Seven Iconic Electronic Music Lyrics

The spoken word: Mr Fingers – ‘Can You Feel It? (Vocal)’ (1988)

“In the beginning, there was Jack, and Jack had a groove…”

Originally released as an instrumental in 1986, ‘Can You Feel It’ arguably reached even greater heights in 1988 when welded to Chuck Roberts’ spoken word vocal from Rhythm Controll’s ‘My House’ (there’s also an alternative version with Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream…” speech over the instrumental). The result is one of the most iconic records in house history: a deep house classic which also acts as a treatise and a codification of all that house music represents. “Let there be house!”

It’s an approach which is back in vogue thanks to tracks like Breach’s summer anthem ‘Jack’, which we examined in our Breakdown feature earlier this month. As Ben explained, the “sleazy” lyrics came to him in “a mad dream”, after which he immediately wrote them into his phone so he could remember them when he hit the studio later that day. The result is one of the sing-along (speak-along?) hits of the festival season: “I want your body, everybody wants your body, so let’s Jack.”

But it’s not all good. The spoken-word approach is also undeniably responsible for some of the most pretentious lyrical atrocities committed in the name of dance music – layering lumpen, angst-ridden sixth-form poetry over a 4/4 kick doesn’t make it any more palatable. However, when they’re done right, spoken lyrics can work incredibly well. Tracks like Nina Kraviz’s ‘Ghetto Kraviz’ and Karl Hyde’s half-spoken, half-sung monologues for Underworld showcase just how well it can be done.