Heavy Metal Poisoning
Written by James Young
Lead Vocals by James Young
murolceS odrO suvoN sitpeoC tiunnA
What the devil's goin' on
Why don't your turn that music down
You're going deaf and that's for sure
But all you do is scream for more
Get the lead out go for broke
Pop your pills and drink and smoke
Shoot those chemicals into your vein
Anything to ease the pain
Heavy metal (heavy metal) poisoning (it's a poison)
A toxic wasteland (got a toxic wasteland) in your ear canal (in your ear canal!)
Overloaded (I'm overloaded), suffering (yeah!)
Overloaded (overloaded) on sex and drugs
Everything is black and white
You are wrong and we are right
First we'll spank your big behinds
Then we'll twist your little minds
I'm Dr. Righteous (I'm Dr. Righteous), and I'm here to sing (yeah!)
That heavy metal (heavy metal) is poisoning
It's a music wasteland, that destroys the young (yeah!)
They're overloaded (overloaded) on sex and drugs, sex and drugs, sex and drugs
And rock and roll!
sterces eht sdloh nataS
I'm Dr. Righteous (I'm Dr. Righteous), and I'm here to sing (yeah!)
That heavy metal (heavy metal) is poisoning
It's a music wasteland, that destroys the young (yeah!)
They're overloaded (overloaded) on sex and drugs, sex and drugs, sex and drugs
And rock and roll!
Heavy metal (heavy metal) poisoning (it's a poison)
A toxic wasteland (got a toxic wasteland) in your love canal love canal!)
Overloaded (I'm overloaded), suffering (yeah!)
Overloaded (overloaded) on sex and drugs, sex and drugs, sex and drugs
sex and drugs, sex and drugs, sex and drugs, sex and drugs, sex and drugs
"Righteous! Righteous!..."
"Shut up!"
"...Righteous! Righteous! Righteous! Righteous! Righteous! Yeah!"
"Shut up! Shut up!"
[giggles]
From the liner notes:
THE PAST
Dr. Everett Righteous, founder and leader of the MMM, (The Majority For Musical Morality) became influential in American politics through the use of his own cable T.V. network. He spoke about the evils of rock 'n' roll music, and how it's permissive attitudes were responsible for the moral and economic decline of America. He was charismatic, entertaining, and above all, he understood the media. The MMM soon gained enough power to have rock 'n' roll banned.
Obviously written tongue-in-cheek, Heavy Metal Poisoning mocks those who put down rock & roll music without truly understanding it. In the Kilroy Was Here concept, the evil Dr. Righteous is telling the misguided youth of America that they are being destroyed by the rock and roll music they love. Parallelling the scapegoating used by the Nazis and other totalitarian states, he associates all of America's ills with rock music, using it as a vehicle for orchestrating his own personal power grab while simultaneously sacrificing the freedom of expression as a means of desensitizing the populace to other censorship that is necessary to maintain control in a totalitarian state. These ends are clearly stated in the lines "Everything is black and white/ You are wrong and we are right/ First we'll spank your big behinds/ Then we'll twist your little minds"
It is interesting that Dr. Righteous chooses to use a hard rocking heavy metal sound to get his message across to the youth he is targeting since it is just that type of music that he is condemning. It is reminiscent of the doublespeak employed by the government in George Orwell's classic novel 1984 to condition the populace to accept contradiction as normal so that they will believe anything the government tells them without question . It is also interesting that the song begins with a backward message which when played in reverse says "Annuit Coeptis Novus Ordo Seclorum" a Latin phrase on the U.S. dollar bill meaning "God has favored our undertakings, a new order of the ages." Dr. Righteous apparently is trying to subliminally influence the listener to believe that his message is favored by God and his movement is "a new order of the ages." Later in the song, during a guitar solo there is a background sound which may also be a backward message. When played in reverse, the many hear the sound as "Satan holds the secrets," which would indicate that Dr. Righteous is secretly trying to influence the listener in other evil ways as well. If this is, in fact, the second backwards message (the words are nearly unintelligible), it may also be a reference to Satan's role in convincing Adam and Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge in disobedience of God's commands, causing humanities fall from grace (Genesis, Chapter 3). Many others hear the sound as "Sparky holds the secrets," which would be a reference to Sparky The Wonder Dog, whose name appears in a show bill on the cover of Paradise Theatre and who is mentioned in the song Rockin' The Paradise from that album in the line "go Sparky, go!" In this interpretation, the message would be Styx parodying the absurdity of accusing them of placing backward Satanic messages in their songs by placing a backward message that is completely silly but still could be interpreted incorrectly if you want to hear it. Leave it to jokesters like Styx to equate Satan to Sparky The Wonder Dog!
The song uses a couple of interesting plays on words. First, the term "heavy metal poisoning" is relating the rock & roll musical genre called heavy metal to the medical disorder called heavy metal poisoning. Second, at the end of the song, the term "love canal" is substituted for "ear canal" from previous verses. Perhaps the most infamous case of an environmental disaster surrounding a toxic waste dump was at Love Canal, New York, in 1977. A possible additional double meaning to this term is the common reference of the vagina as the "love canal," which may be a reference to the sex portion of the line "sex and drugs and rock & roll" whereas the earlier use of the term "ear canal" is obviously a reference to the rock & roll portion of that phrase.
[Editor's note]
The first backward message, "Novus Ordo Seclorum," has been repeatedly acknowledged by Styx as having been intentionally placed there in response to the false allegations about backmasking on the song Snowblind. However, the second backward message has not been acknowledged by the band except in a Rockline interview when JY and Dennis indicated only that there is another message. Below is an excerpt from that interview:
JY
The first message on the beginning of side 2 is "Novus Ordo Seclorum". If you have a dollar bill in your pockets, open it up and take a look on the back of that dollar bill right where the big eye is on top of the pyramid, you'll notice this saying.
Dennis
There are other "secret backwards messages"...
JY
At least one more.
Dennis
...and we're not going to tell you what it says. But it's in there and it's not really worth your effort and ruining the needle on your record player. It was a joke. It was intended as kind of a...
JY
As a response to accusations that have been leveled at us in the past.
Dennis
The reason that's on there is that they tried to pass some laws in a few states around the country, whereby [record companies] had to put a sticker of that nature on albums saying that there were "secret backward *satanic* messages." And I suppose that the whole concept of Kilroy and that particular sticker is in response to it.
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