Movies - List of cultural references to A Clockwork Orange

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	Movies - List of cultural references to A Clockwork Orange

Both the story and individual elements of A Clockwork Orange have had a strong influence on popular culture in general and popular music in particular, although this is probably due to the movie's popularity rather than the novel's. Countless other references can be traced in books, movies, and even computer games.

Music

Major examples are the Droog image of punk band The Adicts, the 1980s British electropop band Heaven 17 taking their name from an eponymous band in the book. British dance act Moloko's name simply means "milk" in Russian, but it was adopted indirectly from Nadsat in which it has the same basic meaning, but also refers to a milk drink with admixed drugs. Blur paid homage to the movie version of A Clockwork Orange in the video for their song The Universal, in which Damon Albarn is dressed as Alex. UK's Sigue Sigue Sputnik used in 1986 both the word "ultraviolence" and samples from the film on their single 'Love Missile F1-11', also adopting the film's imagery for their stage costumes and video clips. New Order had previously used "Ultraviolence" as the title of a track on its 1983 album "Power, Corruption and Lies". References in pop music abound outside the English-speaking world as well. In 1988, the German punk rock outfit Die Toten Hosen released their breakthrough concept album Ein kleines bisschen Horrorshow (a reference to Alex's Nadsat phrase a bit of horrorshow ), having been involved as musicians in a German stage production of A Clockwork Orange.

Also, quite interestingly, Japanese visual kei band Dir en Grey have a song on their album VULGAR called "Marmalade Chainsaw," which lead singer and songwriter Kyo has said is a portrait of how it feels to be him in front of a live crowd, which parallels Alex. One can find references to the story even without reading between the lines, such as the lines that can be translated to "an Orange-d up death thirteen" and "a clockwork death thirteen" in the chorus.

Other music references:

During Led Zeppelin's 1975 tour, drummer John Bonham frequently appeared onstage in the movie's Droog costume: white overalls and black bowler hat.
The Ramones album Too Tough to Die features an instrumental called Durango 95, and the album cover shows the band backlit at the mouth of a tunnel, echoing the film scene where Alex and his droogs attack a derelict.
In 2002, Poland's alternative stars Myslovitz released an album entitled Korova Milky Bar, a reference to the place where Alex and his friends meet to consume their drug-enhanced moloko. The Streetpunk/oi! band Lower Class Brats, whose singer even goes by the moniker Bones DeLarge, has maintained a theme of both the film and the book in the band's lyrics, merchandise, and even the members' tattoos. Other "Clockwork punk" bands include Major Accident, MACC LADS, and The Devotchkas. Countless other references can be traced in books, movies, and even computer games.
In 2005 Stereo Total from Germany turned the film's title music into their song 'Orange mécanique'.
R&B Singer Usher's outfit was influenced by the main character in which he wears the bowler hat and has the trademark drawn eyelash on his left eye. In the video, "My Way" he plays the protagonist to singer, Tyrese Gibson, where he playfully flirts with his girlfriend. He has a street gang who all wear bowler hats and dance in this neon-graffiti-street-gang world. Norwegian punk band Turbonegro's lead singer is seen with trademark eyelashes on both eyes and also wears a bowler hat during performances.
More contemporary Oi/Skinhead bands such as the Clockwork Crew consistently use themes from Alex' appearance in their logos and artwork; Also, the novel and movie remains hugely popular among street skins and punks.
Clockwork Orange is also the name of a progressive rock band from Bangalore, India. There was a surf rock band in the 1960s called The Clockwork Oranges.
In Rob Zombie
's song "Never Gonna Stop" there are several references to the film in the lyrics, "My Durango 95", which is the car that was driven in the "hogs of the road" scene and "step back and watch it flow" referring to the blood that pours from Alex's victims . In the video, Rob is seen dressed as Alex, with his band as droogs. The video features an homage to the milkbar scene and the "hogs of the road" scene. The song's alternate title (and the female-sung lyric) is "Red, Red Kroovy," a Nadsat expression for blood.
In David Bowie
's song "Suffragette City," his words are directed at a "droogy." Further, in Ziggy Stardust: the Motion Picture, the pre- and post-show music playing on the house system (which Bowie is seen whistling along to backstage) is from the Clockwork Orange soundtrack. Also the liner notes of Bowie's 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
featured a photograph of Bowie and his band dressed in A Clockwork Orange paraphernalia.
Shihad, a band from New Zealand, also made their video clip for "Pacifier" (1999) as a tribute to the film. The band appeared as gang in costume, in the milk bar, playing as the band and driving in the Lotus. The song had widespread success as a single in New Zealand and Australia, and the video has had large rotation on television stations.
In 1991, U2 released the single "The Fly." On the CD single, a "B" side track was entitled Alex descends into hell for a bottle of milk/Korova 1.
In 1982, Californian punk band TSOL used the Clockwork Orange film logo font (Timepiece) for their album 'Beneath The Shadows'.
Underground rapper Cage released a song loosely based on A Clockwork Orange, featuring excerpts and references from the novel in his song 'Agent Orange.'
The track Orange on Kasabian's debut album homages elements of A Clockwork Orange's soundtrack.
The band The Skoidats 1999 album, A Cure for What Ales You, contains a song called The Night of the Droogs with lines such as "The blood will flow like Clockwork Red." Of course, the chorus is "This is the Night, the Night of the Droogs."
In the Faith No More video for the song "Falling to Pieces", singer Mike Patton dresses up as Alex in several shots.
Australian group Shihad/Pacifier also have a music video where they re-enact scenes from A Clockwork Orange.

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