Rank SinatraStart voting
▶ Listen and vote
Song tier list
Airbag
Radiohead
?No votes yet. Be the first to rank it.
Vote on this song
- Album
- OK Computer
- Released
- 1997
- Genres
- art rock, alternative rock
- Length
- 4:48
- Tempo
- 168 BPM
- Label
- XL Recordings
▶ Listen and vote
About this song
The song is the first track on Radiohead's OK Computer. It is somewhat autobiographical, drawing on Thom Yorke's car accident from roughly a decade earlier, in which an airbag saved his life. He had already touched on this fear on the B-side "Killer Cars" from The Bends.
What it's about
The song reflects on the near-death experience of a car crash and the sense of having been spared. It is connected to the similar theme of "Lucky" on the same album, which deals with a superhuman feeling of rebirth after an accident, though there the protagonist is pulled from a plane wreck.
Fun facts
- Sampled in 1 other song, like “Airbag by Easy Star All-Stars (Ft. Horace Andy)”.
- Covered 6 times, including “Airbag by Motta & Appino”.
- Written by Thom Yorke, Ed O’Brien, Colin Greenwood, Jonny Greenwood and Philip Selway.
- Produced by Radiohead and Nigel Godrich.
- Recorded at St. Catherine's Court.