Whether they know it or not, fans who attend Radiohead performances are witnessing music history as it is being written. And I’m not just saying that because I’m obsessed enough with Radiohead to make a podcast about them. I say that because Radiohead often tests unreleased or in-progress songs through their live performances.

Sometimes those tracks surface in the very next album — like “The Bends,” which we discussed in our last episode. But sometimes they don’t appear until several years later.

In this episode we’ll explore the history of “Nude” — the third track on the band’s beloved seventh record, In Rainbows. We’ll compare its early live performances to the final studio version and discuss what this tendency, to not release a song until the arrangement is just right, says about Radiohead as a band.