Actions
Happy Cycling
| Happy Cycling | |
|---|---|
| Running time | 1:49 (A Few Old Tunes) 7:51 (MHTRTC) 7:56 (Peel Session) 7:27 (Live @ Warp10) 7:55 (All Tomorrow's Parties) |
| Appears on | A Few Old Tunes MHTRTC Peel Session Live @ Warp10 All Tomorrow's Parties |
Samples/Lyrics
- Though it is still a matter of debate, the eerie choir heard throughout much of "Happy Cycling" is thought to have been sampled from Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" or possibly Norman Jewison's "Jesus Christ Superstar".
- The backmasked vocals beginning roughly at 6:25 are thought to be of an interview with Jeff Lynne of the Electric Light Orchestra. The subject seems to be ELO's supposed use of backmasking on their song "Eldorado" from the album of the same name, and the controversy thereof. Though the vocals are occasionally difficult to understand when reversed, the following transcript is relatively complete:
- (Interviewer's voice): "... to tell us about backwards masking ??? and the Electric Light Orchestra. A whole crowd of ... got all ... because they thought that if ... but, when it was hand-spun backwards on a turntable, and it said something like 'Christ is inferno'. Anyway, it was enough to ... cause some problems for ELO and Jeff Lynn in particular."
- (Jeff Lynn's voice): "It is absolutely ...don't ask why I said that. It didn't say anything, anything of the sort. And uhm, that was total...in fact, it was a mistake, isn't it. Because anyone who can write a song played forwards and have it say something else backwards has got to be some kind of genius, and that I ain't! I was upset at first by the accusations, you know, but now, but now I would find them funny ... we're totally innocent of all those claims ... and we're all God-fearing chaps!"
External Links
- Click here to listen to the backmasked vocals at the end of Happy Cycling. The clip has been reversed, and hard panned to the right channel to boost the vocals.
- [1] on Wikipedia
- Electric Light Orchestra on Wikipedia
- Jeff Lynne on Wikipedia
- Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" on IMDB
- Norman Jewison's "Jesus Christ Superstar" on IMDB