You've Come A Long Way Over The Past 25 Years, Baby

December 14, 2023 2:53 PM

If you're Hull musician Norman Cook and are looking to observe the 25th anniversary of the album that launched you to global superstardom, there's really only one way you can go. Fatboy Slim - You've Come A Long Way, Baby - All Mixed Up is a half-hour journey across the vocal and musical samples of the biggest hits from this seminal album, released in Oct 1998. Even while the magician is showing you his secrets, it feels thrilling and magical. BONUS: Becky Hill talks to Fatboy Slim for 40 minutes for her podcast, and it's a great conversation! [Becky Hill wikipedia, for the non-UKs out there.]
posted by hippybear (16 comments total)

Oh god, 25 years disappeared. Had some good times listening to this back when I was a younger Abehammerb though.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 4:39 PM on December 14, 2023 [3 favorites]

What I love about this is that if you have the original album memorized, as many might, this feels completely full of discovery in a way listening to that album for the first time felt.
posted by hippybear at 4:48 PM on December 14, 2023 [4 favorites]

About 4 years ago, out of the blue I received a text from a high school friend I hadn’t heard from in a couple of years that read “wait, Fatboy Slim was in the Housemartins?!?’

I just realized the Housemartins split up 35 years ago. Damn.
posted by otters walk among us at 9:04 PM on December 14, 2023 [5 favorites]

Love him, he is from Kent but know as a Brighton musician rather than Hull!
posted by ellieBOA at 12:19 AM on December 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

Those were both fun listens! And hugely nostalgic for me - I used to DJ Big Beat at lot around 97-98, and Fatboy Slim records were massive dancefloor fillers. I think I still have a version of the Satisfaction/Rockerfeller Skank mashup thing at the end of that mix on a white label somewhere. His tunes are part of what got me into music production, the idea that you could build a song by nicking little bits of other people's records made composition possible when you didn't have any instruments but did have a computer. I don't use samples now, but I still write music on computers.

The podcast was interesting, some snippets about his past that I wasn't aware of, and fascinating to see a newer artist genuinely learning history from an originator of the scene they work in. Also: bonus guest appearance from what I assume is Norman Cook's cat :)
posted by tomsk at 6:27 AM on December 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

A. OMG so much fun! Was never really a bigbeat fan, but Norman Cook is a really great producer and DJ.
B. I had totally forgotten The Rockefeller Skank DnB remix with Slim Shady. The other basslines in that kept me rocking! I downloaded that (and maybe something like a BBC or Pete Tong broadcast) with Napster or bitTorrent stuff... that mix also had the Intergalactic DnB mix that was so fun, too! Memories of piracy, awesome music, and the things we did in the basement and the club...
C. Thank you!
posted by Snowishberlin at 7:54 AM on December 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

Oh god, 25 years disappeared.

I rather had the opposite experience. You've Come Along Way Baby was only twenty-five years ago!?!? Because I can remember exactly where I was when I first heard it. Small pub at the extreme edge of western civilization. A DJ was setting up for a dance that wasn't due to start for an hour, so testing out some recent purchases. He put it on and everybody in the place (maybe a dozen people) instantly paid attention. Then Rockafeller Skank came on and they all got it, started to move. Sometimes the right sound just drops at exactly the right moment in space-time. Right here, right now indeed.

But man, that place, those people, that DJ -- all so long ago and far away ...
posted by philip-random at 8:14 AM on December 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

Not sure whether this is common knowledge but that "You've come a long, long way" is from this condescending-and-cashing-in-as-hell commercial for "Virginia Slims Cigarettes" from 1967.

I remember seeing it on Clive James on Television in the early 80s and it has stuck with me ever since. I always assumed Cook saw that same episode and was equally haunted by it.
posted by NailsTheCat at 10:27 AM on December 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

I hate to be that guy, NailsTheCat, but the "long, long way" isn't a reference to the Virginia Slims campaign.

It's a direct sample from Camile Yarbrough's "Take Yo' Praise."

It's also where the song title comes from.
posted by yellowcandy at 10:32 AM on December 15, 2023

Hah! Happy to have my assumption corrected after all these years.

Funnily enough, the start of the OP's YT video actually plays that Slims jingle "You've got your own cigarette now baby...".
posted by NailsTheCat at 10:40 AM on December 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

and fascinating to see a newer artist genuinely learning history from an originator of the scene they work in

Yes, this was a big part of the appeal of that conversation for me. In a world where it seems like people into their late Seventies continue to cling onto their stations, it's wonderful to see something that looks like a deliberate passing of knowledge, a deliberate seeking of learning.
posted by hippybear at 2:15 PM on December 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

I guess if you live in the UK you might want to know about the Fatboy Slim Loves Summer Tour coming all over your tiny little country, and nowhere in my gigantic one across the pond.

Bitter? No! I'm not bitter!
posted by hippybear at 12:45 PM on December 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

Fans of Fatboy Slim who have not seen the video about the new Hyperencabulator must do so.
posted by The Half Language Plant at 8:56 AM on December 17, 2023

In 1997-9 I was old enough to form those late-teen imprints of music that's never been bettered. I was buying vinyl and got hooked on Ninja Tune, Warp Records and ... whatever weird sounds my record dealer could get me.

I had Better Living Through Chemistry and thoroughly enjoyed its sample-driven build up and break down patterns. Then one Friday evening in September 1998 I'm on the bus home from school and an unusual track comes on, and I'm reminded of the geist of Better Living Through Chemistry, and the show's host eventually announced that it's Fatboy Slim and the new record is due soon. It was Rockefeller Skank, sadly I cannot listen to that for the first time ever again.

Thanks for the link, hippybear.
posted by k3ninho at 10:14 AM on December 17, 2023 [2 favorites]

I continue to be enchanted by this deconstruction/reconstruction of the album. It's nearly like some of the stuff Art Of Noise has been releasing lately, although of an entirely different flavor and construction.

Anyway, I've listened to this about 10 times now and it's become part of my iTunes library and I'm happy about that.

The Chemical Brothers do a thing where they release their Battle Weapons, which are pieces of music they're going to be building loops and samples out of for their new album. This feels like a bit of a retrospective Battle Weapon release for this one Fatboy Slim album.
posted by hippybear at 12:56 PM on December 18, 2023

Mod note: This fantastic look back has been added to the Best Of blog!
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 8:21 AM on December 21, 2023