Come to Daddy
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Template:Album infobox Come to Daddy is a 1997 EP by IDM/Electronica artist Richard D. James, commonly known as Aphex Twin. It is also the title of the promotional music video that is meant to accompany the album, directed by Chris Cunningham.
"Come to Daddy (Pappy Mix)" is the track that is most commonly referred to as just "Come to Daddy". It is also Richard D. James' most commonly known and accessible work. Many people were first exposed to James' music through this song and music video.
The song is a parody of the genre of Industrial Techno, popularized by acclaimed British group The Prodigy and their hit single "Firestarter". Ironically, many of this song's fans are not aware of its satiric elements. The inspiration came from James' hearing a Prodigy fan scream "I want your soul!" at one of their live concerts. The song itself features James yelling "I want your soul! I will eat your soul!" a number of times, with ridiculous-sounding screams to the end of the song.
The accompanying video was directed by acclaimed director Chris Cunningham. It features a number of children and midget adults dressed in parkas and dresses, terrorizing and chasing a number of adults around a housing complex and being controlled by a naked, skeletal being from within a television. Each of the children wears a silicone and latex mask of the grinning face of Richard D. James, giving them a "creepy" look. The video was considered very disturbing and frightening to audiences. (MTV executive James Hyman declared the video "One of the most powerful, certainly the most disturbing I've ever seen").
Track listing
All tracks written, produced and engineered by Richard D. James, Chrysalis Music.
- "Come to Daddy (Pappy mix)"
- "Flim"
- "Come to Daddy (Little Lord Faulteroy mix)"
- "Bucephalus Bouncing Ball"
- "To Cure a Weakling Child (Countour Regard)"
- "Funny Little Man"
- "Come to Daddy (Mummy mix)"
- "IZ-US"
Not all the tracks featured on this album are the "industrial" style of the first track. "IZ-US" features mellow synth tones with jazz style drums. Each mix of "Come to Daddy" is completely different, the "Little Lord Faulteroy mix" being a calm track with bizarre vocal samples in its foreground and the "Mummy mix" is a Noise music song that features some clips of James' mother talking. The other tracks also have their own style, most notably "Flim", an upbeat song with a cheerful melody and Aphex Twin's signature complex polyrhythms. The song is notable for its large following with Aphex Twin fans.
Aphex Twin rarely uses vocals in his work, but a whopping 4 out 8 tracks on the EP feature prominant vocals. Because of this and the hit single title track, Come to Daddy is generally considered his most commercial work.
Come to Daddy features very minimalist packaging, with stark black letters against a white background. All the information, tracklistings and lyrics are printed the same way, and only two images are present, both created by Chris Cunningham, using James' face on children. James has used his likeness as the artwork on five of his releases: The I Care Because You Do and Richard D. James Album albums, the Donkey Rhubarb and Come to Daddy EPs and the Windowlicker single.
External link
- Come To Daddy Video Analysis (http://gersic.com/static.php?page=static050615-223232)