Lists
10 of the Best Songs Celebrating Ecstasy
All the highs with none of the lows
4 The Shamen ‘Ebeneezer Goode’
There’ll never be another group like The Shamen, Scottish psychedelic evangelists fronted by a north London geezer (Mr C) who hit the top of the charts with an arch ditty about eccies. From the opening “Naughty, naughty, very naughty” to its blatant chorus – “Eezer Goode”(ie, “E’s are good”!) – it mischievously characterised MDMA as an impish “Mr Puncinello”. Its success was a cheeky daytime radio wink to a million pill-poppers at a time when rave was an all-encompassing national phenomenon.
Sample lyric: “He takes you to the top, shakes you all around, then back down, you know, as he gets mellow”
3 Missy Elliott ‘4 My People’
Long before every US MC, from Lil Wayne to Wiz Khalifa, was dropping bars about “Molly”, Missy Elliott and her producer, Timbaland, were on it. By the genre’s standards, there’s almost an innocence to it, for hip hop’s usual obsession with materialism and sex is partly – and joyously - cast aside as Missy, over an elegant housey pulse, embraces dancefloor freedom, celebrating her “ecstasy people” and hinting, very strongly, that she’s partaking. The Basement Jaxx remix is a corker too.
Sample lyric: “I got this feeling and it's all over me/I want to dance with you and lick your face”
