# Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" & Hitchhiker's Guide **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 1, 2003, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioheads-paranoid-android-hitchhikers-guide/199029 "2003-09-01T22:43:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![saramamalana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@saramamalana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saramamalana)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2003, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioheads-paranoid-android-hitchhikers-guide/199029/1 "2003-09-01T22:43:26Z")
Okay, I’m aware that the song title comes from a description of Marvin the robot as a “paranoid android.” Yay, cool. My friend, H, was insisting last night that all the lyrics of that song pertain to the Hitchhiker’s Guide series. Having recently re-read the series, and also being a fan of that song, I don’t see the correlation. Also, H has an admitted tendency to be full of shit. If he’s right, and all the words to “Paranoid Android” have a basis in the books, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. I’m talkin’ examples! (This same person was also trying to tell me that the Cake song “Sheep Go to Heaven” was copied from a Godspell song. When I said “Godspell is one of my favorite musicals, and I disagree” he said “well they mention it in the liner notes.” Didn’t believe him for a second anyway, but when I got home I checked the liner notes and there ain’t no mention of Godspell anywhere. Punk.) ---
**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2003, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioheads-paranoid-android-hitchhikers-guide/199029/2 "2003-09-01T22:53:40Z")
The only thing I noticed is the line _When I am king, you will be first against the wall_ and the talk about Sirius Cybernetics Corp. being the first against the wall when the revolution comes. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2003, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioheads-paranoid-android-hitchhikers-guide/199029/3 "2003-09-01T23:43:10Z")
From a [fan page](http://radiohead1.tripod.com/songs/album/paranoidandroid.htm): > [@](#): > > After being asked if the song was about the Fall of the Roman Empire, Thom adopted his 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. The page also has a lot of other interesting information about “Paranoid Android,” including this amusing bit: > [@](#): > > “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” - Thom ---
**Author:** ![Brad\_Pittiful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b3f665/32.png) [@Brad\_Pittiful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brad_Pittiful)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2003, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioheads-paranoid-android-hitchhikers-guide/199029/4 "2003-09-02T00:20:28Z")
ok computer is in my 10 ten albums of all time ---
**Author:** ![Teelo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@Teelo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teelo)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2003, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioheads-paranoid-android-hitchhikers-guide/199029/5 "2003-09-02T04:55:00Z")
I liked Ok, computer. But didn’t think it was pure genious. The only tracks I would pull out to show people would be, -let down -karma police -no surprises -climbing up the walls -electrioneering Thats like, less than half. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2003, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioheads-paranoid-android-hitchhikers-guide/199029/6 "2003-09-02T05:28:37Z")
Gasp! You’d only recommend half the album? Thats like, terrible. 😛 From the lyrics section at [Green Plastic Radiohead](http://www.greenplastic.com): “It really started out as three seperate songs and we didn’t know what to do with them,” explains Thom of the creation of the six-and-a-half-minute epic. Since Paranoid Android was fragments that they later tied together, I don’t think you can say the song is about any one thing. There are moods it evokes and such, but not a specific subject. To my interest (if nobody else’s), there are some other synchronicities/references/whatever to Hitchhikers’ in the Radiohead discography. The phrase “OK Computer” appears in the books, for example, but it’s also the title of a song that was written for (but left off) the album, which was later retitled [Palo Alto](http://www.greenplastic.com/lyrics/rh_songs/paloalto.php). And I was shocked to notice one night that Adams write that in their efforts to fool humanity, mice often “dropped dead of [Myxomatosis](http://www.greenplastic.com/lyrics/rh_songs/myxomatosis.php).” ---
**Author:** ![Moo\_the\_Magic\_Cow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ebca7d/32.png) [@Moo\_the\_Magic\_Cow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moo_the_Magic_Cow)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2003, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioheads-paranoid-android-hitchhikers-guide/199029/7 "2003-09-02T06:37:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Marley23 \* > \*\* > “It really started out as three separate songs and we didn’t know what to do with them,” explains Thom of the creation of the six-and-a-half-minute epic. > Since Paranoid Android was fragments that they later tied together, I don’t think you can say the song is about any one thing. There are moods it evokes and such, but not a specific subject. \*\* Mmmmmnope. Songwriting is not cut and dry like that. It’s not “hey let’s record these three songs together in order and call it one song!” It’s usually more complex than that. The lyrics could’ve been rewritten over the final composition or altered to correlate with one another, or not written at all until the very end. So you could very well say the song is about any one thing as much as you could say it isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2003, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioheads-paranoid-android-hitchhikers-guide/199029/8 "2003-09-02T06:47:08Z")
> [@](#): > > Songwriting is not cut and dry like that. It’s not “hey let’s record these three songs together in order and call it one song!” It’s usually more complex than that. Yes, they may have altered the lyrics, and they surely wrote music to bridge the fragments. However, I’m going by the authors’ own comments on the subject. Radiohead (Thom Yorke in particular) have said that that’s how this song came into being on more than one occasion. ---
**Author:** ![gex\_gex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/94ad74/32.png) [@gex\_gex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gex_gex)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2003, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioheads-paranoid-android-hitchhikers-guide/199029/9 "2003-09-02T14:00:50Z")
> [@](#): > > _originally posted by Teelo_ > The only tracks I would pull out to show people would be, > -let down > -karma police > -no surprises > -climbing up the walls > -electrioneering :eek: Really? I mean, sure I can understand not ranking the album as a classic… …actually, no I can’t. But still - you left off _Paranoid Android_? You left off _Lucky_? You left off _Exit Music_??? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2003, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioheads-paranoid-android-hitchhikers-guide/199029/10 "2003-09-02T14:09:49Z")
That’s funny this thread popped up. I just watched the six-part “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” on Sunday. I even thought to myself when the words “Paranoid Android” were said…“isn’t that a Radiohead song?..hmmm…”