#AONO20: ‘Memphis Bells’ turned 20!

In late June 2024, Memphis Bells by The Prodigy turned 20 years old: on June 21, 2004, it was released as a promo single along with Girls, and on June 28, the legendary website alwaysoutnumbered.com was launched, allowing anyone to create their own version of the track. To commemorate this anniversary, the All Souvenirs team will tell the detailed story of the track and the special website for it, as well as recall some other details about ‘Memphis Bells’. This is the second post in the #AONO20 series dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned.

In early or mid-June 2004, a short instrumental snippet of a new track by The Prodigy leaked online: it was called Memphis Bells, and it was the second track from the upcoming album to surface on the internet: a preview of ‘Memphis Bells’ was available on some music store website. The instrumental track received mixed reactions: some compared it to ‘The Trick’ and ‘Molotov Bitch’ and were excited about Liam Howlett‘s new musical direction, while others mockingly called it R&B (the most popular genre in world pop music at the time) and were quick to write Howlett off.

The slow, viscous track with deep bass, a broken beat, and an eerie atmosphere, playing at 144 beats per minute, was definitely something new not only for The Prodigy’s leader but for electronic music in general: the popularization of dubstep was still a long way off (for example, Burial’s debut album would only be released in May 2006), and broken beat, grime, and UK garage had just begun to gain momentum in the early 2000s and were literally the most progressive music in Britain at the time. Howlett, as he had done several times before, was once again ahead of his time, and in the summer of 2004, mainstream lovers simply did not get his idea.

Liam Howlett for DJ Times: On ‘Memphis Bells’ I was inspired by Timbaland, his half-time beats — the jerkiness of it. I hadn’t done anything like that before — that was original for me. Throughout the whole record I tried to think of what I did with ‘The Fat Of The Land’ and try to make it different. I went to a trashier sound, a sexier sound, and I tried to get more of a live drum sound — a live kick.

 Sorry, but this publication has been moved to the archive!

 Sorry, but this publication has been moved to the archive!

alwaysoutnumbered.com website

 Sorry, but this publication has been moved to the archive!

 Sorry, but this publication has been moved to the archive!

 Sorry, but this publication has been moved to the archive!

‘Memphis Bells’ Live

 Sorry, but this publication has been moved to the archive!

Review from James Jupiter (5 August): Now we come to the surprise of the show – ‘Memphis Bells’. This is the first time it has been played live in full to my knowledge. It’s a different mix from the album version and once again this track has been pumped up for the live show. Maxim’s vocals include the line “Rude Boy”. This version is sort of a fast ‘rude boy skank’ type track (if that makes sense) with the jittery stop-start beats. I loved it. It’s always good to chop and change the set around and throwing in this track worked for me

Review from Neko (7 August): Memphis Bells then – only the third time this track gets played live and it just totally works. Even if you’re not so keen on this on the album, it’s a great live track, especially the extra vocals by Maxim make it great.

Review from Zumo (13 August): The new “memphis bells” live had also been added beats, samples and the tempo had been rised a bit. But it was still a bit too slow for most people to groove with it. Especialy after the new fast “hotride”. But i liked it! was much better than the album version!

Review from Lectro (13 August): Then the biggest surprise of the night! “Memphis Bells” live! A new version with heavier drums and a cooler buildup etc. I really loved hearing this one. Didn’t know it could sound so good. Before this gig I’ve really hated this track and thought it shouldn’t ever have been released as a Prodigy-track. Mainly because of the bells who always change key and that sounded very awfull to me… Now when I’ve heard it live I quite like the track actually. I find it cool now. It’s a Prodigy track now I’ve heard it live. It fits into my idea of The Prodigy. Very cool!

It is unknown why the track was no longer played live after only four performances. Equally frustrating is the fact that no live recordings of ‘Memphis Bells’ from these performances have yet appeared online. So if you have a recording left it would be appreciated if you could share it.

However, it can be recalled that starting from the mid-00s Liam has occasionally played the background noise of the ‘Memphis Bells’ as a filler, while in the ‘2015 version of No Good Howlett used another piece from the middle of the track (by the way, we recently restored this version of ‘Start The Dance’). Sadly, ‘Memphis Bells’ has not been played in its entirety since 2005.

For lack of original excursion, check out this awesome cover by the Plastic band. This tune has so much live potential in it!

By the way, it’s worth noting that the title ‘Memphis Bells’ clearly refers to the American World War II aircraft known as the Memphis Belle – an unofficial name for the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress that was actively used during the WWII in 1942 and 1943. Here Howlett continues the militaristic concept of the record after Spitfire, the first track on the album.

Soon we’ll continue the track-by-track story of Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned, The Prodigy’s most underrated record… Stay tuned!

Headmasters: SIXSHOT, SPLIT
Additional thanks to: DMTRPTPV

YOOMONEY (RUS): 7928З82272З

Liked it? Take a second to support All Souvenirs on Patreon!