Flashback To Weezer’s Cover Of Radiohead Hit “Paranoid Android”

Flashback To Weezer’s Cover Of Radiohead Hit “Paranoid Android”

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Weezer. Photo by Ebet Roberts/Redferns/Getty Images.

“Paranoid Android” was originally released by Radiohead in 1997 on their third studio album, OK Computer. Taking inspiration from Pink Floyd and the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour, the song was born from an experimental jam session before being honed into an elegant composition. Discussing the track, lead singer Thom Yorke said: “Each time I’d hear it, I’d keep thinking about people doing intricate jobs in factories…working on industrial lathes…getting injured from the shock of being exposed to it.”

The band had started out with grand-intentions of creating a 14-minute epic, before trimming the track in half during the recording process. “We’d be pissing ourselves while we played,” Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien said in reference to a huge Jonny Greenwood organ outro which originally appeared in the song.  “We’d bring out the glockenspiel and it would be really, really funny,” he added.

Watch as cover kings, Weezer earn their stripes with a masterful recreation of the complicated arrangement below:

Weezer | “Paranoid Android”

As one of the most significant tracks in Radiohead’s incredible catalogue, numerous artists have attempted to put their own spin on “Paranoid Android”, but the six-and-a-half-minute epic certainly isn’t for the faint-hearted!

But if anyone’s up for a challenging cover – it’s Weezer. They proved themselves up for taking on familiar pop classics, like The Monkees’ “I’m a Believer” for Shrek and The Cars’ “You Might Think” for Cars 2. But it was a fan’s successful viral campaign, begging them to cover Toto’s “Africa” that gave them their biggest hit in ages, and a great idea that eventuated into the Teal Album – an LP of largely faithful pre-’90s covers, across a range of genres, that proved them truly capable of morphing into any band they want.

Listen to Weezer (Teal Album) on Spotify:

Listen to Weezer (Teal Album) on Apple Music:

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