So why is Fatboy Slim’s You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
Of the wave of electronic music and other “big beat” artists that crossed over to the mainstream starting in the 1990s, I credit Fatboy Slim for widening my personal musical palette and opening me up to different musical styles and soundscapes.
These days, I listen to music ranging from Wolfgang Gartner to Thievery Corporation to Ursula 1000, and I credit Fatboy Slim for helping me to head down one of many musical paths of discovery over the course of my life.
You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby, released back in 1998, still stands as an outstanding achievement.
I’m quite sure the first Fatboy Slim song I ever heard was “The Rockafeller Skank,” and at the time I was so unfamiliar with this style of music that I recall having something like the following internal monologue in my head: I’m not sure if I like hearing RIGHT ABOUT NOW THE FUNK SOUL BROTHER over and over again… okay now I’m pretty sure I like hearing RIGHT ABOUT NOW THE FUNK SOUL BROTHER over and over again.
There’s a funky and exciting propulsion to “The Rockafeller Skank” that I’ve always found intoxicating, and still do.
“Build It Up, Tear It Down” holds many of the same qualities, but bangs on that funk hook even harder, arguably.
If You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby was filled only with that kind of style, it would still be very good, but then you run into the soulful and gorgeous “Praise You,” and it shows a completely different side to Fatboy Slim.
When paired with its music video, I’ve always found “Praise You” to have a spiritual quality to it, but like a spirituality of music versus any sort of religion, if that makes sense.
I have to praise you
I have to praise you
I have to praise you
I have to praise you like I should
The lyrics to me represent the praising of music, music as salvation. Although of course you can interpret them in any way that you like.
Pop culture stuff that has something to do with Fatboy Slim’s You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby
There are very few Beastie Boys songs that I flat out dislike, but “Body Movin’,” off the otherwise spectacular Hello Nasty album, is one of those rare ones that I find just kind of “meh.”
However, in Fatboy Slim’s hot mixing hands it becomes a miraculous, ebullient wonder.
Another quick Fatboy Slim Fact of Truth: one of the greatest music videos of all time, of course, is the iconic Christopher Walken going hard at (and above) the dancefloor on “Weapon of Choice,” which features another icon (Bootsie Collins, of Parliament Funkadelic fame).
Some stats & info about Fatboy Slim – You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Electronic Music, Dance Music, Trip Hop, Rock Music
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 5 out of 5 stars
- When was You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby released? 1998
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #331 out of 1,000
Fatboy Slim’sYou’ve Come A Long Way, Baby on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from Fatboy Slim’s You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
Right about now, the funk soul brother. Check it out now, the funk soul brother.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.