Music Review: Kelly Osbourne "Come Dig Me Out"

Kelly Osbourne

Come Dig Me Out

Album: Shut Up

Year: 2003

               In 1998, folk singer Michelle Lewis released an album, Little Leviathan. It’s lone single “Nowhere and Everywhere” hit the Billboard adult contemporary charts, according to Wikipedia. Also on the album is a song called “Dig Me Out.”

             Kelly Osbourne is overwhelmed by other people’s expectations in her coddled cover of  “Come Dig Me Out.”

           Rowdy guitars open the single, setting an unruly tone.  Her teachers shake their heads at her shorn hair, dyed black and her spiked boots. Her parents tell her they’ve noticed a change in her attitude and wonder what happened to their cute little girl. Other adults recommend her diets and make comments about her weight. She says she can’t be the blonde, skinny, All-American girl. It’s not who she is. Nonetheless, they tell her she just has to try harder. After school and on the weekends, she throws a pair of old jeans and lies down on the couch all day. The television is on but she stares at it, not really paying attention to what’s playing. She isn’t sure who is yet while people imposing their stereotype of who they think she is. It only makes her feel as though she has already failed. (“They wanted me to be the dream/My mood went south/And I'm stuck on the couch with bad jeans/And the couch sucks me down to the floor/And the floor sucks me down to the earth/And I'm covered and buried before/My heart had a chance to start workin'”)

          In the pre-chorus, it’s too much to handle for her and she needs someone to listen. (“Hey, it's heavy underground/I'm screamin' for attention/So come dig me out.”)

           In the chorus, she begins to act out, snapping at her parents and teachers. She turns her whole wardrobe into black. Maybe that will get everyone to care. (“And I said, "Hey somebody can you hear me now/'Cause my world is cavin' in"/So come dig me out/Come dig me out, come dig me out.”)

            During lunch, a group of girls were bothering her and eventually smashed her lunch against her clothes. Her classmates watch but say nothing. She cries in the bathroom. None of her teachers ask her why she skipped class or what’s wrong. (“It's rainin' again and who've guessed/No one's come along to tell me that I'm a mess/And the bed sucks me down to the floor/And the floor sucks me down through the earth/And I'm covered and buried before/My head had a chance to stop hurtin'.”)

              It’s not the first time something like that has happened to her. The group of girls approach her and she pushes one of them, starting a fight. They all get sent to the principal’s office. Now, she will have a chance to say why she did it. (“Hey, it's heavy underground/I'm screamin' for attention/So come dig me out.”)

            The chorus is sung again.

            In the bridge, she says she didn’t think she would walk around in her life if she were a ghost. She wasn’t ever the most popular. However, she still thought adults were above that and would know what to look for from their own experiences.  (“I never thought I could fall ten feet under/I always thought someone would remember/To look for me/Before I reach the end.”)

              The chorus is sung again to end the single.

             Unfortunately, I couldn’t find audio. However, the detail in Lewis’ version have been cut. “Fat jeans” is “bad jeans.” Osbourne adds to the pre-chorus, whereas she kept it simple – “hey, can’t me hear til I shout, hey come dig me out.” It’s the second verse and bridge that have been changed the most. Lewis continues with the bed motif, explaining that other’s people words are getting to her and she’s starting to believe them. (“It's raining in bed/And I'm soaking wet/I need someone to fix this hole in my head/Before my brains get out and the rain gets in/All that could be, should be, would have been/If I'd only done better watching weather and wishful thinking.”)

                   In Osbourne’s version, the bridge is completely rewritten. Lewis continued by saying that no one wants to face what’s there and go on with their daily lives. They’d rather pretend. (“Honesty's a bitch that no one wants to listen to/Hear how you're doin' when you're down/Change the subject quickly, don't look don't see/I'm not looking too pretty right now/It's hard to look pretty underground.”)

                   Osbourne’s cacophonous vocals are dull, unable to cut a piece of paper let alone take down anyone. Without any emotion behind her vocals, she’s being the stereotype people are labeling her as – an obnoxious teenager ticked that no one is kowtowing to her every need.

          Even without hearing Lewis’ audio, the atrocious “Come Dig Me Out” can be considered inferior due to the hollow rewrites. Osbourne’s pettiness serves to confirm it.