There are so many albums that I have that I absolutely love. My favourite album ever is probably Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette, but when I look back at that album, it doesn’t really mean anything to me personally. In fact, scouring through my CD collection for this article still left me wondering why I own albums by Nickelback and Limp Bizkit (well everyone has albums like that!) . But then, hidden behind the CDs amongst the old speed garage mixtapes and compilations of songs recorded off the radio, there it was. Taped for me by my aunt from my cousins CD, with the songs hand-written on the inlay card (along with an apology to my mother), the album was The Fat Of The Land by The Prodigy. The apology was written next to Smack My Bitch Up, and still makes me laugh when I think about my aunt having to write that. This modern classic was released in the summer of 1997, just before my 15th birthday, and that tape was my birthday present.
A week after my birthday, it was back to school, the start of Year 10 for me. I usually got the bus with my brother who was 2 years older than me, but he left after GCSEs to go to college. None of my friends at the time got the same bus that I did, so I had the problem of going to school on my own with no-one to talk to. So, on that first day, I stuffed my trusty Walkman in my blazer pocket complete with The Fat Of The Land, and off I went. Volume turned up, playing Smack My Bitch Up as I walked to the bus stop. At first I missed not having anyone to talk to, but that quickly passed the more I listened to the album. What amazed me was that I didn’t know music like this was possible. Everyone knew Firestarter, which to an impressionable 15 year old was like a nuclear warhead exploding on the pop charts. But the rest of the songs were amazing. Breathe was like nothing I had ever heard before, and just sounded pure evil. Narayan was like a tribal chant, to a tribe that I wanted to belong to. Serial Thrilla assaulted my ears, and Funky Shit had me nodding along like an escaped mentalist.
It was fine for listening to on the bus journey to and from school, but soon it started spreading into other areas. At breaks and lunch times, I would find myself not outside playing football with the rest of my mates, but sitting in the canteen, scribbling down the words to Diesel Power, and having to stop and rewind every few seconds to catch every word. I was a good enough student, but in the lessons I cared less about like Maths and Design Technology (I can barely make my bed, let alone a bloody CD holder!) I started sliding one headphone up my sleeve into my ear, and leaning on my hand for the entire lesson with the Walkman playing and the music turned down low enough that no one else could hear, but loud enough so that I could just about listen to it and enjoy it. It became a running joke with my mates, where they would ask me what I was listening to, already knowing what the answer was. Occasionally I would change, listen to What’s The Story (Morning Glory?) for a couple of days, but I would soon grow tired and switch back again. Before I knew it, it was time to start revising for the end of year exams – I had been listening to the same album for almost a whole school year. Yet it didn’t bother me. I was so in love with that album that if it had been a girl, I would have turned red every time I saw her and produced reservoir-filling amounts of sweat.
Eventually, and finally, it was time to move on. There was no other album or genre that moved me on, nor was it a conscious decision, it just kind of happened. I like to think that once summer rolled around again, it was back to playing football in the sunshine or enduring multiple hour stints of Super Nintendo. Looking back at The Fat Of The Land, there were no songs on their that meant anything to me personally. I have never smacked my bitch up, I have never started a fire, and my car runs on unleaded. But this album means something to me because it came at a time when music was all that mattered to me. Now if you will excuse me, I’m going to shape my hair into devil horns, dance in an abandoned underground tunnel, and relive one of the best years of my life.
Links
Breathe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kbW4ibIF8U
Smack My Bitch Up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ-Uzs-l0A8
Firestarter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28ow4TLMTqM&feature=related
Posted In Classic Albums, Oct 15 2008.
Words - Paul