Fatboy Slim — You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby
One of the names to popularise big beat delivers a truly infectious sophomore album.
For your listening and homework you can listen to You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby here on Spotify.
A few weeks ago, a great friend of mine (who I miss dearly, thanks to isolation) made a point that I tend to listen to 6 minutes of repetitive beats and samples over and over. It’s something I couldn’t argue because it’s absolutely correct. The only application this story has is that Fatboy Slim is one of those artists who was a legend in finding just the right sample and crushing it into something new — as repetitive as it may have sounded.
’97 & ’98 were incredible years for dance music; The Prodigy unleashed Fat of the Land, The Chems released Dig Your Own Hole, Massive Attack continued their trip-hop march with Mezzanine and, yet, Fatboy Slim was part of that release catalogue and managed to combine the pop energy of big time sampling with crunchy breakbeats and the zips of acid house.
Norman Cook, the hook generator and sample wizard, aka Fatboy Slim hit the big time with his sophomore album, You’ve Come A Long Way; an album that bridged the gap of repetitive sampling and hook generation so perfectly. If you watch how Norman samples, he’s a cheeky little cat that was able to hide big name samples behind loads of hooks and brilliant chopping.
Cook almost pulls the entire rug from under him right off the bat with the ten-tonne stadium entrance that is Right Here, Right Now. The unbeaten chugging epic pulling Angela Bassett’s vocals from Stranger Days to help drive those famous big room strings that send the shivers down spines. This is the song that everyone wanted to walk out to a packed crowd to.
But it’s not all epic out the gate; Cook and his penchant for beachside parties finds himself ripping riffs and contorting samples from Dick Dale’s Miserlou for Rockafeller Skank; combining the legendary surf-rock riff with chunk drums, greasy analog leads and keep-ya-guessing vocal cuts.
That surf-rock inspired dance music carries itself refreshingly throughout; Cook digs up horns, rocky and hazy riffs, splatters funk and turns the big beats to maximum across tracks like Gangster Trippin’ and Build it Up, Tear it Down.
While Cook builds us up with sample happy, surfy goodness, he also strips it back with the less messy beats (sort of). It’s a three track punch bookend in the form of Praise You, Love Island and Acid 8000. Praise You being the gorgeous, fluffy breakbeat mega-hit that finds itself shooting acid lasers, happy keys under the now famous Camille Yarbrough vocal.
Meanwhile, Love Island (unknown to me until I relistened to it in one go a few months back after being told about my repetitive music addiction) actually works beautifully with the album closer Acid 8000; both tracks being acid-drenched gems that stir your inner-raver. Love Island moves things back into the realm of house with some funky, open-aired vibes before Acid 8000 closes the doors, rolls the lights down and activates the lasers for one final rave with stressed out acid leads and frantic drum breaks.
Fatboy Slim’s output came to a halt in 2004 after his last album, Palookaville. The man has been quiet on the production front (that I’m aware of, at least) with the occasional single over the years and the mostly overpriced DJ sets at major venues across the world. Despite that, going back and listening to You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby is still just as satisfying as it was all those years ago. The lead singles are still constantly used in your local stadiums and major broadcast shows to remind you just how timeless some of these tracks are.
C’mon, you sit down and hear Praise You for the first time in yonks and you can’t help but love, love it. As repetitive as his sampling may seem, the bloke knows how to craft a hook and You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby is still up there for the treasure trove of hooks and beats that Cook was able to dig up and brings to the table.
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