When it dropped, OK Computer sounded exactly like our computerized future. Nevermind that Kid A better captured the clicks and whirs of life inside a server room, Radiohead’s third album was an instant classic that dropped just as we fully entered the digital age.
But even if you were a huge fan, here’s a piece of Radiohead detrius from that album that you’ve likely never seen before. It’s a promotional giveaway, a 3.5-inch floppy disk with a Radiohead screensaver. There was, apparently, also a 5.1 5.25-inch version. And given that the label explicitly notes “Windows version,” it seems likely there was a Mac disk as well. Especially given that the band was recording much of the album (including the very speech of “Fitter, Happier”) on a Mac, and “Okay computer” was, itself, a Mac command.
Yet today, you’d be hard pressed to find a machine capable of reading it. The ephemeral digital file is much longer lasting than the medium that carried it. For while you probably couldn’t do anything with this disk, you can still grab the screensaver itself right here. [Retronaut]
