In addition to working with live vocalists for the first time, Fatboy Slim (a.k.a. Norman Cook) is staying true to his sampling roots on his follow-up to 1998's You've Come a Long Way, Baby. In fact, the big-beat maestro is currently working with a legendary dead vocalist: Jim Morrison.
Cook has constructed a new, as-yet-untitled track using Morrison's vocal from "Bird of Prey," from 1978's An American Prayer, Morrison's posthumous spoken word album on which his readings are accompanied by the Doors. In Morrison's eerily prophetic poem lines like "Am I going to die" and "Take me on your flight" alternate with the refrain "Bird of prey, bird of prey/Flying high, flying high."
Cook had been seeking permission to use the track for months and was just given clearance by the Doors' camp. Cook and Morrison will share the co-writing credit, and the subsequent royalties will be divided accordingly.
Morrison joins live vocalist Macy Gray on the upcoming Fatboy Slim album. Gray sings lead vocals on the songs "Love Life" and "Where There's a Way." "The chorus [of 'Where There's a Way'] is like gospel, and then there's like a Hare Krishna sample in it," she told RollingStone.com in April. "It's wild. It's a trip."
The Fatboy Slim album is due out by year's end on Astralwerks Records.
JOLIE LASH
(July 19, 2000)