I actually owe the Prodigy a huge debt when I really think about it: as a fledgling music fan and critic, I didn't know a whole lot about dance music at all at the time. I was afraid of techno, a bleeping, inhuman form of aural communication. Groups like Prodigy (under the inorganic, corporate umbrella label 'electronica') helped to usher the fearful into the land of bpm, until I was the rave aficionado, xtc-glazed, Urb Magazine-reading fool I am today. Also, Prodigy had a noisier, rougher edge at the point of the record, The Fat of the Land (1996), that "Firestarter" comes from, that satisfied rabid industrial music fans like me and my friends.
My Mom loves the "Firestarter." She loves the song and the video with the clown in the subway tunnel banging his head. Believe me, it was difficult being a kill 'em all, flippin' the bird to everything adolescent when you have a young, cool, Baby Boomer Mom who practiced a very 70's brand of laissez-faire parenting. It was like the "Doug" skit on MTV's "The State." I'll get back to that later, I know you don't remember it.
This song seems silly now, but back in 1996, it was hard, rebellious and a lot of fun. I am actually regretting not catching them live at the time like so many of my friends did. I mean, "Firestarter" was my email name in college, for Chrissakes! Also, this tune samples Art of Noise's "Close (To The Edit), another group that I love (I would post "Moments in Love," but this is a 90's blog, kids).
Here is the "Firestarter" in all its glory:
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