). All proceeds will go to the British Legion.

Radiohead are working on the follow-up to 2007's In Rainbows, but it's not known when it will be released.

Yorke premiered a song titled "The Present Tense" at this year's Latitude Festival, contributed a cover of Miracle Legion's "All For The Best" to the Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs Of Mark Mulcahy compilation album and reportedly wrote a song called "New Moon" for the upcoming Twilight sequel of the same name.

You can see Radiohead at these shows:

Aug. 21 Sankt Polten, Austria @ Green Park (Frequency Festival)
Aug. 23 Prague, Czech Republic @ Vystaviste, Bruselska Cesta
Aug. 25 Poznan, Poland @ Park Cytadela
Aug. 29 Leeds, England @ Bramham Park (Leeds Festival)
Aug. 30 Reading, England @ Richfield Avenue (Reading Festival)