"Sunset (Bird of Prey)" is a song by English musician Fatboy Slim from his third studio album, Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars (2000). The song samples Jim Morrison's vocals from the Doors song "Bird of Prey." Released on 16 October 2000, the single peaked at No. 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 as a United States Air Force pilot flying a British-made Hawker Hunterfighter plane 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 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", which was a CIA-operated top secret confidential government project concerning mind controlhuman 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, to emulate the final scene in The Right Stuff where Chuck Yeager is seen to take a Starfighter and loses control, with him finally ejecting; the pilot in the video also ejects.[2]
The Hawker Hunter T8 XF357/G-BWGL,[4] provided by Ray Hanna's Old Flying Machine Company, is shown in a USAF livery which was changed for filming using removable decals.[5] The same company also supplied aircraft for Travis's Writing to Reach You in 1999. The silver colour scheme was chosen to represent T.7 XJ615, the Hunter trainer prototype.[6]
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.