THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

151-Prodigy-Firestarter.

1996-Number 1 single.

Best Bit-At 0.24. By a happy coincidence Flint is a material used to start fires.

The Prodigy were formed in 1990, in Braintree, Essex, England, (see also best songs 925) and remain active with Liam Howlett being the bands one constant. The discography of the Prodigy consists of seven studio Albums issued between 1992-2018, and 30 singles released between 1991-2018. In the UK, their debut Album ‘Experience’ made Number 12, but all of their other Albums have reached Number 1, while 18 of their singles have made the top 40, with two of them reaching Number 1. In America on Billboard ‘The Fat of the Land’ is their only charting Album, selling in excess of 2.6 million copies, and reaching Number 1 in 1996, with this song being their only chart hit single, making Number 30. In total the Prodigy have sold in excess of 25 million records worldwide to date.

‘Firestarter’ was the first single released from the Prodigy’s third studio Album ‘The Fat of the Land,’ ‘Firestarter’ was released 15 months before the Albums release in June 1997, the single and the Album were produced by Liam Howlett. ‘Firestarter’ started out life as an instrumental written by Howlett. It boasts many samples, the guitar riff was taken from ‘The Breeders’ song ‘S.O.S.’ from 1993, the ‘Hey, Hey, Hey,’ refrain was borrowed from ‘The Art of Noise’ ‘Close (to the Edit’) from 1984, and the drums are sampled from the song ‘Devotion’ by ‘Ten City’ from 1987, hence there being eight names appearing in the songwriting credits. The ‘Empirion Mix’ of ‘Firestarter’ features none of the samples, and is therefore just credited to Howlett, and Kieth Flint.

Keith Charles Flint was born on September 17th, 1969, in Redbridge, London, England, he died on March 4th, 2019, as a result of hanging, although there was insufficient evidence to conclude a suicide verdict, he was 49 years old. Flint had been a founding member of the Prodigy, and up until ‘The Fat of the Land’ his input had mainly been as a dancer for the group. ‘Firestarter’ was the first time Flint had provided lyrics for a Prodigy song, and also sung the lead vocals. Flint has said,’It was so ridiculous because my English isn’t my strong point, by any stretch of the imagination, so I end up singing in this weird accent (puts on a daft yokel voice), ‘Oi’m a muckspreaderrrrr, twisted muckspreaderrrr,’ but it ended up sounding quite… menacing.’ Flint has also said that the song was nothing to do with starting a fire, he has said that he wrote the lyrics about himself performing on stage and stirring up the crowd, ‘This is what I am, some of it is a bit deeper than it seems.’

Liam Paul Paris Howlett was born on August 21st, 1971, in Braintree, England, he is the Prodigy’s main musical contributor, as well as playing synthesizers, keyboards, and drums. He has also produced for others, including the Australian ‘Drum and Bass’ band ‘Pendulum. In 1999 he released the Album ‘Prodigy Present: The Dirtchamber Sessions Volume One,’ which was a mix of 48 songs from many artists cut together, and is solely the work of Howlett, and I strongly recommend that you take a listen.

I’m the trouble starter, punkin’ instigator. I’m the fear addicted, a danger illustrated. I’m a firestarter, twisted firestarter, you’re a firestarter, twisted firestarter.’