"Let Down" was intended to be the first single from OK Computer, but "Paranoid Android" was chosen instead, which, along with "Karma Police", solidified the band's popularity.[1] The track was ultimately not released as a single because the band was unsatisfied with the video they had produced, and ended up losing money.[1] The song reached #29 in the US Hot Modern Rock tracks chart.[2]
The song was recorded at St Catherine's Court mansion ballroom. Thom Yorke apparently was inspired to write the song while sitting in a pub, noting the customers "clinging on to bottles" and sensing in them the "emptiest of feelings," a sense of disappointment.[3]
The band has rarely performed "Let Down" live. After a 2006 performance, the song was not featured on any of the band's concert setlists for ten years until it was revived on the tour supporting A Moon Shaped Pool.[4] The multi-track recording used in the studio version makes the song difficult to recreate live, especially with respect to the layering of multiple simultaneous vocal parts sung by Yorke. When it has been played live, Yorke has typically opted to skip the final verse and sing the accompanying background vocal part instead.[5]
In 2006 the song was covered by reggae musicians Toots & the Maytals for the Easy Star All Stars compilation album Radiodread, a complete makeover of OK Computerinska, dub and reggae musical styles. An equally melancholy cover of the song is performed by Pedro the Lion on their 2005 live release Tour E.P. The electronic artist Let Down Loser got his name from this song.[6]
Ehmann, Julia (2020). Radiohead and the Journey Beyond Genre: Analysing Stylistic Debates and Transgressions. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN978-1-138-33474-8.
Footman, Tim (2007). Welcome to the Machine: OK Computer and the Death of the Classic Album. New Malden: Chrome Dreams. ISBN978-1-84240-388-4.
