The Wisdom of Thom Yorke

Thom Yorke was interviewed by the New York Times, regarding his band Radiohead’s trailblazing decision to sell their newest album online for…well, for whatever you choose to pay, from zero to £99.99. Yorke showed that he knows more about traffic than many traffic engineers: when explaining why the band did this instead of signing a multi-million-dollar contract with a major record label, he said:

I mean, it’s tempting to have someone say to you, ‘You will never have to worry about money ever again,’ but no matter how much money someone gives you — what, you’re not going to spend it? You’re not going to find stupid ways to get rid of it? Of course you are. It’s like building roads and expecting there to be less traffic.

Not exactly true, but a lot closer to the truth than to say that building roads will get rid of traffic. It may actually be that Thom Yorke is something of a transportation geek, judging by the artwork from Radiohead’s 1997 album, OK Computer.