I have no idea if this is something other people have pointed out or thought about a lot because I don’t go anywhere near forums like AtEase or Reddit for Radiohead content, but anyway. Today’ Jo Over Thinks Everything meta brings A Reminder and Videotape together. Sorry in advance if this gets a bit garbled; you know how I like to prattle on, also I’m tired lol
Firstly, as we know Videotape was likely inspired by the ‘98 Japanese film “After Life” where the newly dead get to pick their happiest memory and have it recreated and recorded on a videotape. There’s also this fro the Kid A era called ‘too late’
We all know this song: it’s incredibly bittersweet and essentially about a man saying goodbye on videotape.
A Reminder, in Thom’s words is about “someone writing a song, sending it to someone and saying, ‘If I ever lose it, you just pick up the phone and play me this song back to remind me.‘”.
It’s kind of transitional too, the song intro was recorded at a train station in Prague, the voice over saying something like ‘enter or exit/the doors are closing/the next station is..”. I kinda see the link between that and the parts of Videotape where the person has moved on and talks about the secondary person being their centre when they ‘spin way, out of control’.
A Reminder, like Videotape (if we go lyrically here), is both about someone being older and looking backwards to better, happier memories, but there’s the darker imagery in both kinda suggesting that perhaps this person hasn’t done many good deeds, or feels that way. This is a bit iffy, but it’s not wholly positive is more my point - there’s a nostalgia to each song, something aggressive, and sad. We can see this here:
when Mephistopholis is just beneath
and he’s reaching up to grab me
Once I was free
Once I was cool
Once I was me
Knock me out
Smash out my brains
If I take the chair and start to talk shit
It’s like looking back at all your past personal transgressions and feeling like the devil is after you, or knowing how your life used to be vs what it is now and that it’s regrettable. However, on the other side to this coin they do, again, look for something better in the past, something for the ‘good days’ to be reminded of for always. Both songs try to take away something positive. Videotape says that regardless off what happens the protagonist isn’t going to be afraid, and A Reminder says that whatever happens - if these two people are speaking - this song (and a videotape for the former, obvs) is this reminder of all the good things: being free, being you, the goodness and wholeness that was in your life.
My final comment on this slight train wreck of a post is I would say (vaguely and tenuously - I’m working on this bit still) you could put these two songs with Daydreaming (as I’ve linked this with Videotape previously), and all three together you have this: Daydreaming is the video for Videotape, and A Reminder is the message in a bottle asking when I’m old, when I look back on my life, pick up the phone and play me this song, remind me of our time together - it was the most perfect day I’ve ever seen.
So yeah. Once again judge me on this all you like, it’s really worded badly and apologies on that, I’ve tried to make this as cohesive an explanation as possible with a fatigue-fried brain.
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