11. Alan PriceO Lucky Man!
Alan Price is definitely someone my parents introduced me to, it’s one of those stories like, "Your father took me out on a date to O Lucky Man! and I knew he was cool", but then in high school I had the required Malcolm McDowell obsession – all rebellious and of course once you’ve watched Clockwork Orange you’ve got to go back to if…., and I’m pretty sure that O Lucky Man! is the continuation of the same character from if…. and it’s just one of those great modern fables. I’m surprised people aren’t as into it. If you watch that opening scene in black and white, it’s kind of the same over the top kangaroo court scene that we were trying to get in the Break Line song ‘I’m To Blame’. The silent scene in the movie is brutal but it’s also ridiculous and over the top. Malcolm McDowell has a giant moustache, he’s like a South American coffee picker – he’s caught stealing coffee beans and they go to his trial and this disgusting judge smoking a cigar, drooling, sentences him to getting his hands chopped off; it’s very extreme and it just flashes "GUILTY. GUILTY. GUILTY" and we do that in our song with everyone saying "guilty", it’s a little O Lucky Man! homage. The line in that song, "In case of murder in the second degree/ The jury now all agrees guilty/ So you will hang, hang by the noose" and my friend’s dad said you don’t get hanged for murder in the second degree, but we need that "murder in the second de-gree", that extra syllable!
