Come to Daddy

Come to Daddy
EP by Aphex Twin
Released	6 October 1997
Recorded	1996–1997
Genre	IDM, drum and bass, techno
Length	32:54
Label	Warp Sire/WEA 31001 (rest of world)
Producer	Richard D. James
Aphex Twin chronology
Richard D. James Album (1996) Come to Daddy (1997) Windowlicker (1999)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Almost Cool	(8/10)[2]
Pitchfork	(7.2/10)[3]
Robert Christgau	[4]
Spin	(7/10)[5]

Come to Daddy is a 1997 EP by electronic music artist Richard D. James, commonly known as Aphex Twin. "Come to Daddy [Pappy Mix]" — often simply called "Come to Daddy" — is one of Aphex Twin's best-known songs; it peaked at number 36 on the UK Singles Chart.^[6] In October 2011, NME placed it at number 42 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".^[7]

James describes his work like this:

Overview

Not all the tracks featured on this EP are the industrial style of the first track. "IZ-US" features mellow synth tones with jazz style drums. Each mix of "Come to Daddy" is completely different, with the "Little Lord Faulteroy" and "Mummy" mixes bearing no noticeable resemblance whatsoever to the original "Pappy" mix. "To Cure A Weakling Child (Contour Regard)" is a remix of the song "To Cure a Weakling Child" from Richard D. James Album. The other tracks also have their own style, most notably "Flim", an upbeat song similar in mood to the track "Xtal" from Selected Ambient Works 85–92, possessing a cheerful melody and Aphex Twin's signature complex polyrhythms. The song "Funny Little Man" features, at the end, a PlainTalk voice states "I would like to fuck you up the bunghole, and then I will sneak into your room and cut your cock off, and stuff it in my mouth, and chew them up with my little pearlies." The end of "Come to Daddy (Pappy Mix)" features samples from one of his earliest works, "Isoprophlex".

Though Aphex Twin rarely uses vocals in his work, six of Come to Daddy's eight tracks feature vocals.

Come to Daddy's packaging features stark black letters against a white background. All the information, tracklistings and lyrics are printed the same way, and only two images are present, both photographed by Stefan DeBatselier and digitally altered by Chris Cunningham, using James' face on children. James has used his likeness as the artwork on five of his releases: The ...I Care Because You Do and Richard D. James Album albums, the Donkey Rhubarb and Come to Daddy EPs and the Windowlicker single.

The cover of the out-of-print second CD, with its white lettering against an orange background, makes reference to the fact that "To Cure A Weakling Child" had been used in a television advertisement for Orange. However, the advertisement used an edit of the album version, whilst the version that appears on the EP is the radically different "Contour Regard" mix.

"Come to Daddy, Pappy Mix" is heard twice in the film 8mm starring Nicolas Cage, the music video can be seen in part on a television screen in Dino Velvet's office and the vinyl record can be seen on a turntable in Machine's room. It is also is heard in the movie CKY2K during a skateboarding montage along with camera work that corresponds to the beats of the song. The song is also in the German film Curiosity & the Cat, the Xbox 360 driving game Project Gotham Racing 3, and the PlayStation 3 racing game MotorStorm: Pacific Rift.

"Bucephalus Bouncing Ball" was used as the fourth song on the soundtrack to the film Pi.

The computerized voice heard on the track "Funny Little Man" was sampled by Placebo's song "Evil Dildo".

Music video

The accompanying music video (released in October 1997) was directed by Chris Cunningham and filmed on the same council estate where Stanley Kubrick shot many scenes in A Clockwork Orange.^[9] The scene is shot around Tavy Bridge Shopping centre, Thamesmead, which was demolished in 2007.^[9] Much of the dark underground car parking is now gone. The video opens with an old woman walking a dog in a grimy, industrial setting. The dog urinates on an abandoned television lying on the pavement, causing it to sputter unexpectedly into life. This unleashes an evil spirit, accompanied by a gang of small children, all of whom bear James' grinning face and who appear to inhabit the abandoned buildings. The children go around wreaking havoc, trashing an alley and chasing a man into his car. The demon (played by Al Stokes^[10]) emerges from the television, screams in the woman's face, then gathers the children around him. It is the only music video in the top 50 of The 100 Greatest Scary Moments as voted by Channel 4 viewers in 2003.^[11] The video is included on the Directors Label volume, The Work of Director Chris Cunningham.^[12] The video was also named the number one video of the 1990s by Pitchfork.^[13] The video features a break that consists of a young girl singing that isn't originally in the song. This sample can also be heard on the first AFX Analogue Bubblebath EP in the track "Isoprophlex" (see above).

Track listing

All tracks written, produced and engineered by Richard D. James.

1. "Come to Daddy [Pappy Mix]" – 4:22 ( sample (help·info))
2. "Flim" – 2:57
3. "Come to Daddy [Little Lord Faulteroy Mix]" – 3:50
4. "Bucephalus Bouncing Ball" – 5:46
5. "To Cure A Weakling Child [Contour Regard]" – 3:54
6. "Funny Little Man" – 4:22
7. "Come to Daddy [Mummy Mix]" – 5:09
8. "IZ-US" – 2:57

The tracks were originally released on two separate CDs, WAP94CD and WAP94CDR, with the first four tracks on the former and the rest on the latter. These have since been deleted and replaced by one EP containing all eight tracks (WAP94CDX).

Cover/Remix versions

• Come to Daddy has been covered by The Dillinger Escape Plan on their EP Irony is a Dead Scene featuring Mike Patton.
• The song "Flim" was covered by jazz trio The Bad Plus on their second album These Are The Vistas.
• Belle Orchestre have covered Bucephalus Bouncing Ball live.
• A remix of "Come to Daddy [Pappy Mix]", two remixes of "Flim" and two remixes of "Bucephalus Bouncing Ball" were done as part of V/Vm's Helpaphextwin series.

Personnel

• Aphex Twin – vocals, synthesizers, piano, guitar, bass guitar, drum machine, production
• Chris Cunningham – images
• Stefan de Batselier – photography

Charts

References

1. ↑ Come to Daddy at AllMusic
2. ↑ Almost Cool review
3. ↑ Pitchfork review
4. ↑ Robert Christgau: CG: aphex twin
5. ↑ 1/98, p. 116
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 George-Warren, Holly and Patricia Romanowski, ed. (2005). "Aphex Twin". The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll. New York, New York: Fireside. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-7432-9201-6. 
7. ↑ "150 Best Tracks Of The Past 15 Years". NME. Retrieved October 19, 2011. 
8. ↑ "Index Magazine". Index Magazine. January 14, 2001. Retrieved October 19, 2011. 
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Inside Housing October 2, 2009
10. ↑ Al Stokes at the Internet Movie Database
11. ↑ 100 Greatest Scary Moments from film, TV, advertising and pop, Channel4.com
12. ↑ The Work of Director Chris Cunningham (2003) at the Internet Movie Database
13. ↑ Pitchfork: Staff Lists: The Top 50 Music Videos of the 1990s

External links

• Come To Daddy at the Warp Records website
• "Come To Daddy" video analysis
• "Come To Daddy" at the unofficial Chris Cunningham website
• The "Come To Daddy" video