Triple Threat: OMC, House of Pain, Deep Blue Something

OMC - How Bizarre

SCORE: 98

House of Pain - Jump Around

SCORE: 102

Deep Something Blue - Breakfast at Tiffany's

SCORE: 70




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The 90's were a great time for music, and one hit wonders. The New Zealand sensation OMC, otherwise known as Otara Millionaires Club, released their hit "How Bizarre" in 1996. The song made them worldwide superstars, at least for a little while.

The song is full of fun and real situations that could happen to anyone just driving around a day in the summer. There is a ton of imagery in the first stanza "Brother Pele....Chevy '69'"; and the humor of the cop pulling them over just to look at the car is very comical.

Ambiguity can be seen in the second stanza with the line "Destination unknown,"; this showing that they are just hanging out, having a good time, and don't know where they wanna go that day. The allusion to the animals, "Elephants and acrobats, lions snakes monkey", give a slight allusion that they might be going to a circus. The continues with the allusions to the "ring master", "the elephants" and "the clowns".

Later in that same stanza, it talks about how there were police and reporters and choppers in the sky at the circus. This imagery causes us to believe that something went wrong. This idea is reinforced when say " 'We're outta here,' ". The song leaves on a cliffhanger saying "Wanna know the rest? Hey, buy the rights..."

The ambiguity at the end must have been enough for the fans of OMC to help catapult them onto charts for a short 16 week stint.

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Another song that helped us all move a bit more in the 90's is the dance hit "Jump Around" by House of Pain. The Irish styled hip-hop group was together from 1992-1996. They went on to make more CDs and each member also went solo, but nothing was able to match the success of their 90's hit.

It starts as a rap battle in the first stanza, each person in the song calling each other out. They talk about beating each other up and such, and then it starts to show its real literary value. He first says "I got more rhymes than there's cops that are dunking/Donuts shop". This is a great metaphor, but also a great play on words. If you put the last word of the first line and the first word of the second line together; you get the breakfast tycoon "Dunking Donuts".

The second stanza also adds more literary devices. He starts by saying "I'll serve your ass like John MacEnroe". A great simile and also a perfect allusion to the anger that Mr. MacEnroe was known for showing on the court. He also brings in the Good Book in for some more allusion action; "I got more rhymes than the Bible's got psalms/and just like the Prodigal Son I've returned". He is making references, almost saying that he is the greatest person of all time! After that he later makes reference to pig's as cops and then Terminator's ("Arnold Schwarzenegger").

Even though many parts of this song are crude and rude, The House of Pain was able to throw in many literary devices and score high on our song rating system.

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The 90's single "Breakfast at Tiffany's" was inspired by the classic Audrey Hepburn movie, which was as big a hit as this song was. Deep Something Blue released this song in 1996 and was able to stick around in our ears for a while, since this song is still a regular on most radio stations.

The main motif in the song is the idea of an imminent breakup of a boyfriend and girlfriend. The boyfriend struggles to find the one thing that they have in common. The only thing he can come up with is the movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's". The song reflects the movie itself, almost making it an entire allusion to the plot of the movie. In the movie, the main character, Holly, is passing codes for the mob and is an eccentric socialite that fends off boys and so on. However, the song was actually inspired by a completely different movie, Roman Holiday, as stated by the writer. As shown by the score, the song lacks a lot of important literary devices and is actually a very sub par song.

Lyrical Analysis Numbah 2 - She's...Well You Know

She's So High - Tal Bachman

She's blood, flesh, and bone. No tucks or silicone
She's touch, smell, sight, taste and sound.
But somehow I can't believe that anything should happen
I know where I belong and nothing's gonna happen

Cause, She's so high, high above me. She's so lovely
She's so high, like Cleopatra, Joan of Ark or Aphrodite
Too-too-too.
She's so high, high above me

First class and fancy free, she's high society
She's got the best of everything
What could a guy like me ever really offer?
She's perfect as she can be, why should I even bother, a-hah

[Repeat chorus][solo *]

She comes to speak to me, I freeze immediately
Cause what she says sounds so unreal
Cause somehow I can't believe that anything should happen
I know where I belong and nothings gonna happen

[Repeat chorus]

In the 90's, we got a good group of one hit wonders. One of them, was Tal Bachman. The Canadian, born in Manitoba, is best known for his smash 1999 hit "She's So High". The song earned him BMI's Song of the Year, and established him as a simple, yet deep lyricist. However, his star power did not last, and he faded away from our music memories. His ancestry in music consists of his father, Canadian rocker Randy Bachman, of Bachman Turner Overdrive.

In the song, Tal uses the literary device of allusion, using one thing as a reference to something else, to portray his thoughts on a girl that he believes is way to good for him. In the first stanza, he talks about how "She's blood, flesh and bone". This line is a perfect example of the allusions we were talking about before. With out saying it, he shows us how real of a human being she is having all the qualities needed to sustain life. Another great example of the allusion in the song found in the first stanza is "She's touch, smell, sight, taste and sound". Obviously these are allusions to the senses of the human body, but this also says how important she is to him. With out any of these common everyday things, a human would not be able to function properly.

Another really great allusion can also be found in the chorus in the line, "She's so high, like Cleopatra, Joan of Ark or Aphrodite". This powerful line shows how much meaning she really has to the speaker. All three of these women did very important things in world history. Him alluding and comparing this girl to them makes her all most seem invincible, and invoked with awesome powers. Not only is this an allusion, but it is also a comparison using like or as, a simile.

Tal's use of the allusion is used perfectly in the song "She's So High". Even though he only had this one big hit in the state, Tal Bachman was able to give insight into using historical and scientific references in music.

Weird Music - Backmasking and Reverse Speech (Not Theme-Genre)

To preface all of these claims, notice how all of them have to deal with either sometime taboo in society, the devil, or something illegal. Not one of these hidden messages are about positive values or something in the least bit happy. Also, a lot of the claims are up for debate. Once someone tells you that something is there, obviously your ears are going to be automatically tuned to look for those. The gibberish in speech of children does make me think that they are speaking backwards and I would be interested in conducting and experiment in recording a baby and playing it backwards to see what happens.

1.The Beatles's song - "Help" }
2.Paul McCartney - "Band On The Run" }
In the songs, you can almost definitely hear the whole word "marijuana" and it is clear from their drug use at the time that the Beatles would take the time and effort to make something so small able to be heard at a later date. It is coincidence though that he did get "banished" years after the song was made. However, I think these are more backmasking than reverse speech, just for the sheer fact of the excessive drug use. }
3.Cheap Trick - "Gonna Raise Hell"
It was easy to hear the "keys" and "lock" in the song. I believe this is more reverse speech, and it wasn't put their by the band, even if it does relate directly to the title of the song ("Hell").
4.George Harrison - "Here comes the Sun"
The "he needs this mystery girl" is a tough one. Like Kefor described to me, it could be about the Clapton/Layla saga. However, I think it could also be a reference to Yoko Ono and Lennon. This one is probably reverse speech as well.
5.Judas Priest - ""Beyond the Realms Of Death"
This one sounds more like backmasking.
6.Queen - "Another one bites the dust"
This pretty much ruined one of my favorite Queen songs. This is definitely a case of reverse speech. If you listen close enough to the song forward you can actually hear it when they play it backwards clear as day. The way he sings it, almost planned but not really, sounds like the words depicted in reverse.
7.Britney Spears - "One more time"
This one is definitely reverse speech. Most likely a guy was just fantasizing one day and decided, "wouldn't it be cool if she was saying that". You can definitely hear it but I don't think it was put there intentionally.
8.The Eagles - "Hotel California"
Could be either or. However, I believe this could be backmasking.
9.Styx
This one is reverse speech. Styx wasn't cool enough to do this on purpose.
10.Led Zeppelin - "Stairway to Heaven"
Obviously the most well known evidence of this theory. Obviously this is Backmasking at its finest. The whole song can be accounted for as a proclamation in contrast to the meaning of the song. Since the whole song is about getting into heaven, it is appropriate that the whole idea backwards is about hell.

http://www.reversespeech.com/music_reversals.htm