'E=MC Squared' Lyrics Trivia Quiz

Answer: In a way I know

Big Audio Dynamite's somewhat abstract lyrics are said to be influenced by the works of Nicholas Roeg. Nicholas Roeg co-directed films such as 'Performance'(1970) and directed 'Walkabout' (1971), 'Don't Look Now' (1973), 'The Man Who Fell To Earth' (1976), 'Bad Timing' (1980), 'Eureka' (1983) and 'Insignificance' (1985).

He was also director of photography for 'Fahrenheit 451' (1966). 'E=MC Squared' is filled with imagery from his movies and their video for the song includes descriptive snippets of 'Performance', 'The Man Who Fell to Earth' and 'Insignificance'.

Answer: first reel

These lines describe a scene in Roeg's film 'Walkabout': a father intent on suicide drives himself and his two children in to the heart of the Outback. He then attempts (and fails) to kill his two children but then kills himself. This happens right at the beginning of the film.

Answer: Supposed to be, aborigine

Again, these lines make reference to Roeg's film 'Walkabout'. The two abandoned children (played by Jenny Agutter and Roeg's son Luc) meet an Aborigine teenager who is on his rite-of-manhood walkabout. He helps them to survive.

Answer: fans

This is Big Audio Dynamite's reference to Roeg's film: 'Performance' starring Mick Jagger and James Fox. The plot: a flashy young gangster called Chas (Fox) has to go on the run when he antagonizes his boss, Harry Flowers, by murdering a rival in a grudge vendetta.

He eventually hides out in a house run by a reclusive pop star in retirement, Turner (Jagger). Turner lives in Powis Square, London.

Answer: Slaying

Again another reference to Chas's killing of a rival to his boss, Harry Flowers in 'Performance'.

Answer: must be found

In 'Performance', Jagger's character has a profound effect upon the strait-laced Chas, introducing him to the Bohemian lifestyle of the rich and the famous: drug taking and gender bending. This changes Chas's perceptions about life in a dramatic way.

Answer: No people prophecy

Answer: nudge reality

Answer: No

The correct lyrics are as follows: 'Foresight mind's wide, Magic imagery oh, oh'.

Answer: dwarf, Little Red Riding Hood

A tribute to the film: 'Don't Look Now' starring Donald Sutherland (John Baxter) and Julie Christie (Laura Baxter). The plot: John and Laura Baxter are living in Venice when they meet a pair of elderly sisters, one of whom claims to be psychic. She insists that she sees the spirit of the Baxters' daughter, who recently drowned. Laura is intrigued, but John resists the idea.

He does, however, seem to have his own psychic flashes, seeing their daughter walk the streets in her red cloak, hence Big Audio Dynamite references to 'Little Red Riding Hood'.

The dwarf attacks John Baxter in the movie (but not very pc now).

Answer: calling card

The dwarf as stated above attacks and kills John Baxter, revealing important information about their daughter to him at this point in the film.

Answer: the last

Much is talked about the sex scene between Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland in 'Don't Look Now'. It has been described as erotic, sensual, real. Roeg's style of cutting enhanced the effect of this scene.

Answer: Funeral

This makes reference to John Baxter's funeral after being killed in 'Don't Look Now'.

Answer: time, international dateline

The 'Space guy' refers to David Bowie's character, Mr Newton, in Nicholas Roeg's 'The Man Who Fell To Earth'.

Answer: Scientist

A reference to the film 'Insignificance' when Roeg presents us with the mind blowing proposition that: four 1950's cultural icons (Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio and Senator Joseph McCarthy) who conceivably could have met and probably didn't, do in this modern fable of post-WWII America.

The 'Scientist', 'Hall of fame baseball' and 'Senator' are therefore references to three of the main characters in this film.

Answer: screen

This makes reference to Mr Newton's fascination with American TV. He had watched it on his planet and had thought that television had told him all he needed to know about humans. He is an alien on a desperate mission to save his planet from a drought and has come to Earth for water in the process, he gets captured, exploited by corporate goons, and finally addicted by our culture and his mission becomes slowly derailed. Big Audio Dynamite's lyrics refer to Newton's obsession with television, which he uses to forget his fears that he has failed his planet and family and his concerns about the troubled world that is Earth.

Answer: flame

The film 'Bad Timing' sets the scene for this section of the lyrics. A young woman, married to a Czech man, has overdosed on pills and is admitted to hospital. A police detective is convinced that her lover, an American Psychology professor, tried to kill her.

Theresa Russell plays the young woman, Harvey Keitel the detective and Art Garfunkel the Psychology professor. Theresa Russell plays a carefree spirited woman, hence the Big Audio Dynamite references to her being 'too hot to hold'.

Answer: Greek God

'Eureka's' plot describes a story where: Arctic prospector Jack McCann, after fifteen years of solitary searching, becomes one of the world's wealthiest men when he falls into a mountain of gold in 1925. In 1945, he lives in luxury on his own Caribbean island, but his wealth brings him no peace of mind as he copes with Helen, his bored, alcoholic wife Tracy, his dear, but headstrong, daughter who has married a dissolute, philandering social-climber and Miami mobsters who want his island to build a casino.

His life is entangled with the obsessions of those around him with greed, power, and debauchery against a background of occult symbolism.

Answer: In the sun

Again these lines of the song make reference to scenes in 'Eureka'.

Answer: Spread the news

Answer: Executives

The 'King of brains' refers to Einstein and 'Queen of sack' to Monroe in the film 'Insignificance'.

Answer: Avoid

Roeg, at times, experienced a love-hate relationship with his distributors. When he was co-directing 'Performance' with Donald Cammell, Warner Brothers (the Distributors) were apparently so horrified when they saw the final cut of sex, violence and questions of identity that they delayed the film's release for two years.

Answer: Sometimes

Answer: 1986

'E=MC Squared' reached its highest position in the UK charts on 22 March 1986, when it reached no. 11. At that point it had been in the UK charts for 9 weeks. The song featured on their debut album: 'This is Big Audio Dynamite'. The title was inspired by Einstein's role in the film 'Insignificance'.

The video incorporated images from the films: 'Performance', 'The Man Who Fell to Earth' and 'Insignificance'. They were cut together in a similar style to Roeg's, making for a bizarre and dramatic intersplicing of images in no particular order. Mick Jones and DJ Don Letts littered the album with samples to a degree that seems quite commonplace now, but was quite risky in 1985. 'E=MC Squared' is generally credited as the first rock hit to use these sample techniques.

Answer: The Clash

Mick Jones was a founding member of 'The Clash'. The band is described in the 'Guinness World Record of British Hit Singles' as 'Leading lights of the UK punk rock explosion'. Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon fired Mick from the band due to 'artistic differences'.

At the time that 'E=MC Squared' entered the UK charts, Don Letts, Greg Roberts, Dan Donovan and Leo 'Ezee Kill' Williams had joined him in the line-up. Later members of the band include: Ranking Roger, Mickey Custance, Darryl Fulstow, Nick Hawkins, Andre Shapps, Bob Wand and Joe Attard.