"Exit Music (For a Film)" is a song by Radiohead, written specifically for the ending credits of the 1996 film William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet. Although not included on either of the two soundtrack albums at the request of Thom Yorke, the song appears on the band's highly acclaimed third album, OK Computer (1997). It was heavily inspired by Frédéric Chopin's Prelude No. 4 in E Minor although, ELO's 1983 B side, "After All" seems a more likely influence as it strays from the Chopin Prelude in many ways found in Radiohead's melody.
The moment in the film when Claire Danes (as Juliet) holds a gun to her head was the actual inspiration for "Exit Music". Thom Yorke also had the 1968 adaptation of the play (Romeo and Juliet) in his head: "I saw the Zeffirelli version when I was 13 and I cried my eyes out, because I couldn't understand why, the morning after they shagged, they didn't just run away. The song is written for two people who should run away before all the bad stuff starts. A personal song." The director of the movie, Baz Luhrmann, revealed in the DVD commentary that he believes it is one of the greatest film exit songs ever written.
The song is mostly very sombre and quiet, but builds to a climax at the end as the heavily compressed drums enter. In live performances, Jonny Greenwood slides a coin up and down the strings of his guitar, using a Roland Space Echo to create the eerie sounds heard throughout the song. In the studio version, the ambient sound is actually a recording of children playing played backwards. The studio version also features the eerie sound of a Mellotron choir. The distinctive fuzzy bass guitar featured in the climax is courtesy of the Shin-ei Companion FY-2 fuzz pedal.
The song is featured in the final episode of Father Ted, "Going to America". Father Kevin (Tommy Tiernan) is brought out his depression by Father Ted playing "Theme from Shaft" by Isaac Hayes; however, he then boards a bus, where he hears "Exit Music", and becomes depressed again.
The song is also used during the ending credits of the film After.Life (2009) directed by Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo.
Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau covered the song on volumes III and IV of his Art of the Trio series. His recording was featured in the movie Unfaithful in 2002. Other cover versions have been made by Miranda Sex Garden in 2001, Scala & Kolacny Brothers, Vampire Weekend, Easy Star All-Stars, Christopher O'Riley in 2003, performer Amanda Palmer covered the song on her 2010 EP Amanda Palmer Performs the Popular Hits of Radiohead on Her Magical Ukulele. The song is also featured on Strung Out on OK Computer: The String Quartet Tribute to Radiohead.
The last book of the Rebus-series by Ian Rankin is named Exit Music after this song.
Famous quotes containing the words exit and/or music:
“There is no exit from the circle of one’s beliefs.”
—Keith Lehrer (b. 1936)
“If music in general is an imitation of history, opera in particular is an imitation of human willfulness; it is rooted in the fact that we not only have feelings but insist upon having them at whatever cost to ourselves.... The quality common to all the great operatic roles, e.g., Don Giovanni, Norma, Lucia, Tristan, Isolde, Brünnhilde, is that each of them is a passionate and willful state of being. In real life they would all be bores, even Don Giovanni.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)