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Paranoid Android - Lyrics
Please could you stop the noise, I'm trying to get some rest
From all the unborn chicken voices in my head
What's that...? (I may be paranoid, but not an android)
What's that...? (I may be paranoid, but not an android)
When I am king, you will be first against the wall
With your opinion which is of no consequence at all
What's that...? (I may be paranoid, but no android)
What's that...? (I may be paranoid, but no android)
Ambition makes you look pretty ugly
Kicking and squealing gucci little piggy
You don't remember
You don't remember
Why don't you remember my name?
Off with his head, man
Off with his head, man
Why don't you remember my name?
I guess he does....
Rain down, rain down
Come on rain down on me
From a great height
From a great height... height...
Rain down, rain down
Come on rain down on me
From a great height
From a great height... height...
Rain down, rain down
Come on rain down on me
That's it, sir
You're leaving
The crackle of pigskin
The dust and the screaming
The yuppies networking
The panic, the vomit
The panic, the vomit
God loves his children, God loves his children, yeah!
Further Information about "Paranoid Android"
This was the first single from OK Computer which achieved #3 position in the UK charts.
In Douglas Adams' "Hitch Hikers' Guide To The Galaxy" books, there is a character known as Marvin, the Paranoid Android. He was the first android ever created with feelings and a personality; except he was defective and because of that he was constantly depressed.
"It really started out as three separate songs and we didn't know what to do with them," explains Thom. After being asked if the song was about the fall of the Roman Empire, Thom adopted this explanation, but other band members have likened the lyrics of the track to those of "The Bends". On one level, the lyrics are absurd; on another, they're quite serious. During the band's 1996 live sets, when they were opening for Morissette, the song ended with a very long Hammond solo courtesy of Jonny, drawing it out to the eleven-minute mark. [Radiohead: From a Great Height]
Originally the song was played without the final guitar section, and instead had Jonny on an organ playing a riff over and over for minutes. Apparently the band begged him not to play it, and it reduced many of Alanis Morisette's audiences to screaming point.
The 'kicking squealing Gucci little piggy' was based on an incident that Thom witnessed in a very posh LA bar where a woman with a white Gucci dress had red wine accidentally spilled down it. "Her look was pure evil".
The chanting part of the song underneath 'rain down...' was actually made by reversing Thom saying "monk".
Ed: We wanted to make a crossing of Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and The Pixies. No, it didn't become a 'Bohemian Rhapsody' of the nineties; it's not complex enough for that and it contains too much tension. It's the song that we played to our friends when they, a long time ago, wanted to know what the new album was going to sound like. You could see them thinking: "Fuck, if that's the new single, what will all the rest be like?"
Colin: The song is 6 minutes long. That came in handy. While they were listening, we had time to make them a cup of tea.
Thom: 'Paranoid Android' is full of images of people that I saw in a pub the night before we went to the studio. Most lyrics on 'OK Computer' are actually polaroids inside my head.
Ed: In 1994 we taped everything on video, in 1995 we bought Powerbooks. Our next step on the techno-superhighway is 'the polaroid'. If we go on like this, we'll be painting up our tour bus with charcoal next year.
Thom: 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.
Jonny: In the video, an angel takes the man to heaven to play ping-pong. Recently someone asked me: "What does your paradise look like?" All I could think of was a big empty room and a couple of Radiohead songs that are half finished. It's at times like that that I enjoy being in the group the most: when we're in the studio and take place in front of our amplifiers for days. You can only hear the drums and the voice in that stage. And when finally someone dares to ask "What do you think of this?", then we start working together. That's the most beautiful moment.
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