Go to Sleep

Infobox Single
Name = Go to Sleep


Artist = Radiohead
from Album = Hail to the Thief
Released = 18 August 2003
Format = CD, 12"
Recorded = 2002
Genre = Alternative rock
Length = 3:21
Label = Parlophone
Producer = Nigel Godrich, Radiohead
Chart position =
* # 12 (UK Singles Chart)
* # 39 (Australian Singles Chart)
Reviews =
Last single = "There There"
(2003)
This single = "Go to Sleep"
(2003)
Next single = "2 + 2 = 5"
(2003)
Misc = Extra tracklisting
Album = Hail to the Thief
Type = studio
prev_track = "Backdrifts" ^{(Honeymoon is Over.)}
prev_no = 4
this_track = "Go to Sleep" ^{(Little Man being Erased.)}
track_no = 5
next_track = "Where I End and You Begin" ^{(The Sky is Falling in.)}
next_no = 6

"Go To Sleep. (Little Man Being Erased.)" is a song by Radiohead and was released as the second single from their sixth album "Hail to the Thief" in 2003 (see 2003 in British music). The song is notable for its initial time signature, which is 10/4.The alternate title for the song as listed on the track listing for the album is "Little Man being Erased".

The guitar-work at the end of this track was achieved by Jonny Greenwood playing a sequence of random notes on his guitar that were being processed through a digital patch for software called Max/MSP, which is musical software frequently used by electronica or experimental artists. Some believewho|date=October 2008 that even though this is a random process, what you hear on record sounds slightly more structured and therefore may have been edited in the production process. However, Greenwood has played this song live using the same patch on many occasions, most notably on Later...With Jools Holland where the patch seemed to generate a more frantic and random rendition of the unique solo.

A similar solo to that heard in live versions of "Go to Sleep" was played by Adrian Belew on the 1980 Talking Heads song "Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)," though it was generated through different technology. Radiohead have cited the album "Remain in Light" on which the song appears as a major inspiration on their work in general.

The b-sides are "Gagging Order" and "I am a Wicked Child." The former finds Thom Yorke on solo acoustic guitar. "I am A Wicked Child" is Radiohead playing blues, complete with harmonica work by Jonny Greenwood.

Track listings

UK Versions

* CD 1 CDR6613
# "Go to Sleep"
# "I Am Citizen Insane"
# "Fog (Again)" (Live)
* CD 2 CDRS6613
# "Go to Sleep"
# "Gagging Order"
# "I Am a Wicked Child"
*12" 12R6613
# "I Am Citizen Insane"
# "I Am a Wicked Child"

US Version

* CD 52953 released 3 September 2003 by Capitol Records
# "Go to Sleep. (Little Man Being Erased.)"
# "Gagging Order"
# "I am a Wicked Child"

Canada Version

* CD
# "Go to Sleep"
# "I Am Citizen Insane"
# "Fog (Again)" (Live)

Music video

Directed by Alex Rutterford, the CGI-animated video shows a full-blossom red rose swaying in the wind, and proceeds to show Thom Yorke sitting in a park bench singing the song while all around him men and women in business suits walk rapidly by. In the middle of the video, the buildings (with a classical architecture style) spontaneously crumble into pieces and moments later reassemble themselves, only they have become modern in style. By the end, the camera returns to the rose shown in the beginning, which is now closed in a bud.