"Loaded" is a song by Scottish rock band Primal Scream, released on 19 February 1990 as the lead single from their third studio album '' Screamadelica'' (1991). Mixed and produced by

Andrew Weatherall Andrew James Weatherall (6 April 1963 – 17 February 2020) was an English musician, DJ, songwriter, producer and remixer. His career took him from being one of the key DJs in the acid house movement of the late 1980s to being a remixer of trac ...

, it is a remix of an earlier song titled "I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have". In 2014, '' NME'' placed the song at number 59 in its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Inspiration and composition

Primal Scream first became aware of

after he published a favourable review of their eponymous second album in the ''Boys Own''

fanzine A fanzine (blend of '' fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''-zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleasure of others who share t ...

. Having subsequently met him at an acid house party at which he was DJing and become friends through various later meetings, it was suggested that he should

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

"I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have" from the album, work for which he was to receive a fee of £500. Weatherall's first attempt, which he later described as basically just having "slung a kick drum under the original", was judged by the band to have been too reverential to the source material and was rejected. Guitarist Andrew Innes instructed Weatherall to instead "just fucking destroy it". His subsequent attempt abandoned all of the original track with the exception of a seven-second sample. At the start of the song, Weatherall added an audio sample of Frank Maxwell and

Peter Fonda Peter Henry Fonda (February 23, 1940 – August 16, 2019) was an American actor. He was the son of Henry Fonda, younger brother of Jane Fonda, and father of Bridget Fonda. He was a prominent figure in the counterculture of the 1960s. Fond ...

from the film '' The Wild Angels''. The rest of the song is constructed from the parts of "I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have", with a vocal sample from

The Emotions ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...

' "I Don't Want to Lose Your Love", and a drum loop from an Italian bootleg remix of

Edie Brickell Edie Arlisa Brickell (born March 10, 1966) is an American singer-songwriter widely known for 1988's '' Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars'', the debut album by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, which went to No. 4 on the ''Billboard'' albums char ...

's song " What I Am", plus

Bobby Gillespie Robert "Bobby" Gillespie (born 22 June 1961) is a Scottish musician, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as the lead singer, founding member, and primary lyricist of the alternative rock band Primal Scream. He was als ...

singing a line from

Robert Johnson Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generat ...

's "Terraplane Blues".

Single release

The single was released in February 1990, 18 months before the arrival of ''Screamadelica'' in October 1991. It was around 3 minutes shorter than the album version. "Loaded" reached number 16 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, making it the group's first UK top 40 hit and garnering them a first appearance on television chart show ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most o ...

''. The single featured a remix from regular Weatherall collaborator

Terry Farley Terry Farley is a British DJ, remixer and producer from London, active since the mid-1980s. Career Farley started out going to clubs in the late 1970s and first visited Ibiza in 1982. He then started working as a DJ, performing at the same clubs ...

whose version reincorporated part of the original vocal from "I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have". The 7" b-side was a Pat Collier remix of the source track, "I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have". ''

Muzik ''Muzik'' was a British dance music magazine published by IPC Media from June 1995 to August 2003. ''Muzik'' was created by two former ''Melody Maker'' journalists, Push and Ben Turner. Push was the editor of ''Muzik'' from its launch until he ...

'' magazine listed the song as one of the 50 most influential dance records of all time, describing it as "unquestionably the finest indie dance record ever ... something akin to " Sympathy for the Devil" for the E generation".

Legacy

In 2022, it was included in the list "The story of ''NME'' in 70 (mostly) seminal songs": Mark Beaumont wrote that with this "majestic" song, "worlds of indie and dance most gloriously collided".

Charts

Certifications

In film

The song is played at the beginning of the movie '' The World's End'' and was included in its soundtrack.

References

{{authority control 1990 singles 1990 songs Creation Records singles Primal Scream songs Song recordings produced by Andrew Weatherall Songs written by Bobby Gillespie Songs written by Andrew Innes Acid house songs Dance-rock songs Songs written by Robert Young (musician)