The song's structure, though unique among Radiohead material, was also responsible for most of the comparisons with 1970s progressive rock that the band subsequently earned. Singer Thom Yorke often refers to it as a "joke" song, though not derisively; the band continues to play it live at nearly every concert, usually toward the end of the set. The song's title refers to the depressed robot Marvin the Paranoid Android from Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.[1][2][3] The song is the highest UK charting single at #3 from the band to date, and appeared at #256 on Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". The song is also used as the ending theme song for the anime Ergo Proxy.
Paranoid Android was recorded in actress Jane Seymour's fifteenth-century mansion, a house that Yorke was convinced was haunted.[4] Bassist Colin Greenwood said "On 'Paranoid Android' what we were into was the idea of a DJ Shadow meets The Beatles thing."[5] Thom Yorke also compared the song to The Beatles' work, saying "it really started out as three separate songs and we didn't know what to do with them. Then we thought of 'Happiness Is a Warm Gun' — which was obviously three different bits that John Lennon put together — and said 'Why don't we try that?'"[5]
Early versions of the song performed in 1996 had a different structure and varying lyrics. According to members of the band, "Paranoid Android" originally exceeded 10 minutes. It is unknown whether this long version, also fabled to include organ solos, was ever played live. However, it was possibly played by Radiohead at the Rock Werchter Festival in Belgium in July 1996, apparently the song's first live performance.
The ending differed markedly from the final version of "Paranoid Android." The third section originally had the lyrics "Hallelujah", where the final version has "Rain down...", and instead of the lyrics "God loves his children /God loves his children, yeah," the final line of the song was reportedly, "God loves his children / That's why he kills 'em, yeah," which was part of a different third section which also included other different lyrics and was extended longer, eventually returning to the opening theme and guitar riff of the song's first section, while the released version ultimately went straight into the final guitar solo. When played live since 1997, the song is performed as on the album, lacking these elements.Although the single did not receive much radio play due to its length, MTV immediately put the video in high rotation. However, the version most often shown on television was edited. Thom Yorke was not happy about this: "The video of 'Paranoid Android' has been censored by MTV. They took all nipples out of the cartoon, but they had no problem with the scene in which a man cuts off his own arms and legs." In Europe, before 7pm MTV also black barred the head that protruded out of the dancing man's belly.
This may only be interesting to me, but it's my blog so take a hike.
