Primarily Found On:

Mezzanine

Also Found On:

The links below will take you either to the Collector section of MASSIVEATTACK.IE, or to an external website – either amazon.com or discogs.com, where you can find out more about all the the album (s)/release (s) that this particular Massive Attack song appears on.

Risingson (Single Release), Collected, Singles 90/98, , Oorgasm 1 (Underdog Remix), 50,000,000 DJs Can’t Be Wrong – Volume One: Mixed Up Beats (Otherside)

First Released On:

7th July 1997

Duration:

04:58

Variations/Remixes:

Underdog Remix – Following on from his remix work on Sly and Protection, Underdog would turn the regular version into a furious drum’n bass tune. This remix would mark Underdog’s last ever remix for Massive Attack. Included on all single releases.

Underdog Instrumental – An instrumental mix of the original Underdog remix exactly the same as the original remix sans vocals. Included only on the promo 12″ vinyl release.

Otherside – This is in fact an alternative mix of Risingson done by Massive Attack themselves. It augments the song with even louder and abasive guitars and drum beats. The added guitar parts were done by Jon Harris, who would later become apart of Sunna, one of the bands on Massive Attack’s Melankolic label. Included on all single releases.

Otherside Instrumental – An instrumental version of the Otherside mix exactly the same as the original remix sans vocals. Included only on the promo 12″ vinyl release.

Underworld Remix – This remix was done by Darren Emerson from the now defunct dance band Underworld. Very much intended for clubs, it strips away all vocals in the regular song down to just the line “Toy-like, Boy-like”. Included only on the promo 12″ vinyl release, until the arrival of the Singles 90/98 Box Set where this remix was included on CD for the first time.

Setting Sun Dub 2 – This is a previously unheard mix that surfaced in June 2007 upon the opening of Massive Attack’s official MySpace page. It is streamed on the aforementioned page in a heavily compressed but listenable quality. As the title of the remix sugests it is a dub remix of the original Risingson wit the remixer remaining amonyous, possibly Massive Attack themselves.

Credits:

Written by Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall and Andrew Vowles

Produced by Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall and Andrew Vowles

Engineering and programming by Doc Savage

See Mezzanine info section for further credit details by clicking here.

For the Collected version of the song, additional credits are:

Remastered by Mike Marsh at the Exchange and Tim Young at Metropolis Mastering.

Sampled:

Risingson uses a sample from the song “I Found A Reason” by The Velvet Underground. It appears primarily on their 1970 release Loaded. It is credited officially by Massive Attack.

Apart from this aforementioned sample, Risingson also uses a sample from the song Practice Makes Perfect by Wire. It appears primarily on their 1978 release Chairs Missing. It is not credited officially by Massive Attack.

Covered:

N/A

Vocalist(s):

Robert Del Naja and Grant Marshall

Lyrics:

History:

Risingson ended up being the first completed song from Mezzanine and was released a good ten months before the album would come out as limited edition single only within the UK. The single release was intended both to serve as a preview to Massive Attack’s long awaited third album (as they came to the conclusion that the album would not make it’s original 1997 deadline) and also as a promotional tool for the 1997 tour.

Additional Info:

Risingson was the first single released from Mezzanine, preceeding its sister album by over ten months.

Risingson would mark Daddy G’s first return to vocals on a Massive Attack single since Daydreaming.

Neil Davidge is credited as being “Doc Savage” on the single release of Risingson. This is the only other occurrence besides Wire where he is credited as such.

Live Appearances:

Risingson along with a sampling of a few other Mezzanine-bound tracks were first played during the 1997 tour partly to gauge crowd reactions to these newly demoed songs. It’s live debut to be exact was at the Royal Dublin Showgrounds in Dublin, Ireland on 21st June 1997.

During the 1997 tour, the backdrop to the stage was a large canvas poster of the image from the Risingson single.

Since the 1997 tour, Risingson has become a permanent fixture on the live setlist on all subsequent tours. It is usually the second or third track played at each show.

Before his departure from the band, Mushroon would perform DJ duties (such as the use of The Velvet Underground sample and doing scratching) during this song. Daddy G would take up this DJ role on the 2006 and 2008 tours.

Since the 2003 tour, Arden Hart, the live band’s keyboardist has performed backing vocals on Risingson, except the now in 2008 where this was done by new keyboardist John Baggott.

Quotes:

Daddy G on Risingson – “The way we approached the vocals on that track and the fact that it was a totally different way of doing things than we usually do; with the whole thing with the chorus to chorus that we got on it. Quite an unorthodox way of appraching a rap track” [Mezzanine Interview Disc – March 1998]

Angelo Bruschini on Risingson’s chart performance – “They were very, very nervous. There was a big sigh of relief when that sold, I think” [Q Magazine - January 1999]

3D on why Risingson was released almost a year before Mezzanine in 1997- “Risingson was a wierd track because, it was more developed than some of the other ideas on Mezzanine and we were talking about going on tour that summer [1997], and we felt we needed to justify our presense on stage, so we needed to put something out there, at least! [Collected EPK - March 2006]

Primarily Found On:

Risingson (Single Release)

The links below will take you either to the Collector section of MASSIVEATTACK.IE, or to an external website – either amazon.com or discogs.com, where you can find out more about all the the album (s)/release (s) that this particular Massive Attack song appears on.

The Jackal – OST (Edit), Mezzanine (Japanese Edition), Singles 90/98

7th July 1997

05:13

Metal Postcard Mix – This is the original mix of Superpredators, that was mixed solely by Massive Attack. Massive Attack then allowed the Mad Professor to remix the track. The Mad Professor remix would end up being by far the more commonly available of the two versions of the song available, with the original Massive Attack mix being very hard to find. This mix is on no physical release, but does appear during the opening credits of the film The Jackal. Many outside audio elements to the mix, were added by the producers of the film, such as the famous Ronald Reagan quote “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” and many other sounds of riots and carnage and TV reports about the fall of Russian Communism.

Edit – This is a truncated version of Superpredators that chops off close to the last 40 seconds of the song. Included only on the The Jackal soundtrack CD, where the song is labeled as Superpredators (Metal Postcard).

Written by Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall and Andrew Vowles

Produced by Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshal and Andrew Vowles

Remixed by Mad Professor

Superpredators uses a sample from the song “Metal Postcard” by Siouxsie And The Banshees. It appears primarily on their 1978 release “The Scream”. It is credited officially by Massive Attack. The Jackal soundtrack CD actual lists Superpredators as being Superpredators (Metal Postcard), obviously owing its extra Metal Postcard title to the use of the Siouxsie And The Banshees sample. As another aside, Massive Attack had previously tried and failed to convince the lead singer of Siouxsie And The Banshees, Siouxsie Sioux to appear as a guest vocalist on the album Protection.

N/A

Instrumental

N/A

The director of film The Jackal, Michael Caton Jones specially commissioned Massive Attack to contribute to the soundtrack to the film while he was lensing the movie back in 1996. Massive Attack would choose to sample extensively an old song from Siouxsie And The Banshees called Metal Postcard. The working title for the Massive Attack song was also Metal Postcard, as it started out as basically a cover version of the original before Massive Attack added enough new elements to make it a song of their own.

Being speculative, the Superpredators title could have come from the main plotline of The Jackal film – that of two highly trained assassins (played by Bruce Willis and Richard Gere), hot on each others trail.

The director of film The Jackal, Michael Caton Jones who had commisioned the song in the first place ended up with a thank you on the inner sleeve notes of Mezzanine.

Superpredators was played at a few dates during the second half of the 1998 tour, making it a very rare live performance. When it did appear, it was as the opening song – a three minute intro before segueing directly into Angel. The first time it was played was at the Valby Hallen, Copenhagen, Denmark on 2nd November 1998. It has never been played since the 1998 tour.

Quotes:

N/A

Primarily Found On:

Welcome To Sarajevo – OST

Also Found On:

The links below will take you either to the Collector section of MASSIVEATTACK.IE, or to an external website – either amazon.com or discogs.com, where you can find out more about all the the album (s)/release (s) that this particular Massive Attack song appears on.

The End Credits of the film “Welcome To Sarajevo”

First Released On:

9th December 1997

Duration:

05:54 (End Titles)

Variations/Remixes:

Vocal Edit – This is the only studio produced version available featuring Sara Jay’s vocals. Only appears during the end credits sequence of the film Welcome to Sarajevo. It frustratingly, fades out roughly around the midpoint of the song as the end credits also fade to black.

End Titles – An instrumental version of the track without Sara Jays vocals. Apart from this fact, the track is also mixed and arranged differently to the vocal edit version. Appears only on the soundtrack album to the film “Welcome To Sarajevo”.

Credits:

Written by Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall,Andrew Vowles and Sara Jay

Produced by Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall and Andrew Vowles

Engineering and programming by Doc Savage

Strings arranged by Craig Armstrong

Sampled:

Seminal post-punk rockers Wire’s song “Former Airline” was sampled for Wire. It would be speculative to say that the Massive Attack song Wire, gets its namesake from the very band they sampled from. It appears primarily on Wire’s reissue’s of their 1978 release Chairs Missing. It is not credited officially by Massive Attack.

Covered:

N/A

Vocalist(s):

Sara Jay appears on the Vocal Edit version of Wire only. Likewise the lyrics below only apply to Vocal Edit version.

Lyrics:

History:

The director of film Welcome To Sarajevo, Michael Winterbottom specially commissioned Massive Attack to contribute to the soundtrack to the film while he was lensing the movie back in 1996.

Additional Info:

Wire is an elusive and much sought after track to many Massive Attack fans. No one definite version of the song exists, however the live version is probably the closest to the final version desired by many fans.

One of three songs recorded with vocalist Sara Jay, the other two being Dissolved Girl and an unknown, unreleased song.

Neil Davidge is credited as “Doc Savage” in the inner sleeve credits of the soundtrack album to “Welcome To Sarajevo”. This is the only other occurrence besides the Risingson single release where he is credited as such.

This is also one of only six songs to have a Craig Armstrong involvement, the others being Weather Storm, Sly, Heat Miser, I Want You and Nature Boy.

Live Appearances:

Wire along with a sampling of a few Mezzanine-bound tracks were first played during the 1997 tour partly to gauge crowd reactions to these newly demoed songs. It’s live debut to be exact was at the Royal Dublin Showgrounds ,in Dublin, Ireland on 21st June 1997. It was usually the penultimate or even final track played on many shows. Sara Jay herself provided vocals for the track on this tour along with an early demo version of Dissolved Girl. Debbie Miller usually accompanied her on stage doing backing vocals for the song. Sara Jay along with Wire have never appeared on a subsequent tour.

Quotes:

N/A

Primarily Found On:

Mezzanine

Also Found On:

The links below will take you either to the Collector section of MASSIVEATTACK.IE, or to an external website – either amazon.com or discogs.com, where you can find out more about all the the album (s)/release (s) that this particular Massive Attack song appears on.

Angel (Single Release), Collected, Singles 90/98, p – OST, Best Laid Plans – OST, Snatch – OST

First Released On:

20th April 1998

Duration:

06:18

Variations/Remixes:

Blur Remix – A remix undertaken by Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon of Blur, which is far removed from the regular version, which has polarized many fans to its quality (or lack of!). This was Damon Albarn’s first remix for another artist that was released. He worked with remixing some of Tricky’s songs, two years before, but the pair fell out with each other and the material was never released. Included on all single releases.

Mad Professor Remix – The Mad Professor once more remixes a Massive Attack single. Included only on the promo 12″ vinyl release, and then only in a truncated form, until the arrival of the Singles 90/98 Box Set where this remix was included on CD in its full form.

Radio Edit – A truncated version of the song for radio playback. Trims off much of the beginning and end of the song. Included only on promo releases and on the Singles 90/98 Box Set.

Credits:

Written by Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall, Andrew Vowles and Horace Hinds

Produced by Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall, Andrew Vowles and Neil Davidge

See Mezzanine info section for further credit details by clicking here.

For the Collected version of the song, additional credits are:

Remastered by Mike Marsh at the Exchange and Tim Young at Metropolis Mastering.

Sampled:

Angel uses a sample from the song “Last Bongo In Belgium” by The Incredible Bongo Band. It appears primarily on their 1973 release Bongo Rock. It is not credited officially by Massive Attack.

Covered:

Heavy metal band Sepultra covered Angel for inclusion on their limited release EP “Revolusongs” which came out in 2002.

Vocalist(s):

Horace Andy

Lyrics:

History:

Originally, Angel was intended to be a very different sounding song, as it was to be a cover of “Straight To Hell” by The Clash that would have also have included a sample from an old Sex Gang Children record. For this cover version, 3D had earmarked Horace Andy as being the ideal vocalist but by the time it came to record his vocals in London’s Olympic Studios they hit a snag. Horace Andy, a religious man, was unwilling to sing the word “hell” in The Clash song so at the last minute, unexpectedly Massive Attack were forced to improvise a new song on the spot to accomadate Horace Andy’s refusal. In the space of merely four hours, they stripped away much of the originally prepared track, wrote a new melody around it, halved the tempo and removed the Sex Gang Children sample entirely. Finally to use as lyrics for this new untitled song, they took the lyrics almost directly from Horace Andy’s own song You Are My Angel.

Additional Info:

Angel was the third single released from Mezzanine

Horace Andy is credited as Horace Hinds on Angel as this is has real name with “Andy” being his stage name.

It is quite probably the most used Massive Attack song in both TV and movie soundtracks ever having appeared in countless different filmed media. See the Videography section for a sampling of what Angel has been used in.

Live Appearances:

Angel was first played live in it’s finished state at the Olympia in Dublin, Ireland on 15th April 1998. It has since become ome of the permanent fixtures of Massive Attack’s live show, hardly ever leaving the setlist except in the very rare times that Horace Andy was not available to do live vocals. On the 1998/1999 tour, Angel served as the opening song in most cases and duly had a long intro sequence of roughly two minutes before the entrance of Horace Andy’s vocals, but in subsequent tours this intro has been shortened down to only about half a minute. On the 2008 tour, Angel was moved till near the end of the live show typically being the first of the 3/4 encore songs.

Quotes:

Mushroom on Angel – “I like the simplicity of it. You see, I’ve always liked the earlier albums and the elements in that and Angel really takes me back to things on Protection and Blue Lines” [Mezzanine Interview Disc - March 1998]

3D on the meaning behind Angel – “As with many of the tracks [on Mezzanine], it deals with relationships: what you expect from a woman and what you actually get back” [Vox Magazine - May 1998]

3D on the initial recording of Angel – “In the space of four hours we stripped all the music away, wrote loads of stuff around it, keeping some of the old melody, putting in Horaces’ new melodies, taking the Sex Gang sample away, halving the tempo and adding new words” [Q Magazine – January 1999]

Primarily Found On:

Mezzanine

Also Found On:

The links below will take you either to the Collector section of MASSIVEATTACK.IE, or to an external website – either amazon.com or discogs.com, where you can find out more about all the the album (s)/release (s) that this particular Massive Attack song appears on.

Teardrop (Single Release), Collected, Singles 90/98, Dance Train ‘98 Vol. 3, Pure Moods II, The Chillout Album – Soft Mixed, The Chillout Mix, Triple J Hottest 100 – 6, Chilled Ibiza, Alternative Moments, Breakdown – The Very Best Euphoric Chillout Mixes, The Chillout Session, House M.D – OST

First Released On:

20th April 1998

Duration:

05:29

Variations/Remixes:

Scream Team Remix – A remix credited to both Primal Scream and Brendan Lynch operating under the name Scream Team. Massive Attack would repay Primal Scream the remixing favour on their Exterminator track in 2000. Appears on all single releases.

Mad Professor Mazaruni Vocal Mix – UK dub producer and well known Massive Attack remixer puts his own style down on this particular remix. Included only on the promo and 12″ single releases, until the arrival of the Singles 90/98 Box Set where this remix was included on CD.

Mad Professor Mazaruni Instrumental Mix – Similar to the vocal mix, except the vocals, while still present(despite being billed an instrumental) are used more as echo effects throughout the song, typical to a lot of the Mad Professor’s repertoire. Appears on all single releases.

Edit – A truncated version of the song for radio playback. Trims off much of the beginning and end of the song. Included only on promo releases.

Credits:

Written by Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall, Andrew Vowles and Elizabeth Fraser

Produced by Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall, Andrew Vowles and Neil Davidge

See Mezzanine info section for further credit details by clicking here.

For the Collected version of the song, additional credits are:

Remastered by Mike Marsh at the Exchange and Tim Young at Metropolis Mastering.

Sampled:

Jazz piano player Les McCann’s song “Sometimes I Cry” was sampled for Teardrop. It appears primarily on Les McCann’s 1972 release Layers. It is not credited officially by Massive Attack.

Covered:

Teardrop has been covered several times by many artists usually only as a live performance. Artists which have performed Teardrop live are Elbow, Incubus, Jamie Cullum, Jose Gonzalez and Our Lady Peace. The most recent cover is from 2007 by English singer/songwriter Newton Faulkner. There are also a large amount of amaeteur singers covering this song, as can be evidenced by doing a search for such covers on YouTube.

Prehaps the most notable cover of Teardrop is by Massive Attack themselves, as Teardrop is sampled on the Massive Attack song, Bullet Boy.

Vocalist(s):

Elizabeth Fraser

Lyrics:

History:

Teardrop began life as a simple harpsichord riff plucked by Neil Davidige one April day in 1997. Mushroom who was the first in the band to hear this solitary riff, took an immediate liking to it and he and Neil Davidige set to further work on it adding sombre piano chords and beats. The working title for it at this time was “No Don’t”. Mushroom’s (whose attachment to the song was very high) number one choice for vocalist for the song was none other than Madonna, who Massive Attack had previously worked with back 1995 on I Want You. However, both 3D and Daddy G who had both now heard the early demo of the song at this stage, had another vocalist entirely in mind, Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins.
In the two against one split, eventually Mushroom lost out even though not before sending the backing track for Teardrop to Madonna who was apparently in love with the track and was disappointed when the rest of Massive Attack informed her that they already had a vocalist for the song. This is just one of the many occurrences one could cite for Mushroom’s gradual disliking for Massive Attack and of course, gradual departure from the band in 1999.

Elizabeth Fraser wrote and sang the lyrics for Teardrop soon after famous singer/songwriter Jeff Buckley, her boyfriend at the time had perished in a drowning accident. Some speculate that the lyrics for Teardrop were reflective of her mood at the time and might even subtlety be about Jeff Buckley’s death.

Additional Info:

Teardrop was the first single released to promote Mezzanine, even though it was not the first single release from the album, what with Risingson being released nearly a year before in the summer of 1997.

The producers behind the 1999 Academy Awarding winning film “American Beauty” had intended to use Teardrop as the main musical theme to accompany the film. Massive Attack objected to the song’s use in the film after reading a brief synopsis of what the film was about. After seeing the finished film, 3D would later comment on how it was a mistake to deny “American Beauty” the use of Teardrop, when the film turned into the big critical success of 1999 at the box office.

Live Appearances:

Teardrop was first played live at the Olympia in Dublin, Ireland on 15th April 1998. For the majority of dates on the 1998/1999 tour, Elizabeth Fraser was not available due to the fact that she was pregnant at the time. She did however put in a memorable appearance at the Royal Albert Hall gig in June 1998. Her vocals on Teardrop for this tour, were done instead by Debbie Miller. On the 2003 and 2004 tour, Liz Fraser was still not present, and now her vocals were substituted with Dot Allison’s. For the 2006 tour Elizabeth Fraser would finally return to performing live and singing her vocals for not only Teardrop but the other Liz Fraser tracks on Mezzanine, and proceeded to do the whole tour with Massive Attack. In 2008, the vocal duties would fall to new singer Stephanie Dosen who is planned to be apart of the next Massive Attack album as well.

Quotes:

3D on Teardrop – “It’s a moment of light relief from some of the other moments of the album really. It was quite a simple track musically to create and we weren’t sure what to do with it” [ChannelV TV - June 1998]

Mushroom on the choice of Liz Fraser over Madonna for vocalist – “It sounds good now” [Q Magazine - January 1999]

Daddy G on the bust-up with Mushroom during the making of Teardrop – “At the time, it seemed like an act of treachery” [Q Magazine - January 1999]

Primarily Found On:

Mezzanine

Also Found On:

The links below will take you either to the Collector section of MASSIVEATTACK.IE, or to an external website – either amazon.com or discogs.com, where you can find out more about all the the album (s)/release (s) that this particular Massive Attack song appears on.

Inertia Creeps (Single Release), Collected, Singles 90/98, Stigmata – OST, Without Some Help (Alpha Remix)

First Released On:

20th April 1998

Duration:

05:56

Variations/Remixes:

Manic Street Preachers Version – This remix by Welsh working class rockers, the Manic Street Preachers was also their first ever remix for another band. Massive Attack would also repay the favour and simultaneously remix their own song “If You Tolerate This Then Your Children Will Be Next”. Included on all single releases.

Alpha Mix – Melankolic labelmates and fellow Bristolians offer up their own chilled-out remix. Included on all single releases.

Back/Shecomes – This remix is in fact a Mad Professor mix done incognito, probably done as the name Mad Professor was getting to synonymous with Massive Attack remixes, at the time. Included on all single releases.

State Of Bengal Mix – This remix done by British/Asian DJ and producer Sam Zaman who emphasizes even further the middle eastern ethnic sounds contained in the regular version. Included on all single releases.

Radio Edit – A truncated version of the song for radio playback. Trims off the beginning and end of the song. Included only on the promo CD release, until the arrival of the Singles 90/98 Box Set where this edit would be included.

Credits:

Written by Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall and Andrew Vowles

Produced by Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall, Andrew Vowles and Neil Davidge

See Mezzanine info section for further credit details by clicking here.

For the Collected version of the song, additional credits are:

Remastered by Mike Marsh at the Exchange and Tim Young at Metropolis Mastering.

Sampled:

Samples an unknown Turkish/middle eastern song. See the History section of this page for more details.

Covered:

N/A

Vocalist(s):

Robert Del Naja

Lyrics:

History:

After taking a short break in July from the 1997 tour in Turkey, Massive Attack would return to Bristol with cassettes of Turkish music which would be the inspiration for what would eventually become Inertia Creeps. The turkish music was overheard by Massive Attack at a belly dancer club in the Turkish capital Istanbul and the very percausive nature of it piqued 3D’s interest immediately. The lyrics for the song had alreay been written several months before and the turkish music backing track would serve as an appropriate musical canvas for his thougths on one of his own personnel dysfunctional relationships he had had in the past.

Additional Info:

Inertia Creeps was the fourth and final single released from Mezzanine.

Live Appearances:

Inertia Creeps was first played live at the Olympia in Dublin, Ireland on 15th April 1998. It is also a perennial favourite of Massive Attack’s being on practically every live setlist on every subsequent tour since. It’s placement at shows is always towards the end, usually being the fourth or third last song played at each show. On the 2008 tour, Inertia Creeps was moved back slightly to just over the halfway mark at most shows.

Quotes:

3D on the high tempo percussion used on Inertia Creeps – “It was to drive the music forward, so that it went on and on, but the vocals are meant to pull it back a bit and it suggests this kind of stillness thats trying to settle” [Mezzanine Interview Disc - March 1998]

3D on the meaning behind Inertia Creeps – “It was just about a relationship I had been going through. It’s about being in a situation but knowing you should be out of it but you’re too fucking lazy or weak to leave. And you’re dishonest to yourself and dishonest to the other person. You’re betraying them everyday and the whole scene feels like it’s closing in on you. The idea is a combination of movements propelling yourself forward and pulling yourself back at the same time. That’s what the track’s, about—a fucked up relationship basically and there it is.” [Innerviews.org – September 1998]

Primarily Found On:

Mezzanine

The links below will take you either to the Collector section of MASSIVEATTACK.IE, or to an external website – either amazon.com or discogs.com, where you can find out more about all the the album (s)/release (s) that this particular Massive Attack song appears on.

N/A

20th April 1998

Exchange has a duration of 04:11, while (Exchange) has a duration of 04:11.

Exchange / (Exchange) – The most apparant difference between the two versions is that Exchange is an entirely instrumental affair while (Exchange) is complimented by Horace Andy’s vocals as well as an extended fade-out sequence befitting its placement at the end of Mezzanine. They can effectively be seen as two parts of the same song.

There is conflicting information regarding the writing credits for Exchange depending on which version of Mezzanine you examine. The regular edition of Mezzanine lists the writing credits as being Mort Garson and Ben Hilliard while the Limited Edition version of Mezzanine which comes in a special digipak lists the writing credits as being Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall, Andrew Vowles, Mort Garson and Ben Hilliard.

Produced by Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall, Andrew Vowles and Neil Davidge

See Mezzanine info section for further credit details by clicking here.

Exchange uses a sample from the song “Our Day Will Come” by Isaac Hayes. It appears primarily on his 1970 release “… To Be Continued”. It is credited officially by Massive Attack.

Apart from this aforementioned sample, Exchange also uses a sample from the song “Summer In The City” by Quincy Jones.It appears primarily on his 1973 release “You’ve Got It Bad Girl “. It is not credited officially by Massive Attack.

N/A

Horace Andy appears on (Exchange) only. Likewise the lyrics below only apply to (Exchange).

Exchange is prehaps the song that most obviously references Mushroom’s talents and involvement than any other track on Mezzanine. The Isaac Hayes sample that Exchange is heavily based on, was once a popular choice for Mushroom to play as part of his DJ sets in the latter days of The Wild Bunch. When it came time however to get copyright clearance for the use of the sample for Exchange, Massive Attack would encounter a problem with obtaining the rights for the Isaac Hayes sample as the two original writers of the song, Mort Garson and Ben Hilliard were at that stage both dead and the wife of one them refused the sample’s clearance. Luckily it was discovered afterwards that the sample that Mushroom had choosen from the Isaac Hayes song (which came specfically from its outro) was in fact written by Isaac Hayes and not the original writers. Isaac Hayes would then allow Massive Attack the use of his sample from the outro to the original song. This close call with running into sample clearance issues and possibly being heavily fined for copyright infringement was among the reasons (both artistic and financial) along with the whole Black Milk Manfred Mann sample debacle which would turn Massive Attack away from using samples on their next album 100th Window.

The reprise of Exchange at the end of Mezzanine, (Exchange), ends with what seems to be vinyl scratching noise that slowly fades away into nothingness. Considering that Exchange was almost entirely Mushroom’s work this can be seen as a fittng end to Mushroom’s contribution to Massive Attack as his departure would soon be immenient within the next year after Mezzanine’s release.

Exchange in it’s lyrical form i.e (Exchange) was performed during the second half of the 1998 tour at a few select dates with Horace Andy providing vocals. Currently, MASSIVEATTACK.IE is unaware exactly when and where Exchange was played live for its first time or precisely how many dates it was played for.

3D on Exchange – “Thats one of Mushroom’s tracks. A drunken interlude. That feeling when you’re gambling when your drunk, all your money’s going and there’s nothing you can do” [Vox Magazine - May 1998]

Mushroom on Exchange – “That was always one of the records I used to cut up with The Wild Bunch, so I had the label blacked out ‘cos I didn’t want biters to know what it was. We had to do a bit of research to see who the publisher was. Both the writers are dead now but the wife of one of them said we couldn’t use it. Luckily I’d sampled a bit that Isaac Hayes had written into the outro” [Mojo Magazine - July 1998]

Primarily Found On:

Mezzanine

Also Found On:

The links below will take you either to the Collector section of MASSIVEATTACK.IE, or to an external website – either amazon.com or discogs.com, where you can find out more about all the the album (s)/release (s) that this particular Massive Attack song appears on.

The End Credits of the film “The Jackal” (Endtrack), Long Way Round: Music From The TV Series – OST

First Released On:

20th April 1998

Duration:

06:07

Variations/Remixes:

Endtrack – This is an early demo version of Dissolved Girl which differs significantly in it’s arrangement compared to the finished product on Mezzanine. It is also probable that Sara Jay’s vocals on this version is from a different vocal take to the regular version. It is featured only during the end credits sequence of the film “The Jackal”, a movie which debuted in US cinemas on the 14th November 1997 a full six months before the final version of Dissolved Girl would be released on Mezzanine.

Credits:

Written by Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall, Andrew Vowles, Sara Jay and Matt Schwarz

Produced by Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall, Andrew Vowles and Neil Davidge

See Mezzanine info section for further credit details by clicking here.

Sampled:

N/A

Covered:

N/A

Vocalist(s):

Sara Jay

Lyrics:

History:

Sara Jay, the vocalist of Dissolved Girl was a unknown singer from Sheffield who was a discovery of Massive Attack’s manager Marc Picken, who believed she would be an ideal addition to the Mezzanine recording sessions. Dissolved Girl was originally conceived and recorded as a early demo version (which would eventually be heard on The Jackal soundtrack) just before the beginning of the 1997 tour. Massive Attack would then proceed to take Sara Jay on tour with them and perform this early demo version of Dissolved Girl as a preview to the forthcoming album Mezzanine which would not be released for nearly another year.

Additional Info:

Matt Schwarz who was a guest writer (the only such one on Mezzanine) on Dissolved Girl, went on to become one half of the electronic music duo Deepest Blue who would score many club hits in the UK and abroad in the years to come. It is the only collaboration he has done with Massive Attack.

One of three songs recorded with vocalist Sara Jay, the other two being Wire and an unknown, unreleased song.

Live Appearances:

The early demo version of Dissolved Girl (also known simply as Endtrack) was played live throughout the duration of the 1997 tour, which was a tour where several other Mezzanine-bound tracks were first debuted live. It’s live debut to be exact was at the Royal Dublin Showgrounds,in Dublin,Ireland on 21st June 1997. Sara Jay herself provided vocals for the track on this tour. Sara Jay along with Dissolved Girl have never appeared on a subsequent tour, meaning that the regular version of Dissolved Girl found on Mezzanine has never been played live in that form.

Despite the above fact, it could be argued that part of Dissolved Girl was played continously throughout the 1998/1999 tour as part of Euro Zero Zero, an alternative version of Eurochild. At the end of the live version of Eurochild played on the 1998/1999 tour, Angelo Bruschini, Massive Attack’s guitarist would play a rocking guitar solo that lasted about a minute that is the exact same as the one found on the midpoint of Dissolved Girl.

Quotes:

3D on the meaning behind Dissolved girl – “This was us being with Sara at that particular point. Again, I don’t want to dwell on these same dysfunctional relationships, but thats what its about and I think she was going through a similiar thing to what we had been going through herself and that’s what the song is about really. It’s about how you relate to another person what they expect of you and what you expect of them – the same as Angel really – the idea of what you expect from a woman and power she might have over you” [Mezzanine Interview Disc - March 1998]

Primarily Found On:

Mezzanine

Also Found On:

The links below will take you either to the Collector section of MASSIVEATTACK.IE, or to an external website – either amazon.com or discogs.com, where you can find out more about all the the album (s)/release (s) that this particular Massive Attack song appears on.

Man Next Door (Euro Radio Edit)

First Released On:

20th April 1998

Duration:

05:55

Variations/Remixes:

Euro Radio Edit – A truncated version of the song for radio playback for European radio stations. It trims off much of the beginning and end of the song. It might possibly have been used to guage interest of a commercial single release of Man Next Door. Included only on a rare promo CD of Man Next Door.

Credits:

Written by John Holt

Produced by Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall, Andrew Vowles and Neil Davidge

See Mezzanine info section for further credit details by clicking here.

Sampled:

Man Next Door uses a sample from the song “10.15 Saturday Night” by The Cure. It appears primarily on their 1986 release “Staring At the Sea”. It is credited officially by Massive Attack.

Apart from this aforementioned sample, Man Next Door also uses a sample from the song “When The Levee Breaks” by Led Zeppelin. It appears primarily on their 1971 release “Led Zeppelin 4″. It is not credited officially by Massive Attack.

Covered:

N/A

Vocalist(s):

Horace Andy

Lyrics:

History:

More than likely, Man Next Door is a product mostly of Daddy G’s desire to do a reggae cover. The reggae cover ended up being Jamician reggae singer’s John Holt’s Man Next Door which had originally been recorded in the 1960’s. This song had already previously been covered by the 1970’s post-punk band The Slits, who had already turned the original upbeat reggae number into a more down tempo moody tune, which probably inspired Massive Attack, in their own take of the song, moreso than the original John Holt version.

Additional Info:

In September 2000, the UK Conservative Party used a snippet of Man Next Door as background music to accompany the entrace of the then party leader William Hague. When Massive Attack were alerted of the use of their own song, which the Conservative party had not asked permission to use, Massive Attack became very indignant not so much with the unauthorised use of their song but moreso on political grounds, as the Conservative party were using it to promote their right wing policies which Massive Attack were not supporters of. Massive Attack threatened legal action against the Conservative party. It is uncertain exactly what happened afterwards, but it appears that no legal action against the Conservative party ever actually took place. For more information on this incident, click here to visit the corresponding entry in the news section.

Live Appearances:

Man Next Door along with a sampling of a few other Mezzanine-bound tracks were first played during the 1997 tour partly to gauge crowd reactions to these newly demoed songs. It’s live debut to be exact was at the Royal Dublin Showgrounds in Dublin, Ireland on 21st June 1998. It was a constant feature of both the 1997 tour and the 1998/1999 tours. During the 2003 and 2004 tours it was ommitted entirely. Man Next Door would make its live appearance after a nearly eight year gap during the North American leg of the 2006 tour.

It’s live arrangement is typically the same as the regular album version with Horace Andy performing live vocals.

Quotes:

Horace Andy on the previously recorded versions of Angel – “The band only knew the Dennis Brown version. I’m singing them the John Holt version” [Mojo Magazine – July 1998]

3D on the unauthorised use of Man Next Door during a Conservative Party conference – “We’re completely fucked off with The Tories. How dare they use us to promote their bullshit” [Q Magazine - October 2000]

Primarily Found On:

Mezzanine

Also Found On:

The links below will take you either to the Collector section of MASSIVEATTACK.IE, or to an external website – either amazon.com or discogs.com, where you can find out more about all the the album (s)/release (s) that this particular Massive Attack song appears on.

Collected (Special Edition) (Black Melt)

First Released On:

20th April 1998

Duration:

06:20

Variations/Remixes:

Black Melt – As a direct response to Massive Attack being sued for the unauthorised use of a Manfred Mann sample, (which led to a costly out of court settlement with Manfred Mann), 3D took Black Milk and removed the offending sample entirely and from there built an entirely new song based on a more “new wave” sound, with no samples whatsoever and placed Elizabeth Fraser’s original vocals on top. This new version is included only on the special edition of Collected. It should also be noted that Black Melt on the special edition of Collected has an unexpected split second gap in sound at the 03:24 minute mark into the song. This is a deliberate gap of sound by Massive Attack for an unknown reason (prehaps just for randomness sake) and not a mass production error on the disc, as what was originally postulated by many fans at first.

Credits:

Written by Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall, Andrew Vowles and Elizabeth Fraser

Produced by Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall, Andrew Vowles and Neil Davidge

See Mezzanine info section for further credit details by clicking here.

Sampled:

Black Milk uses a sample from the song “Tribute” by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band. It appears primarily on his 1972 release “Manfred Mann’s Earth Band”. It is not credited officially by Massive Attack.

Vocalist(s):

Elizabeth Fraser

Lyrics:

History:

Black Milk was the second Elizabeth Fraser song to be conceived after Teardrop during the Mezzanine recording sessions at a studio in Cornwall,UK that occurred throughout 1997. It was mostly a Daddy G creation with some input from Mushroom and with production overseen by Neil Davidge. 3D had virtually nothing to do with Black Milk as he was working on his own songs for Mezzanine along with Angelo Bruschini in a separate recording studio in Bristol, UK, at the time. What 3D was unaware of however is that Daddy G had used a sample of an old Manfred Mann track called “Tribute” and had failed to get any sort of sample clearance for it. While Massive Attack had used uncredited samples before in their work, this Manfred Mann sample was a very blatant “rip-off” of the original song sampling 120 bars out of 128 from the original source with the drum pattern, hi-hat and bassline being identical. Both Daddy G and Neil Davidge had convinced 3D that the sample was not noticeable and would go undetected. Unfortunately, for Massive Attack the sample did not go unnoticed as a German fan of Manfred Mann’s reported to him towards the end of 1998 of Massive Attack’s unauthorised use of his song. This led to him claiming damages of £100,000 from Massive Attack and even trying to get an injunction to stop sales of Mezzanine.

In the end, Massive Attack managed to settle amicably out of court with Manfred Mann, but details of the settlement were never made public. This debacle with sample clearance issues and copyright infringement was among the reasons (both artistic and financial) which would turn Massive Attack away from using samples on their next album 100th Window.

Additional Info:

N/A

Live Appearances:

Black Milk has never been played live. It is speculated that Massive Attack cannot legally play Black Milk in the form it is in on Mezzaine because of the Manfred Mann lawsuit. Its newly remixed version, Black Melt however has become a near permanent fixture of the last few Massive Attack tours with it usually being the third or fourth song played. Black Melt was first played live at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia on the 11th March 2003. For the 2003 and 2004 tours Dot Allison would provide substitute vocals for Elizabeth Fraser’s absense on these tours. For Elizabeth Fraser’s live return for the 2006/2007 tour she was able to do live vocals for Black Melt. It would be dropped for the 2008 tour to make way for new songs being debuted on that particular tour for the first time.

Quotes:

3D on Black Milk – “This is an excursion in Liz’s own language, which I’m a big fan of. We usually jam and come up with random stuff, which we then re-record. It’s quite exploratory” [Vox Magazine - May 1998]

Daddy G to 3D convincing him that the the Manfred Mann sample was minimal – “A TINY LITTLE PIECE OF ATMOSPHERE” [Official Massive Attack Forum - February 2002]

3D on how Black Melt, the new version of Black Milk compares to the original – “POST IRONIC-LOVE IT MORE THAN ORIGINAL” [Official Massive Attack Forum - May 2002]