Classic FTW: Scooter – How Much Is The Fish | www.bejbi.se

If you read last week’s article, you read that Ratty was a side-project to the popular german techno-band Scooter. So why not write an article of the main band? The track i’ve chosen for this week is How Much Is The Fish. (buy on Itunes)

Lyrics:

The chase is better than the catch

Transforming the tunes
We need your support!
If you’ve got the breath back
It’s the first page of the second chapter

I want you back for the rhythm attack
Coming down on the floor like a maniac
I want you back for the rhythm-attack
Get down in full effect!
I want you back for the rhythm attack
Coming down on the floor like a maniac
I want you back, so clean up the dish
By the way, how much is the fish?
How much is the fish?

Here we go, here we go
Here we go again
Yeah!
Sunshine in the air!

We’re breaking the rules
Ignore the machine
You won’t ever stop this
The chase is better than the catch!

I want you back for the rhythm attack
Coming down on the floor like a maniac
I want you back for the rhythm attack
Get down in full effect!
I want you back for the rhythm attack
Coming down on the floor like a maniac
I want you back, so clean up the dish
By the way, how much is the fish?
How much is the fish?

Sunshine in the air!
Come on! Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na
Everybody! Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na
Come on!
Together!
Yeah! Yeah!

How much is the fish?
How much is the fish?
Yeah!
Come on, come on
Argh!
Resurrection!

H.P. Baxxter and Rick J. Jordan had met long before in the synthpop-band Celebrate The Nun (with additional members Britt Maxime (sister of H.P.) and Slin Thompson back in 1987.

Celebrate The Nun hand some hits with the singles Ordinary Town & Will You Be There. The latter peaked at no 5 in the US Billboards Dance/Club play chart in June 1990. Their next hit, She’s A Secretary peaked at no 12 in the same chart in december the same year.

All in all, Celebrate The Nun released 2 albums and 5 singles before H.P and Rick left the project for Scooter.

Scooter was started in 1993 by Hans-Peter Geerdes (a.k.a. H.P. Baxxter), Hendrik Stedler (a.k.a. Rick J. Jordan and Sören Bühler (a.k.a.. Ferris Bueller) as a short term project.

Their first single, Vallée De Larmes was released in 1993 and didn’t get that much notice. It was first after the release of second single, Hyper Hyper that the guys saw that this wouldn’t be a short-term project.

The single did very well, both in the charts where it peaked at no 2 in the German singles chart and within top 10 in most european countries and it also did really well on the dancefloors. Worth noticing is that H.P. mentions most major DJ’s who were popular at the time in the track.

The followup, Move Your Ass! did even better and sold Gold in Germany with over 250.000 singles sold and had the same success in the charts. Worth noticing is that this was the first ever Scooter-track I heard. A friend of mine later bought the Hyper Hyper-single. The track also features the famous line ”It’s nice to be important – but it’s more important to be nice” which is somewhat of my motto.

The 1995 single Friends followed the same recipies as the earlier singles with H.P. Baxxter on vocals, except that they used a pitched up sample for the main song-part.
The track was in the top 20-charts all over europe. The followup, Endless Summer followed the same recipy and did as well in the charts.

The first Scooter-album, …And The Beat Goes On which featured 11 tracks including the ones mentioned above and some tracks which were featured on the b-sides to the singles.

With their second album, Our Happy Hardcore their influences can easily be spotted.
For instance, first single, Let Me Be Your Valentine samples ”Mu Mu” from The KLF. You can hear loads of KLF-influences when you listen thru material from 1996 and onwards.

The next track, Rebel Yell is a remake of Billy Idol’s track with the same name.
You can find more Billy Idol-influences when listening thru their albums.

I’m Raving is also a remake of Marc Cohn’s track Walking In Memphis (which many artists since have covered). The track did really well and peaked at no 4 in the German chart and even sold Gold. You can also hear a tempo-change from 160-190 bpm in earlier tracks to 138 bpm in this one. The track was featured on their third album, Wicked.

The single Break It Up is actually a ballad which was a big change from the bmp-pumped harddance-tracks they’ve done before and later became the first of many ballads.

The Age Of Love, the title track of the album with the same name is really influenced by the movie Terminator 2 and can easily be spotted in this track.

The next single, Fire was featured on the soundtrack to Mortal Kombat – Annhiliation and the single sold gold in Germany. It was also the last track that featured Ferris Bueller who left the band to pursue his solo career. Ferris Bueller was replaced by Axel Coon.

The fifth album, the 1998 release No Time To Chill featured Scooter’s biggest hit, How Much Is The Fish. The flute-melody was sampled from the track Zeven Dagen Lang by the Dutch band Bots.

The seconds single off the album, Call Me Manana samples the old L.A. Style-track James Brown Is Dead.

The sixth album, Back To The Heavyweight Jam (the title is influented by The KLF’s track Last Train To Transcentral) was released in 1999 and the first single off the album, Faster Harder Scooter did really well chart-wise and peaked at no 3 in Sweden and no 2 in Finland.

The second single, Fuck The Millennium (another KLF-reference as The KLF released a single as 2K called Fuck The Millennium) and did almost as well, peaked at no 4 in Sweden and no 3 in Finland. The single sold Gold in Sweden with over 20.000 units.

Their 7th album, the 2000 release Sheffield contained the hit single I’m Your Pusher.

In the track, H.P. calls himself Dave From Sheffield. Why Dave and Sheffield, nobody knows. Rumor has it that he was once interviewed by a guy who greeted H.P. As ”Hi, i’m Dave. Dave From Sheffield” but who knows why and what influented them.

Worth noticing is that this album was the first of many released on the label Sheffield Tunes which is a sublabel to Kontor Records and founded by Scooter.

Their second single, She’s The Sun is a slow track. The drumloop is sampled from an old Led Zeppelin-track called When The Levee Breaks.

Scooter actually got an award for Most Successful Dance Act at the 2000 Viva Comet Awards which IMHO is a big leap for bands like this. It’s not often that you see a group like this get an award as their music isn’t exactly radiomusic.

The single Posse (I Need You On The Floor) was the first track off the 2001 album We Bring The Noise. You can clearly hear the KLF-influences with the main sample taken from the KLF’s hit What Time Is Love. Also, parts of the vocals are taken from the track Human Resource – Dominator.

The next single, Aiii Shot The DJ was a pretty good track but it was with the next single Ramp (The Logical Song) that they saw chart-success again.

Ramp peaked at no 2 in the UK where it sold Gold with over 400.000 copies. The track was featured on the best of-album, Push The Beat For This Jam (The Singles 94-02) which was 19 of the best tracks so far and included 3 new tracks. Ramp was a remake of Supertramp’s 1979 track The Logical Song

In 2002, Alex Coon quit the band to pursue his DJ career and Jay Frog took his place.
The first track released with Jay Frog in the band was Nessaja. The track was influented by a track from German Peter Maffay called Tabaluga. The track did really well and peaked at no 1 in the German chart and sold gold with over 250.000 units and did really well in most european countries.

The followup, Weekend uses the main sample from Push – Strange World. There’s also a reference to The KLF with the line ”Respect the man in the ice cream van” The track did really well chart-wise and peaked at no 2 in the German chart and did top no 10 in many european countries. Worth noticing is the topless dancers in the video

Weekend was also the first track off Scooter’s 9th studio album, The Stadium Techno Experience.

Second single, The Night was the last who featured a high pitched voice sung by Nikk (married to Rick J. Jordan). The track did fairly well and got a top 10 spot in the german chart.

The third single, Maria (I Like It Loud) was a remake from Marc Acardipane’s track I Like It Loud and even uses the same MC (Dick Rules).

A fun fact about track is that during the shoot of the music video, H.P. Met his future wife.

The track did really well and peaked at no 1 in both Austria and Hungary and also reached no 4 in Germany

It was around this time I stoped listening to Scooter, especially after the single Shake That which was more disco-ish. If I hadn’t stoped listening at this time, I surely had stoped later.

After 2006 when Jay Frog left the band and Michael Simon joined they were heavily influented by Jumpstyle which I personally loathe. They did have some success after this though but they had lost me as a follower. I know many more who has said the same thing.

But again, you win some, you loose some as the old saying goes.

I was watching the DVD Scooter Live In Hamburg the other day and I realise that (except for the Jumpstyle-parts) that I really miss the good old Scooter. I only wish I’d have seen them live. For that would be the ultimate Scooter experience.

Billy Idol – Rebel Yell
Marc Cohn – Walking In Memphis
Terminator 2 Theme Song
Bots – Zeven dagen lang
L. A. Style – James Brown Is Dead
KLF – Last Train To Transcentral
2K – Fuck The Millennium
Led Zeppelin – When The Levee Breaks
KLF – What Time Is Love
Human Resource – Dominator
Supertramp – The Logical Song
Peter Maffay – Tabaluga
Push – Strange World
Marshall Masters feat Ultimate MC – I like it loud

Scooter – I’m Your Pusher (Airscape Remix)
Scooter – Faster Harder Scooter (Signum Remix)

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