"Synthetic Substitution" is a 1973 song by Melvin Bliss. Originally starting life as a throwaway B-Side, with "Reward" as the A-Side, the song failed to chart anywhere on its initial release because of the collapse of Opal Productions, the parent company of Sunburst Records. However, after the song was sampled by Ultramagnetic MCs, many other artists followed suit and eventually the song became one of the most sampled songs of all time.
With the Exciters disbanded in 1971, Herb Rooney was out of a record deal. Having previously written for other artists, Rooney decided to continue down this path.
Meanwhile, Melvin Bliss had drifted from stage to stage since leaving the Army in 1957. Looking to boost his career prospects he visited a Queens concert hall intending to use it for self-promotion. While awaiting a meeting with the hall's owner, he encountered the mother of Herb Rooney and it emerged that he wanted a singer to record one of his compositions. After an informal discussion with Rooney himself, Bliss hit the studio to record it. Rooney had intended the A-Side to be Reward and thus presented it to Bliss first.
"Synthetic Substitution" is a scathing critique of what society would be like if it was entirely computerised, which towards the end of the song features the wailing of Bliss clinging onto the final few authentic remnants of his daily life. In 1986 the song's drums, provided by Bernard Purdie - were sampled in "Ego Trippin'" by Ultramagnetic MCs, spawning numerous other uses. It has since been sampled in over 94 songs, with WhoSampled.com claiming that that number is 400.
"Synthetic Substitution" lends its name to a 2011 Earl Holder-produced documentary about Melvin Bliss, Synthetic Substitution: The Life Story of Melvin Bliss, which was released by Peripheral Enterprises. In a 2010 interview produced exclusively for its trailer, Bliss said that "[Herb Rooney and I] had no idea what the song was about; we just needed a B-Side".
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