Editing Paranoid Android (section)

==Writing and recording==

As with many other ''OK Computer'' tracks, "Paranoid Android" was recorded in [[St Catherine's Court]], a 15th-century mansion near the village of [[St Catherine, Somerset|St Catherine]], near [[Bath, Somerset]].<ref name="RSblurb">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6596101/paranoid_android |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061228111132/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6596101/paranoid_android |archive-date=2006-12-28 |title=Paranoid Android |date=9 December 2004 |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |access-date=4 October 2008}}</ref> It was produced by [[Nigel Godrich]].<ref name=":0" />

Inspired by the [[through-composed music|through-composed]] structure of the [[The Beatles|Beatles]]' 1968 song "[[Happiness Is a Warm Gun]]", Radiohead fused parts from three different songs.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Everything in its Right Place: Analyzing Radiohead|last=Osborn|first=Brad|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2016}}</ref> Other inspirations included [[Queen (band)|Queen's]] "[[Bohemian Rhapsody]]" and the work of the [[Pixies (band)|Pixies]].<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Sutherland |first=Mark |date=31 May 1997 |title=Return of the Mac! |magazine=[[Melody Maker]] <!--|url=http://colin-greenwood-interviews.blogspot.com/2007/04/melody-maker-31051997.html-->}}</ref> 

The first version was over 14&nbsp;minutes long and included a long [[Hammond organ]] outro performed by [[Jonny Greenwood]].<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Thom Yorke loves to skank |magazine=[[Q (magazine)|Q]] |date=12 August 2002}}</ref><ref name="Doheny62">Doheny, 2002. p. 62.</ref> The guitarist [[Ed O'Brien]] said: "We'd be pissing ourselves while we played. We'd bring out the [[glockenspiel]] and it would be really, really funny."<ref name="Doheny62" /> The singer, [[Thom Yorke]], sarcastically referred to this version as "a [[Pink Floyd]] cover".<ref name="Footman, 54">Footman, 2007. p. 54</ref> Greenwood said later that the organ solo was "hard to listen to without clutching the sofa for support".<ref name=":0">{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/radioheads-ok-computer-an-oral-history-196156/|title=Radiohead's 'OK Computer': An Oral History|last=Greene|first=Andy|date=16 June 2017|magazine=Rolling Stone|language=en-US|access-date=24 May 2019}}</ref> Godrich said: "Nothing really happened with the outro. It just spun and spun and it got very [[Deep Purple]] and went off."<ref name=":0" /> An early extended version was included on the 2019 compilation ''[[MiniDiscs (Hacked)|MiniDiscs [Hacked]]]''.<ref name=":02">{{Cite web|url=https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/radiohead-ok-computer-leak-best-songs/|title=The best, weirdest, and most revealing moments on Radiohead's ''OK Computer'' sessions leak|last1=Larson|first1=Jeremy D.|last2=Greene|first2=Jayson|date=12 June 2019|website=Pitchfork|access-date=12 June 2019}}</ref>

Influenced by the editing of the Beatles' ''[[Magical Mystery Tour]]'', Radiohead shortened the song to six and a half minutes,<ref name="Randall150s">Randall, 2004. pp. 150–151.</ref> with the organ solo replaced with a shorter guitar outro.<ref name="Kitts">Kitts, 2002. p. 151.</ref> The bassist, [[Colin Greenwood]], said the band "felt like irresponsible schoolboys ... Nobody does a six-and-a-half-minute song with all these changes. It's ridiculous."<ref>Randall, 2002. pp. 214–215.</ref> For the ending, Yorke recorded himself shouting gibberish into a [[Dictaphone]].<ref name="Gordon-2023">{{Cite magazine |last=Gordon |first=Jason Thomas |date=2023-09-08 |title=The songs that make Thom Yorke cry |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/thom-yorke-neil-young-bob-dylan-makes-him-cry-1234819196/ |access-date=2023-09-08 |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |language=en-US}}</ref> Godrich edited the parts together with tape. He said: "It’s a very hard thing to explain, but it’s all on [[24-track]] and it runs through ... I was very pleased with myself. I sort of stood there and said, 'You guys have ''no idea'' what I've just done.' It was pretty clever."<ref name=":0" /> 

The title is taken from [[Marvin the Paranoid Android]] from the science fiction series ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]].'' Yorke said the title was a joke: "It was like, 'Oh, I'm so depressed.' And I just thought, that's great. That's how people would ''like'' me to be ... The rest of the song is not personal at all."<ref name="Jam" />