"Sunset (Bird of Prey)" is a song by English musician

Fatboy Slim Norman Quentin Cook (born Quentin Leo Cook, 31 July 1963), also known by his stage name Fatboy Slim, is an English musician, DJ, and record producer who helped to popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. In the 1980s, Cook was the bassist f ...

from his third studio album, '' Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars'' (2000). The song samples

Jim Morrison James Douglas Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) was an American singer, poet and songwriter who was the lead vocalist of the rock band the Doors. Due to his wild personality, poetic lyrics, distinctive voice, unpredictable and err ...

's vocals from the Doors song "

Bird of Prey Birds of prey or predatory birds, also known as raptors, are hypercarnivorous bird species that actively hunt and feed on other vertebrates (mainly mammals, reptiles and other smaller birds). In addition to speed and strength, these predato ...

." Released on 16 October 2000, the single peaked at 9 in the United Kingdom, No. 20 in Norway, and No. 25 in Ireland.

Music video

The music video of the song is set in 1964 and features

Robert Jezek Robert Jezek (born 6 April 1955) is a Canadian stage, film and television actor based in the United Kingdom. Career In 1989, Jezek appeared as Sergeant Zbrigniev in the ''Doctor Who'' television serial ''Battlefield''. He is known for play ...

as a

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...

pilot flying a British-made

Hawker Hunter The Hawker Hunter is a transonic British jet-powered fighter aircraft that was developed by Hawker Aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was designed to take advantage of the newly developed Rolls- ...

fighter plane Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

named the Bird of Prey. It opens with the famous "Daisy" television commercial, which was used as a campaign for President Lyndon B. Johnson during this year, showing the pilot sitting in a room watching this commercial. He drinks a glass of water which has something bubbling in it, intercut with an image of a brain and a piece of paper with text describing a chemical. An identification form with Fatboy Slim's real name on it, (Colonel)

Norman Cook Norman Quentin Cook (born Quentin Leo Cook, 31 July 1963), also known by his stage name Fatboy Slim, is an English musician, DJ, and record producer who helped to popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. In the 1980s, Cook was the bassist f ...

is seen. As the drug comes on, he imagines that he's flying the plane, and he eventually ejects and parachutes down, and then the hallucination stops. The actual song is playing during the flight sequence. Near the end of the video one can see the word "

MKULTRA Project MKUltra (or MK-Ultra) was an illegal human experimentation program designed and undertaken by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), intended to develop procedures and identify drugs that could be used in interrogations to weak ...

", which was a

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

-operated top secret confidential government project concerning

mind control Brainwashing (also known as mind control, menticide, coercive persuasion, thought control, thought reform, and forced re-education) is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques. Brainwashi ...

human experimentation, including using chemicals on test subjects (people) as truth serums. Also visible is another identification form with another name on it, Al Hubbard.

Production

The video was directed by Blue Source (Rob Leggatt and Leigh Marling), and produced by Blink. The producers had wanted a

Lockheed F-104 Starfighter The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is an American single-engine, supersonic air superiority fighter which was extensively deployed as a fighter-bomber during the Cold War. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed as one of the "Century Series" of fig ...

, to emulate the final scene in '' The Right Stuff'' where

Chuck Yeager Brigadier General Charles Elwood Yeager ( , February 13, 1923December 7, 2020) was a United States Air Force officer, flying ace, and record-setting test pilot who in October 1947 became the first pilot in history confirmed to have exceeded th ...

is seen to take a Starfighter and loses control, with him finally ejecting; the pilot in the video also ejects.

Filming

The filming took place at

Duxford Aerodrome Duxford Aerodrome is located south of Cambridge, within the civil parish of Duxford, Cambridgeshire, England and nearly west of the village. The airfield is owned by the Imperial War Museum (IWM) and is the site of the Imperial War Muse ...

, and was produced by Flight Logistics of

Borehamwood Borehamwood (, historically also Boreham Wood) is a town in southern Hertfordshire, England, from Charing Cross. Borehamwood has a population of 31,074, and is within the London commuter belt. The town's film and TV studios are commonly know ...

, who used an

Aérospatiale Corvette The Aérospatiale SN 601 Corvette is a French business jet of the early 1970s developed and manufactured by aerospace manufacturer Aérospatiale. Sales of the type were disappointing, leading to only 40 Corvettes being constructed, including the ...

to film the airborne scenes from.

Aircraft

The

T8 ''XF357''/''G-BWGL'', provided by Ray Hanna's Old Flying Machine Company, is shown in a USAF livery which was changed for filming using removable decals. The same company also supplied aircraft for Travis's ''

Writing to Reach You "Writing to Reach You" is the first single taken from Scottish rock band Travis's second studio album, '' The Man Who'' (1999). Background The song was written by Fran Healy, who admitted that he had written this song while listening to "'74 ...

'' in 1999. The silver colour scheme was chosen to represent T.7 ''XJ615'', the Hunter trainer prototype. It is an 11-tonne Hunter T.8C with a

Rolls-Royce Avon The Rolls-Royce Avon was the first axial flow jet engine designed and produced by Rolls-Royce. Introduced in 1950, the engine went on to become one of their most successful post-World War II engine designs. It was used in a wide variety of a ...

122 engine. The aircraft was built as a Hunter F4 by

Hawker Aircraft Hawker Aircraft Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer that was responsible for some of the most famous products in British aviation history. History Hawker had its roots in the aftermath of the First World War, which resulted in the bank ...

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre rivers, and is ...

in 1956, and served with 130 Squadron at

RAF Bruggen Royal Air Force Brüggen, more commonly known as RAF Brüggen, in Germany was a major station of the Royal Air Force until 15 June 2001. It was situated next to the village of Elmpt, approximately west of Düsseldorf on the Dutch-German bo ...

, then was converted to a T8 in 1959 by

Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Company, or Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, was a British aircraft manufacturer. History Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft was established as the Aerial Department of the Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth & Company e ...

at Coventry. The aircraft stayed with the Royal Navy ( Fleet Requirements and Aircraft Direction Unit or FRADU) until 16 May 1995.RN XF357
/ref> The aircraft has been with the Dutch Hawker Hunter Foundation at Leeuwarden Air Base since 15 May 2007, and has the Dutch serial N-321 painted in Dutch Air Force (

Royal Netherlands Air Force , colours = , colours_label = , march = ''Parade March of the Royal Netherlands Air Force'' , mascot = , anniversaries = , equipment ...

) colours.

First version

An early version of the track, entitled "Bird of Prey" was released under the name Yum Yum Head Food on a 1995 US compilation of tracks from Norman Cook's Southern Fried label.

Track listings

CD # "Sunset (Bird of Prey)" # "My Game" # "Sunset (Bird of Prey) ( Darren Emerson remix)" 12-inch # "Sunset (Bird of Prey)" # "My Game"

Charts

References

External links

IMDb
2000 singles 2000 songs Astralwerks singles Fatboy Slim songs Songs written by Jim Morrison Songs written by John Densmore Songs written by Norman Cook Songs written by Ray Manzarek Songs written by Robby Krieger Skint Records singles {{2000s-electronic-song-stub