The ‘cancellation’ of old songs, movies and media that don’t adhere to progressive blasphemy laws has been going on for some years now, so I guess it was only a matter of time before The Prodigy’s 1997 classic ‘Smack My B*tch Up’ was put on the sh1t list.
The song’s entire lyrics are made up of the lines: “Change my pitch up/Smack my b***h up”, and, in fairness, was always accused of glorifying domestic violence – so much so that it was banned from some radio and TV stations even in the 90’s.
Despite the criticism, the band, including the late Keith Flint, had always insisted that it was misunderstood and the lyrics simply meant ‘doing anything intensely’. However, it now seems the band have taken it upon themselves to change the lyrics on their new European tour, where they played two nights at London’s Alexandra Palace last Friday and Saturday.
Footage from the gig, shared by a fan on X, shows Maxim repeating: “Change my pitch up/Change my pitch up” as he sings the song, dropping the latter half of the lyrics completely.
So why the change, 26 years later? I don’t think they were ‘forced’ to modify the lyric so it sounds like it was something the band decided to do on their own. Maybe they decided two decades later that the lyrics really do glorify violence against women, even though they insisted for years that this wasn’t the case. The question is – how would Keith Flint feel about this if he were still around?
Flint – who died in 2019 aged 49 – told Rolling Stone in 1997: “At the end of the day, the girls who come to our shows are hardcore girls, and they don’t look at it as that. If some girl in an A-line flowery dress decides there’s some band somewhere singing about smashing b***hes up, let’s get a bit militant. They don’t know us. They never know us. They never will.”
Maxim added: “When you listen to Smack My B***h Up, you don’t go out and beat your wife up, do you?”
Well, I guess it’s not the end of the world, but it’s a bit lame and not very ‘rebellious’ or ‘punk’ which is what The Prodigy used to be all about. Maybe the remaining band members will be around long enough for the pendulum to swing the other way, and bring back the original one last time.
For the people calling for Olly Murs’s ‘disgusting’ new song to be axed, click HERE.
