Fight Test
EP
ArtistThe Flaming Lips
Coverflaminglips fighttest.jpg
ReleasedApril 22, 2003
Recorded2002
GenreIndie rock
Length32:47
LabelWarner Bros.
ProducerThe Flaming Lips, Dave Fridmann, Scott Booker
ChronologyThe Flaming Lips EP
Prev year2001
Next year2003

Fight Test is an extended play (EP) released by the Flaming Lips released on Warner Bros. Records in 2003. The single version of "Fight Test" was released on June 23, 2003, peaking at number 28 on the UK Singles Chart. It is the third single to be picked from the album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.

It is an enhanced CD, containing covers of Radiohead's "Knives Out", Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Out of My Head", and Beck's "The Golden Age". In addition, the EP includes two original songs. The UK version was a normal CD single, which also featured some previously unreleased songs. Fight Test was nominated for Best Alternative Album at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards.

The opening of "Fight Test" ("The test begins...now") was sampled from one of the sync tests from the Flaming Lips' own Boombox Experiments. The song was also the theme song for the short-lived MTV cartoon 3-South. It was furthermore used in a season 2 episode of the long-running TV series Smallville.[1]

Plagiarism settlement

"Fight Test" is musically similar to Cat Stevens's 1970 song "Father and Son". Following a settlement with the Flaming Lips, Stevens receives 75 percent of the royalties from Fight Test.[2] In an interview with The Guardian, frontman Wayne Coyne stated:[3]

I want to go on record for the first time and say that I really apologise for the whole thing. I really love Cat Stevens. I truly respect him as a great singer-songwriter. And now he wants his money. There was a time during the recording when we said, this has a similarity to 'Father and Son'. Then we purposefully changed those bits. But I do regret not contacting his record company and asking their opinion. Maybe we could have gone 50–50. As it is, Cat Stevens is now getting 75 percent of royalties from 'Fight Test'. We could easily have changed the melody but we didn't. I am really sorry that Cat Stevens thinks I'm purposefully plagiarising his work. I am ashamed. There is obviously a fine line between being inspired and stealing. But if anyone wanted to borrow part of a Flaming Lips song, I don't think I'd bother pursuing it. I've got better things to do. Anyway, Cat Stevens is never going to make much money out of us.

Track listing

Enhanced CD content

UK CD1

  1. "Fight Test"
  2. "Thank You Jack White (for the Fiber-Optic Jesus That You Gave Me)"
  3. "The Deterioration of the Fight or Flight Response"

UK CD2

  1. "Fight Test"
  2. "The Strange Design of Conscience"
  3. "Fight Test" (primitive demo with helium voice)

UK DVD

  1. "Fight Test" (video)
  2. "Fight Test" (audio)
  3. "Knives Out" (from July 2002 XFM session)
  4. "One More Robot" (from July 2002 XFM session)

Chart positions

EP

Chart (2003)Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[4]86

Single

Chart (2003–2007)Peak
position

References

  1. ^ "KryptonSite's Smallville Music Guide: Season 2". Kryptonsite.com. Retrieved 2015-06-01.
  2. ^ "Plastic: 'Father And Son' Cat Fight Ends With Split Lips". Archived from the original on June 29, 2007.
  3. ^ Coyne, Wayne (29 June 2003). "Straight from the Lip". The Guardian. Archived 9 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
  4. ^ "The ARIA Report: Issue 695". webarchive.nla.gov.au. 2006-08-23. Archived from the original on 2003-07-06. Retrieved 2015-06-01.