Did you know that on "All I Need", the 5th track on Radiohead's most recent studio release, multi-instrumentalist / string arranger Johnny Greenwood created acoustic white-noise by assigning each member of a small chamber orchestra it's own note, covering every half-step in a three octave [give-or-take] range, and having them all play at once, resulting in a blanketing of frequencies? GOSH! That must have been fun to transcribe!

Oh, wait, Alfred didn't actually do that. They just stuck to the lyrics, vocal melodies, and piano arrangements. OK, so they were transcribed by a quote-unquote professional pianist, meaning that Alfred at least paid somebody to write this stuff down.

You know what this means, don't you? A million local open-mic troubadours are busy, as we speak, preparing their solo-singer-songwriter versions of complex electro-acoustic mash-ups like "15 Step" for public desecration. Why, Alfred, WHY?

I find it a bit difficult that a band like Radiohead -- who was so fed up with bureaucratic industry B.S. that they self released In Rainbows as a free download -- would consent to having their hard worked diluted into easy-consumption lounge-act transcription. Of course, it's equally unlikely that Alfred would outright plagiarize. What are loyal Radiohead-heads to think?

Whatever the case may be, In Rainbows is available now from Alfred Publishing. Or, if you're a purist, I recommend holding out for the 800-page folio transcription. Oh, I hope, I hope, I hope . . .