Song for Shelter / Ya Mama

Infobox Single
Name = Song for Shelter" / "Ya Mama


Artist = Fatboy Slim
from Album = Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars
A-side =
B-side =
Released = September 2001
Format = 12"
Recorded = 2000
Genre = Big Beat/Hard rock
Length = 11:26 ("Song for Shelter")5:38 ("Ya Mama")
Label = Skint Records
Writer = Fatboy Slim
Producer = Fatboy Slim
Certification =
Last single = "Star 69 / Weapon of Choice" (2001)
This single = "Song for Shelter" / "Ya Mama" (2001)
Next single = "Song for Shelter (Remix)" (2001)
Misc = Extra chronology
Last single = "Song for Shelter" / "Ya Mama" (2001)
This single = "Song for Shelter (Remix)" (2001)
Next single = "Drop the Hate" (2001)

"Song for Shelter" / "Ya Mama" is a double a-side by British artist Fatboy Slim released in 2001. Both songs are on his 2000 album "Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars" and "Ya Mama" is on the "Charlie's Angels" soundtrack and film. The song peaked at #30 on the UK singles chart.

"Song for Shelter"

"Song for Shelter" is one of the songs on the single and on "Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars" it is the last and longest song on the album, lasting nearly 11 minutes. This song features Roger Sanchez and Roland Clark. A remix for the song was made and released as a separate single.

"Ya Mama"

"Ya Mama", also called "Push the Tempo" or simply "Ya Mama (Push the Tempo)" is the second song on the single and is featured on the soundtrack of "Charlie's Angels". The guitar riff samples are from the Colosseum recording The Kettle. The "Push the Tempo" vocals are taken from the Doug Lazy recording Let The Rhythm Pump. The "Shake What Ya Mama Gave Ya" vocals are taken from the Stik-e & The Hoodz recording of the same name

Music video

The music video of "Ya Mama" was produced by Traktor, a collective also known for producing Basement Jaxx' "Where's Your Head At?" video, and Madonna's music video for "Die Another Day". Ya mama's music video is centered on a tape of the song which makes its listeners unwillingly enter into chaotic uncontrolled arm movements, trembling, dancing, to their own amazement as well as the other persons.

The video is set in a Caribbean island, Carriacou/Grenada. Three white men share a poor house and live in quite dirty conditions. When the video begins, they are watching a Tom & Jerry cartoon on TV, whose dialogues can be clearly heard. One of them receives a letter by post, containing an unlabeled tape. As he continues his painting activity, he puts on the headphones and plays the tape. The music by Fatboy Slim starts. A few seconds later, his arm starts some uncontrolled movements which make all the objects he was painting fall. He manages to stop the tape. The music stops and we hear the cartoon again. He the decides to play the tape on the sound system of the house. The song is heard again and his two friends enter too in chaotic uncontrolled movements which lead them to break unwillingly many things in the house, even a wooden wall. They stop the music again. At that point, the one that got the tape in the first place, says: "I have an idea. We'll be rich... With this!".

They jump into their van and go downtown, playing the music once again on the car's sound system. From that moment, the song is not interrupted again for the watchers of the video, even though the tape in the video is not always played. The uncontrolled movements continue in the car. They manage to get to the market and boldly dismiss one of the sellers to take possession of his stand and create their own, called "Push the tempo". They play the tape in a walkman and for one dollar, people can listen to it, which creates amusing situations (all the food they bought and hold in their arms falls and is broken).

At a given point, a rapper comes up, takes the tape out of the walkman and plays it on a boombox. The scene predictably becomes chaotic, where everyone is destroying everything around them. The noise reaches the police who then intervene (the chief of the police burns his hands since the music reaches him while he was serving coffee). They capture the leader of the three main characters (the other two can flee and even participate in his being caught) and lead him to the prison. In the last scene, the chief of the police puts on the headphones and listens to the music, entering in a non-desired uncontrolled dance.

In the song "Song For Shelter", Roland Clark speaks the whole vocal line as opposed to the selected quote in "Star 69".

Right at the end of the song, it echoes back and refers to the very first song on "Halfway Between The Gutter And The Stars".

References