An old song which was just being written as The Bends was released in March 1995, and performed many times since. The band were trying to achieve the effect of Miles Davies' 'Bitches Brew' with a sub-aqua sound of electric keyboards and soft guitars. When played live, Thom plays the Rhodes piano.

Originally called "Uptight," which is how Jonny referred to it in its early staged, the song pays homage to Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues."

It deals with alien abduction and stems from two incidents in Thom's life. The first occured at Abingdon School, when he was assigned an essay question that went something like this: "If you were an alien from another planet arriving on Earth, how would you describe what you saw?" The second incident occurred when Thom was driving down a country road and hit a bird (which he believes was a pheasant). He stepped out of the car and at that moment began thinking about alien abduction.

Subterranean Homesick Alien was first played acoustically back in 1995 during radio broadcasts. It wasn't until OK Computer was made that the organ was added. The earliest version was released on the compilation Rare on Air: Volume 4, which sees Thom and Jonny playing the song with acoustic guitars; both versions are sung together and the song closes with the chorus.

It was recorded in their Oxford studios, Canned Applause.