Last week this comment was left behind by Ian Balentine:-
“Theme For Great Cities was totally ripped off for the Radiohead song “Where I End And You Begin” from Hail To The Thief. Not saying that’s a bad song, I just wish they’d give SImple MInds a songwriting credit. Listen side by side and you’ll cringe.”
It’s been a long long while since I listened to Hail To The Thief in its entirety so I fished out the copy from the CD shelves. Lo and behold……
mp3 : Radiohead – Where I End And You Belong (The Sky Is Falling In)
mp3 : Simple Minds – Theme For Great Cities
I have to add that all these years later I heard lots of cracking things on Hail To The Thief that passed me on its release in 2003. It’s still a bit hit’nmiss in places but there’s a lot more to enjoy about it than I previously recalled. And its opening track is an absolute belter. Here it is with the other tracks that were on the two CD singles:-
mp3 : Radiohead – 2+2 =5
mp3 : Radiohead – Remyxomatosis (Christian Vogel RMX)
mp3 : Radiohead – There There (first demo)
mp3 : Radiohead – Skttrbrain (Four Tet remix)
mp3 : Radiohead – I Will (Los Angeles version)
Be warned…..there’s loads of electronic noodling on these mixes of tracks that all made the final cut of the LP. Havingsaid that, the 7 minute plus version of There There is fascinating just to compare it to the later version and mix that was released as a single.
Enjoy
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Thanks for the shout! It’s just one of those things that us music nerds do, you know? Anyway, I absolutely love Hail To The Thief, it sounds like nothing else in their catalog and is unfairly forgotten when discussing the great Radiohead albums. I never get bored of it!
Wouldn’t go as far as ‘totally ripped off’ myself but a great spot and definitely ‘influenced’ by just as, say, Chelsea Girl borrowed a riff from Lou Reed’s Temporary Thing which Jim Kerr has happily since acknowledged.
‘There There’ is my favourite Radiohead song, I love ‘Punchup At A Wedding’ to. Agree with Ian, HttT is a really good record. It certainly beats the living crap out of the pretentious, tuneless dirges they’ve seen fit to put out since.
There is indeed a remarkable similarity.
No brainer here @ianbalentine hit it on the head!! Now hears hoping they SM open with that track on Friday night when I see them in Washington DC!!