Appetite

A keyboard song about a pregnant girl who wants to name her child after everything good in her life.
Prefab Sprout, from Steve McQueen (1985)

Written by
Paddy McAloon
Released
August 1985
Length
3:56
Album
Steve McQueen

McAloon wrote it in 1984, and it was one of the first songs he composed on a keyboard, over a hip-hop-type groove on a drum machine. The lyric is about a pregnant girl so in love with her child that she wants to name it after all the good things in her life. The chorus nods to Robin Hood: if you steal, be Robin Hood.

Dolby plays the synth intro and the rolling arpeggios in the choruses. He worked closely with Martin McAloon on the bass part and had him sing lines from other songs, such as Dobie Gray's The 'In' Crowd, to remember the rhythms from rehearsal. McAloon said in 1985 that the bass and drums were locked together in a pattern that was mainly Dolby's work, and called him a junior Quincy Jones. Dolby himself felt he had not done the song justice.

McAloon thought it more commercial than the previous single, Faron Young, but it reached only number 92 in August 1985. The 7-inch B-side was Heaven Can Wait, an instrumental version of When the Angels, and the 12-inch added Oh, the Swiss!, a piano instrumental. McAloon rerecorded the song as a solo acoustic arrangement in 2006 for the 2007 reissue.

More songs by Prefab Sprout

Faron Young, When Love Breaks Down, Cruel, Cars and Girls, The King of Rock 'n' Roll

Sources

  1. Appetite (Prefab Sprout song), Wikipedia
  2. Steve McQueen (album), Wikipedia
  3. Prefab Sprout: Steve McQueen [Legacy Edition], Pitchfork (2007)