Today is the anniversary of Screamadelica turning 25 and to celebrate below is a lengthy playlist gathering the tracks that made the album.
Some were sampled on the album, some were lyrical influences and some were a huge influence on the band whilst recording the album. If you know Screamadelica you’ll understand why each track was included. A full tracklisting is below the player:
MC5 – Rocket Reducer No.62
A big influence on the band and features the line “Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa”
The Emotions – I Don’t Want To Lose Your Love
That vocal sampled on Loaded.
The Beatles – Hey Bulldog
The closing sample on Don’t Fight It, Feel It
The Orb – Little Fluffy Clouds
They produced Higher Than The Sun and supported Primal Scream throughout the era including the 1991 tour, Glastonbury ‘92 and the Miners Benefit gig at Sheffield Arena the same year.
The 13th Floor Elevators – Slip Inside This House
Original version taken from the 1967 album Easter Everywhere and later covered by Primal Scream for a compilation album in 1990, later added to Screamadelica.
Curtis Mayfield – No Thing On Me (Cocaine Song)
Mayfield’s “Superfly” was a huge influence at this time, you can hear the vibe from this track on Screamadelica.
Sheer Taft – Cascades (Hypnotone Remix)
Hypnotone produced Slip Inside This House whilst Sheer Taft did a remix of Come Together. Both were Creation Records labelmates with Primal Scream at the time.
Alan Lomax – Whoa Buck
Sampled on Inner Flight
Brian Eno – The Great Pretender
Sampled for Inner Flight
Happy Mondays – Hallelujah (Club Mix)
The first track mixed by Andrew Weatherall just months before he created Loaded, a collaboration with Paul Oakenfold.
Big Star – Thirteen
Big Star had a huge influence on Primal Scream in general beyond the scope of Screamadelica, but it’s probably important to include a track here because it was almost certainly due to the Big Star influence that the band opted to record at Ardent Studios for Dixie-Narco. Bobby also selected this one for his Select C90 mixtape around ’92.
The Meters – Stay Away
The inspiration for much of the guitar and organ on Loaded.
The Rolling Stones – Sympathy For The Devil
Live version of Loaded at the time was extended to include the chant from this song.
Suicide – Dream Baby Dream
Influence for Shine Like Stars
The Stooges – No Fun
The Primal’s covered this track on the Screamadelica tour, usually the closing track of their live set.
Jr Walkers & The All Stars – (I’m A) Road Runner
For the line “I’m gonna love the life I live, I’m gonna live the life I love”.
Young-Holt Unlimited – Wah Wah Man
Sampled on Higher Than The Sun
Tony Cook & The Party People – On The Floor (Rockit)
Not strictly an influence on the album, but this was the track that inspired the Screamadelica tune on the Dixie Narco EP.
Sly & The Family Stone – Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey
Primal Scream covered this on the Screamadelica tour.
Faces – Glad And Sorry
When the band were recording Damaged, Henry made a remark that the solo should sound somewhat Faces-esque and ended up recording the solo himself built around that idea. In addition, Bobby often ad-libbed the lyrics from this over the end of Damaged live (you can hear it on the Hollywood Palladium recording on the Screamadelica box set).
Dr John – Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya
Sampled on Inner Flight
Can – Yoo Doo Right
Inspiration for the lyric “I was blind, now I can see, you made a believer out of me”.
John Lennon – Cold Turkey
Another track the band covered on their Screamadelica tour.
The Stylistics – I’m Stone In Love With You
According to an article in Mojo from April 1994, Bobby would listen to this every morning before heading to the studio. The title lyric would find its way into the end of Damaged.
James Carr – The Dark End Of The Street
One of BobbyGillespie’s favourite tracks of all-time, this was soundchecked numerous times on the Screamadelica tour. The influence of James Carr is obvious on Dixie-Narco for sure.
Sister Sledge – We Are Family
Often ad-libbed into live performances of Screamadelica. Despite its “uncool” status at the time, a lot of disco influence found its way onto Screamadelica with Chic constantly being name dropped in interviews from the time period.
George McRae – Rock Your Baby
An influence on Shine Like Stars. In Bobby’s words; “Actually, I always thought our song ‘Shine Like Stars’ was like a George McCrae song. I mean, I could imagine him doing it like that, but not us. We can’t play like that, unfortunately.”
John Coltrane – A Love Supreme Part 1, Acknowledgement
The spiritual chant of “a love supreme” found its way into the improvised covers outro of Higher Than The Sun on at least a few occasions during the Screamadelica tour. It wasn’t until later albums that the jazz influence really crept in, but you can hear it in tracks like I’m Coming Down.
Primal Scream – I’m Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have
The original recording Andrew Weatherall remixed to create Loaded.
Big thanks to Chris Broyles and Nat Cramp for their help with this.