Music / J.B.O.

J.B.O. is a German fun rock/metal band from Erlangen, Franconia. For quite some time a lot if not the majority of their songs made reference to their being from Erlangen (this one is probably the most "Erlangen" song they ever made) and it is still one of the first things people in Germany associate with the town. A good part of their songs are parodies of well-known rock/pop/metal/whatever songs. Or Theme Songs, like The Smurfs' one. Or Nursery Rhymes. However, just like "Weird Al" Yankovic tends to make a polka or at least a more polka-ish rendition out of (almost) everything he touches, JBO have a tendency to amp up the guitars and make the song a bit more "heavy" than the original, especially if their material used to be Schlager, Pop or some similar "soft" style of music. While their style is rather distinctive, there are a lot of songs that are not really similar to their work at all that are falsely attributed to them, even on YouTube. Basically, if it's funny and sung in German, chances are it has been falsely ascribed to JBO. Chances get higher with any mention of alcohol, drunkenness or laziness. This of course has also happened to Alber Yankovic quite a bit.

The name was supposed to mean "James Blast Orchester", parodying James Last, but is only used in the abbreviated form for legal reasons.

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Examples:

• Addiction Song: "Diggin' The Nose" is about being addicted to nose-picking and even compares it to cigarettes, cocaine and heroin.
• Anti-Love Song: "Liebe ist süß".
• Black Comedy Rape: The group's take on "Bolle" heavily implies that Bolle, after dying and going to paradise, proceeds to rape an angel.
• "Blind Idiot" Translation:
  • Invoked and exaggerated with the album Explizite Lyrik. In the middle of the cover is a black and white sticker reading "Parentales Advisorium — Explizite Lyrik". This is of course the typical "Parental Advisory — Explicit Lyrics" Content Warning sticker translated word by word to whichever language each word came from and then Germanized. The outcome of this attempt at a more-than-literal translation is extremely stilted "German".
  • The entirety of the Scorpions parody "Skorpione — Vom Winde verdreht", down to the cry "Bist du fertig, Säugling?" ("Are you ready, baby?")
• The Cameo: "Running Wild play Running Wild", part of Meister der Music, are Running Wild AsThemselves.
• Content Warnings: Lampooned by the "Blind Idiot" Translation of the Moral Guardians-enforced "Explicit Lyrics" sticker on the Explizite Lyrik cover. And half-Played Straight by an actual content warning at the bottom of the cover.
• Creator Provincialism: J.B.O. love to sing about their hometown of Erlangen, and they do it in such a way that you have to be at least Franconian to even get what they're singing about.
• Homesickness Hymn: "Büchenbacher Damm", the parody of John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" at the end of "Kuschelmetal", is this even more than the original.
• "I Am" Song: "J.B.O.", natch. Also "Fahrende Musikanten".
• In the Style of:
  • Nicole's Ein bisschen Frieden in the style of Rammstein doubles as Lyrical Dissonance (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmYxvjR7ZsI)
  • The titular tracks on Meister der Musik are fake commercials for a music compilation of famous songs covered by famous musicians and bands. Some are only hinted, but some are actually demo'd, for example Udo Lindenberg singing "Without You" by Nilsson (credited to Mariah Carey), "Sepp Mosch und seine Original Egerlinge" covering "In League With Satan" by Venom or Blümchen covering "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath.
• Lead Bassist: In "Könige", Schmitti tells us what he'd do if he was this, and the song demonstrates it.
• Lyrical Dissonance:
  • The aforementioned piece-themed, but Rammstein-styled Nicole schlager.
  • "Gänseblümchen" ("daisies") is another prominent example, being a love song that sounds really aggressive (except for the bridge, which inverts it).
• Medley: "Kuschelmetal". The title pokes fun at the popular Kuschel Rock series of soft rock/soft pop compilations, and the song itself is a string of Speed Metal covers of all kinds of songs, including but not limited to "Sailing" by Rod Stewart, "Dust In The Wind" by Kansas, "Yellow Submarine" by The Beatles, the shanty "What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor" and a German (read: Franconian) parody of "Take Me Home, Country Roads" by John Denver.
• Miniscule Rocking: Can be found throughout "Explizite Lyrik".
  • "Eistee's Mainzelcount" which is Body Count meets the Mainzelmännchen.
  • "Skorpione — Vom Winde verdreht" which is "Rock You Like A Hurricane" by the Scorpions translated into German.
  • "Diggin' The Nose" which is a Bruce Springsteen Song Parody.
  • "Rache!" which is a parody on the Commodores' "Nightshift".
• Ode to Intoxication:
  • The Eddy Grant parody "Gimme Dope Jo'anna", especially with the over-the-top studio-fu near the end.
  • "Fränkisches Bier" (Franconian beer) to the tune of "Griechischer Wein" by Udo Jürgens - really, at that point they should be getting money from some breweries.
• Nobody Loves the Bassist: Schmitti's complaint in "Könige" which leads to a Self-Demonstrating Song.
• Non-Appearing Title:
  • "Schlumpfozid im Stadtgebiet", a parody on Vader Abraham's Smurfs song.
  • "Ejaculatio praecox" is a parody on Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and repeats its use of the trope. It helps that the title is in Latin, and the song itself is in German.
  • "Diggin' The Nose (Hier bohrt der Boss noch selbst)" is another German song with a (partly) non-German tile.
  • The love song Deconstruction "Liebe ist süß".
• Nose Nuggets: "Diggin' The Nose", parodying "Born in the USA".
• Nursery Rhyme: "Schlaf, Kindlein, schlaf", but it's sung upon "Enter Sandman" by Metallica.
• Painful Rhyme: Invoked in "Skorpione — Vom Winde verdreht".
  Hier ich bint
  Rock dich wie a Wirbelwind
  Hier wir sind, äh
  Rocken dich wie vier Wirbelwinde
• Product Placement: Kitzmann-Bier would be largely unknown outside of Franconia, weren't it for J.B.O.
• Raging Stiffie: "Walk with an erection" (a parody on "Walk like an Egyptian" by The Bangles). In a public swimming pool, of all places.
• Real Men Wear Pink: They have a liking for the color, you just have to take a look at their CD covers.
• Re Release The Song: "Ein guter Tag zum Sterben" to the point of becoming a Running Gag.
• Running Gag:
  • "Ein guter Tag zum Sterben" became this because it kept re-appearing on J.B.O.'s earlier releases.
  • Beer from Paris being terrible. And blatant Product Placement for Kitzmann-Bier.
• Self-Demonstrating Song: In the second verse of "Könige", bassist Schmitti Schmittschmitt complains that Nobody Loves the Bassist and demands the guitars be quieter and his bass be louder—which promptly happens.
• Song Parody: Lots and lots, usually but not always on songs that aren't even Metal (or not hard at all).
• Song Style Shift:
  • "Kuschelmetal" is mostly Speed Metal, but it's interrupted for a deliberately bad acoustic version of "My Bonnie" with stupid German lyrics.
  • The two "Medtl-Gschdanzls" are acoustic during the vocal parts and increasingly metal during the instrumental parts.
• Studio Chatter: "Liebe ist süß" ends abruptly after a few seconds, being displaced by some over-the-top extreme Death Metal with Metal Screaming and Guttural Growling for another few seconds before the studio hand who caused this accident is scolded and beaten up by the producer.
• Surprisingly Gentle Song: J.B.O.'s cover of "Ace Of Spades" by Motörhead of all songs. They've turned it into an acoustic ballad.
• Take That!: The "Medtl-Gschdanzls" consist mostly of this plus some Incredibly Lame Puns and combinations of both.
  • The "Medtl-Gschdanzl '97" mentions Take That! themselves, but as whom the Backstreet Boys should take as role models and split.
• Three Chords and the Truth: Naturally, in their song Drei Akkorde (Three Chords). Taken up to eleven in that they claim that even less is necessary in the ensuing verses.
• Toilet Humour: "Symphonie der Verstopfung" (symphony of constipation - parodies Megadeth's Symphony Of Destruction and the vocals of Rammstein's style in general).
• Vocal Tag Team: In the Rio Reiser parody "Könige", each of the four band members gets to sing one verse.
• We Didn't Start the Billy Joel Parodies: Naturally, with "Mir sta'dd'n etz die Feier". Lampshaded with the claim that this version makes Billy Joel barf.

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