Thom Yorke to auction original Radiohead lyrics, written inside a William Blake novel

By Parker Hall February 4, 2016

radiohead 20th anniversary ok computer oknotok — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Thom Yorke, frontman of British rock band Radiohead and all around artistic badass, will auction off handwritten lyrics from the band’s song Airbag for charity. The lyrics will be sold by Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions on March 18, and proceeds will be donated to international charity confederation Oxfam. They are expected to raise between £800-£1200 (approximately $1150-1750) for the charity, which works to fight poverty worldwide.

In a cool twist for potential buyers, the words to the song are written inside Yorke’s personal copy of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience. The book also contains the singer’s annotations, underlined words, and various alterations he made to the famous British novel. An original draft of the words to the song comes complete with crossed out lines that didn’t make the cut.

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Airbag is the opening song for the band’s critically-acclaimed 1997 album OK Computer, which is widely considered to be among the group’s most pivotal recordings. The opening lines to the song read, “In the next world war/In a jackknifed juggernaught/I am born again.”

Radiohead has recently announced several festival appearances to take place this year in Europe and America, the biggest of which will be an appearance at the Primavera Sound Festival in Portugal, where the band is set to debut their newest record.

In addition to that report, Radiohead has already registered an LLP called Dawn Chorus, leading many fans to believe that will be the name of the new record. The band did something similar with its past two records, King of Limbs and In Rainbows.

With so much going on with the band, now might be a good time to grab a piece of Radiohead history. And frankly, while $1,800 isn’t a drop in the bucket, such an important piece of music memorabilia seems pretty affordably priced should it sell that low — especially considering you can read Thom Yorke’s personal opinions of William Blake.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Parker Hall is a writer and musician from Portland, OR. He is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin…

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