Everything Starts With An 'E'

Everything Starts With An 'E' is a song by E-Zee Possee. It is considered by many to be the anthem of acid house^[1] despite having been banned by the BBC.^[2]

The song was prepared in an unorthodox manner; Jeremy Healy presented to Boy George an instrumental, and then Boy George suggested having MC Kinky rap over it.^[3]

Everything Starts With An 'E' was originally released in the summer of 1989, and peaked at #69 in the UK Singles Chart, leaving the top 75 chart after only one week.^[4] However, the single was re-released less than a year later, in March 1990, and climbed to #15 on the UK chart.^[4] It remained in the chart for eight weeks, making it the longest chart running for the band.^[4]

Background

When I MC'd over `Everything starts with an E' I hadn't taken one. The track got banned from Radio 1 and TV, but it was massive. I had no manager, agent, nothing. People used to phone up my house all the time and say, `Hi my name's so and so, can you do a gig?' Me and my mates would drive up to a massive party somewhere. I'd put my hair in curlers in the car, put on mad light-reflecting clothes in pub toilets. When the screechy guitar on `Everything ... ' began, the crowd would roar like a football stadium. Afterwards I'd get off stage and go and dance for hours with everyone else. People would come up to me saying, `I love you. I love your hair. You've changed my life.' I couldn't believe it.

And there was so much money around; literally huge piles of cash in the Portakabins. Because everyone was so out of it they'd pay me huge amounts. We were like kiddies with cash, going into restaurants and ordering every dish we hadn't tried. It was never a job, just a brilliant way to live. When Thatcher stopped it, people didn't say, `Let's take off our baggy T-shirts and get a nine-to-five.' Many of us carried on and developed creative careers from that scene in music, journalism, whatever. In comparison, today's 21-year- olds seem so safe, so `better get a bank job'. I get really sad when I go out now. Everything's so corporate. And they subject you to eight hours of the same music. Yeah, I really miss it. Cool Britannia? I'd rather be dancing in a field in '88.

—MC Kinky, talking to the Independent in 1998^[5]

Critical reception

Simon Cantlon of AllMusic gave the song a negative review, noting that the song "had not aged well" although conceded that the track "is considered a classic by some".^[6]

Track listing

PROCD 1

1. "Everything Starts With an 'E'" (Edit) - 3:36
2. "Everything Starts With an 'E'" (12" Mix) - 7:10
3. "Everything Starts With an 'E'" (Sir Frederick Leighton Remix) - 7:49
4. "Everything Starts With an 'E'" (Beats) - 6:47

PROT112

1. "Everything Starts With an 'E'" (Renegade Soundwave Mix) - 5:23
2. "Everything Starts With an 'E'" (Renegade Soundwave Dub) - 3:27

PROTR112

1. "Everything Starts With an 'E'" (New 12" Mix) - 7:13
2. "Everything Starts With an 'E'" (Instrumental) - 5:18

Release details

References