90's Jams #23: Radiohead "Airbag" (1997)

Cars are global. We trust the shit out of cars. Although not everyone does.. The fucked up story of Marc Bolan's life is that he wrote and recorded dozens of songs in T.Rex that glamorized driving and cars, while never actually owning any type of driver's license. A few years later while someone was driving him somewhere, he ironically died in a car crash. Gary Numan had some dope insight regarding cars. Then in the 90's, Radiohead started releasing songs with titles such as "Stupid Car" and "Killer Cars." Thom Yorke's collaboration with UNKLE featured a video where some crazy ass dude gets violently hit by a car 6 or 7 times. And then of course there's the "Karma Police" video. This was all topped by "Airbag," the pinnacle of Radiohead's car-influenced paranoia, an ode to a device designed to save lives, which very well could just as easily break someone's neck. (In some cases, they've been known to spontaneously activate.) The asskicking DJ Shadow-esq drum sampling is highlighted by excellent usage of Radiohead's "secret weapon" - the dope-as-fuck bass grooves of Colin Greenwood - hinted at previously in tracks such as "Talk Show Host" and "Planet Telex."