The title of the song is “True Love Waits,” so the concept of patience is sort of baked right into it. Radiohead certainly took that to the extreme, as they finally gave this lovely ballad its definitive recorded version more than 20 years after if it was first written.
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What’s the song about? And why did it take the band so long before it finally decided to give it a proper release on a studio album? Here’s the story of “True Love Waits,” which went from one of Radiohead’s most coveted cutting-room floor tracks to a haunting album-closer.
“Love” Takes Time
The year was 1995. Radiohead released their sophomore album The Bends, a record that surprised all the fans and critics who thought they were headed to one-hit-wonder status after the success of “Creep” two years before. At a live performance at the end of the year in Belgium, lead singer Thom Yorke belted out a new song he’d written called “True Love Waits,” accompanied only by his acoustic guitar and Jonny Greenwood on keyboards.
The song was a bit different from the rest of the band’s output, in part because of its simplicity of approach. In addition, there was a heart-on-the-sleeve hopefulness to it that went against Radiohead’s typically jaundiced view of the world. It quickly became a fan favorite.
Naturally, the band wanted to bring those special qualities to one of their albums. But they couldn’t quite find an arrangement that suited it, although it wasn’t for lack of trying. Radiohead attempted versions of “True Love Waits” when recording OK Computer (released in 1997) and Kid A/Amnesiac (recorded at the same time, released in 2000 and 2001, respectively).
It seemed destined to be one of those near misses, a track that sounds great in a live context but never finds its place in the studio. But ever the persistent ones, Radiohead decided to give another go at “True Love Waits” for their 2016 album A Moon Shaped Pool.
This time around, they combined Yorke’s lyrics and melody with an ambient piano part, and it brought out all the haunting qualities of the song. They also put it at the end of the album, which made sense because they’d often used the song to close out shows. “True Love Waits” had finally found a home.
The Meaning Behind “True Love Waits”
“True Love Waits” is an unabashed love song, one of the precious few of that type in Radiohead’s catalog. The lyrics tell a tale of going all in on a relationship, even if that means leaving other, important parts of yourself behind in the process. It implies that love is a choice of sorts, one that’s a zero-sum game in that it cancels out something else you might want to hold.
The narrator has willingly made his choice: I’ll drown my beliefs / To have your babies. This wouldn’t be a Thom Yorke song if there weren’t some idiosyncratic pieces thrown into the lyrics: I’d dress like your niece / And wash your swollen feet. It’s all part of a bargain he makes with her: Just don’t leave, he implores.
He suggests that existence without her is hollow: I’m not living / I’m just killing time. But he can hold out and look for love in all the weird places: And true love waits / In haunted attics. The unforgettable closing couplet (True love lives / On lollipops and crisps) was inspired by a true-life story Yorke read about a child who was forced to subsist on those foodstuffs when stranded by his parents for a week.
Some fans might prefer the live version of “True Love Waits” that has popped up on various Radiohead compilations, or maybe one of the outtakes that didn’t get officially released on the albums for which they were intended. But as the last song on the last album we’ve heard from this marvelous band (fingers crossed that will change soon), it’s a sentimentally appropriate sendoff.
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