Touch

“This track is the crux of the album. It’s the starting point for the whole album. It’s us meeting Paul Williams [composer of film music, including "Phantom of the Paradise" and actor]. A sound engineer that we know presented him to us. He visited us in the studio. From there, something very cinamatographic, very narrative came out. ‘Touch’ would best define the psychedelic side of ‘Random Access Memories’. This song has 250 different tracks. It’s the most complex, the craziest of the album.” - Daft Punk "Touch" is the first song of the third side of Random Access Memories. The lyrics were written by singer-songwriter Paul Williams, who also performs lead vocals. With a running time of more than eight minutes, it is the most complex track on the album, and is considered by Daft Punk member Guy-Man to be the "core of the album," around which the "memories" of the other songs revolve. The song and Williams' involvement is discussed in the eighth "Collaborators" video documenting the making of RAM. The song's intro is a direct reference to the 1974 film Phantom of the Paradise, for which Williams composed the soundtrack. Williams' voice, at first heavily distorted, is gradually "processed" into Williams' normal voice using recording studio manipulation, similar to a scene in the film. Daft Punk's decision to only make public appearances wearing their iconic masks is implied to also have been influenced by the film, whose titular character wears a mask to disguise his identity. Long-time Williams cohort Chris Caswell shares composing credits for "Touch", and is credited with keyboard work on a majority of the album's songs. RAM was partly recorded in Henson Studios, Santa Monica; the building used to house the recording studios of A&M Records, Williams' record label during the 1970s. In another Williams connection, he is famous for having composed songs for The Muppets productions, the Muppets being the brainchild of Jim Henson.