Radiohead, the Horse, Closes in on Kentucky Derby Bid

The Kansas Jayhawks' second-round loss in the NCAA tourney had Rock Daily ditching our brackets and turning our attention to the next big sporting event on the horizon: the Kentucky Derby. Though the final field of horses in the Derby hasn't been decided, gambling sites like Sports Book are listing odds for all the potential candidates, and there's one horse that immediately caught our eye: At 20-1 odds, a horse named "Radiohead."

The English-bred Radiohead — the horse, like the band, comes from the U.K. — has put himself in a great position to compete for this year's Triple Crown after some key victories this season. Just as Radiohead the band won Rolling Stone's Best Album of the 2000s prize for Kid A, Radiohead the horse continued its namesake's winning pedigree by taking first place at a race of three-year-olds in Florida's Gulfstream Park last month, ESPN reports. The site Pedigree Query shows that Radiohead's parents are Johannsburg and Security Interest, and adding to the cool factor is that Radiohead's great-grandfather was named "Danzig."

According to the Miami Herald, the horse was named after the band and not the Talking Heads' song that the band themselves are named after. "He's a cool, happy, curious horse,'' trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. says. "He's very proud of himself. He's game, you know. He's game for an idea. He knows he's going to have to show he can run against good horses.'' Also in the Kentucky Derby running: Vale of York, which is sort of like "Thom Yorke" if you're considering wagering on a Radiohead-inspired exacta.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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