Killer Tunes

In Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, '70s tunes permeate the score like swamp gas in a monster movie. Throughout the film, Dogs' collection of thieves tune in to ''K-Billy, the station where the '70s survived.'' Not since the ''Singin' in the Rain'' rape scene in A Clockwork Orange has pop music so aptly served as a sardonic overture to ultraviolence. Here, the most striking juxtapositions of hit tunes and hit-man behavior:

*SONG: ''Little Green Bag,'' George Baker Selection's 1970 ode to marijuana paranoia. *LYRIC: ''Lookin' back on the track for a little green bag/ Gotta find just the kind for losin' my mind.'' *SCENE: The song's jittery beat expresses the shot nerves of the thieves, who fear cops and hunt jewels instead of ganja. The line ''Turn to the left, turn to the right/ Lookin' upstairs, lookin' behind'' segues into a complex cops-and-robbers chase sequence begun by one bloodied thief wailing, ''I'm gonna die!''

*SONG: ''I Gotcha,'' Joe Tex's 1972 song about an elusive lover. *LYRIC: ''Ya thought I didn't see ya now, didn' ya?... I gotcha, haw haw haw!'' *SCENE: The crooks confront a policeman they've taken hostage (Kirk Baltz). Tex's exclamations counterpoint the cop's grunts while he's handcuffed, punched, and kicked in the spleen.

*SONG: ''Stuck in the Middle With You,'' Gerry Rafferty's cryptic 1973 hit with Stealers Wheel. *LYRIC: ''Well I don't know why I came here tonight/ I got the feelin' that something ain't right/ I'm so scared I guess I'll fall off my chair/ And I'm wonderin' how I'll get down the stairs/ Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right/ Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.'' *SCENE: With the cop tied to a chair by a psycho (Michael Madsen) holding a razor, the tune's hooky phrase, ''Ple-e-e-ease! Ple-e-e-ease!'' takes on a sinister new meaning, as does the line ''Is it cool to go to sleep on the floor?/ I don't think that I can take any more.''