Ed O'Brien hears “Paranoid Android” in a 1970 Pretty Things song

Justin Richmond played Ed O'Brien “In The Square”, from the Pretty Things' 1970 album Parachute, on his Broken Record podcast, telling him it had always reminded him of “Paranoid Android”. O'Brien was on the show to promote Blue Morpho and had never heard the record. Before it started he asked whether people thought it was some kind of lift. When the major-key section gave way to dissonant guitar arpeggios his eyes went wide. Then he talked through the chords, G minor and F over G minor, before Radiohead go to E major and the Pretty Things stay in E minor.

See, we go major there. That's minor.

Ed O'Brien²

Later in the episode he remembered watching Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg at Coachella in 2012, the year Radiohead headlined too, and the weight of the bass. This makes us look like a fucking string quartet.¹ Radiohead have always wanted some of that West Coast depth, he says, and are still working on it. While they were making Kid A he was obsessed with Dre's production, Blackstreet's “No Diggity” above all, and he used to think how cool would it be for Radiohead to work with Dr. Dre?¹