Primarily Found On:

Ordinary Decent Criminal – OST

Also Found On:

N/A

First Released On:

14th March 2000

Duration:

06:42

Variations/Remixes:

N/A

Credits:

Written by Robert Del Naja and Damon Albarn

Produced by Robert Del Naja and Damon Albarn

Dialogue Excerpts by Kevin Spacey and Tim Loane

Engineered by Tom Girling and Neil Davidge

Programming by Neil Davidge and Tom Girling

Assisted by Jason Cox and Lee Shephard

Sampled:

N/A

Covered:

N/A

Vocalist(s):

Damon Albarn is the sole vocalist on One Day At A Time, however throughout the song, there are numerous dialogue excerpts from Kevin Spacey’s charater in the film, that of a Dublin crimelord converseing with one of his lieutenant’s (played by Tim Loane). The lyrics below do not include these excerpts.

Lyrics:

History:

Damon Albarn and 3D had met each other during the mid-nineties at an exclusive London nightclub called Browns. Over the next few years they met several more times at numerous festival’s that both Massive Attack and Damon Albarn’s band Blur were both happening to be playing. In this process they had become good friends, with each sharing similar viewpoints regarding things such as music and politics. When Damon Albarn was commisioned to compose the soundtrack to an film called Ordinary Decent Criminal, he called up 3D and asked if he wanted to do a song together for this soundtrack project, which 3D accepted.

Additional Info:

Even though One Day At A Time was written specfically for the film Ordinary Decent Criminal, it does not appear anywhere in the film and is only on the soundtrack album. However, another song by the same name One Day At A Time does appear in the film and is by Mari John Wilkin and Kris Kristofferson. This song which was originally written in 1973, was the inspiration behind the 3D/Albarn song and it also provides the same lyrics that takes up most of the new version (”One Day At A Time, Sweet Jesus”).

The next Massive Attack song Damon Albarn would contribute to would be Small Time Shot Away on 100th Window and its remix counterpart Small Time Shoot’ Em Up on Collected.

Live Appearances:

One Day At A Time has never once been played live.

Quotes:

3D on working with Damon Albarn on One Day At A Time – “He’d turn up with a bit of kit and work through it in a couple of days. “It’s quite spontaneous rather than the usual sending tapes back and forth routine, which is the way a lot of people work in these circumstances. I think it’s better for people to lock themselves away for a few days and get on with it” [Dotmusic - November 2000]

Primarily Found On:

Digital Download from massiveattack.co.uk

Also Found On:

N/A

First Released On:

8th November 2000

Duration:

04:20

Variations/Remixes:

Marc Quinn Remix – This is an extermely rare version of Nature Of Threat (which has no official remix name) that very few have ever heard. Apparently it was played as the background soundtrack to a documentary about the artist/sculptor Marc Quinn, that was only broadcast on the UK arts programme “The South Bank Show” once ever on 17th December 2000 and never repeated.

Credits:

There was no definite credit information ever released for Nature Of Threat. Assuming that Daddy G had no involvement in this song, a good speculative list of credits for this song would read as:

Written by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge

Produced by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge

Recorded and mixed by Lee Shephard

Sampled:

N/A

Covered:

N/A

Vocalist(s):

Robert Del Naja

History:

Nature Of Threat was the only fully finished song from the Ridge Farm/Lupine Howl sessions, that was recorded earlier in 2000, that was ever made public. While it is debateable rather or not, any of this seemingly abandonned material ever crept into later Massive Attack work (such as they two soundtrack projects, Danny The Dog and Bullet Boy respectively), this song certainly gives us an indication of the direction they were going in, in their immediate post-Mezzanine period.

The version of Nature Of Threat that was released, was at one point a possible contender for Massive Attack’s fouth album (either that or a possible film project that never happened), before 3D realised in early 2001, that the Ridge Farm/Lupine Howl sessions as a whole would not work as the foundation for the fourth album and had to be largely scrapped. Even if Nature Of Threat, had somehow made it’s way onto the fourth album, it would have sounded different to this version, as 3D stated that this version was still only a sketch that needed further mixing and refinement.

Additional Info:

Nature Of Threat was released as a internet only single, downloadable direct from the official website, making it the first Massive Attack to be distributed in this manner. As of the present, it is still available here.

Nature Of Threat was released roughly a week before Massive Attack’s first and still only ever live internet webchat broadcast on the VirtueTV website, probably as a means to further promote the webchat.

Live Appearances:

Nature Of Threat has never once been played live.

Quotes:

3D on Nature Of Threat – “We wrote this for a movie last year but we’re now adapting it for the artist, Marc Quinn. It’s not intended to be an LP track at the moment, it’s more of a sketch” [NME Magazine - November 2000]

Primarily Found On:

Moulin Rouge – OST

Also Found On:

N/A

First Released On:

8th May 2001

Duration:

04:08

Variations/Remixes:

N/A

Credits:

Written by Eden Ahbez

Produced by Robert Del Naja, Neil Davidge and Craig Armstrong

Mixed by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge

Mix Engineered by Lee Shephard

Strings Arranged by Craig Armstrong

Sampled:

N/A

Covered:

Several cover versions of Nature Boy exist but all are based on the original Marvin Gaye song and not the Massive Attack recording.

Vocalist(s):

David Bowie

Lyrics:

History:

Nature Boy was the result of Massive Attack being persuaded by Baz Luhrmann, a movie director they had previously met some years ago, when he was making his acclaimed film “Romeo and Juliet” to contribute a song to his upcoming film. Baz Luhrmann had kept Massive Attack in mind, since meeting them and was determined to make them apart of the soundtrack to his new 2001 musical film “Moulin Rouge”.
Initially, Massive Attack were not too keen on getting involved believing the film wasn’t suited for them. Baz Luhrmann had one final trump card to play however, and that would be David Bowie, whom he had met in New York and was already confirmed to be doing work on the Moulin Rouge soundtrack. Baz had broached the topic of a possible Massive Attack collaboration and Bowie was very enthautistic about the thought of working with Massive Attack, whom he had met at festival date in Tel Aviv, Israel four years ago. When Baz got back to Massive Attack about the opportunity to work with a music legend such as Bowie, Massive Attack reconsidered their stance and decided to do a collaboration with Bowie for the Moulin Rouge soundtrack. A song which Bowie had already been earmaked to sing for the soundtrack, Nature Boy, a cover version of the original Nat King Cole 1940’s classic which had already been covered numerous times before, most famously by the likes of Frank Sinatra and John Coltrane, would be the song Massive Attack would be asked to further add their own distinct flavour to.

Additional Info:

Massive Attack and David Bowie would not actually meet face to face throughout the entire time that Nature Boy was being composed. Bowie sung his vocals in New York and sent them across electronically to Massive Attack in Bristol, England. Any disscussions on which direction the song should take was done through email. This was a similiar working arrangement to how Massive Attack composed I Against I with Mos Def.

Craig Armstrong, who was the musical composer and arranger for the film Moulin Rouge, was also the arranger for Nature Boy, making this his fifth Massive Attack song to have worked on, after last appearing on Wire. This would also be his last Massive Attack song he would contribute to, up until this point in time.

The “I love you” line at the very end of Nature Boy is actually dialogue from the film Moulin Rouge. It is Nicole Kidman’s final words to her lover, Ewan McGregor, just before she dies.

Live Appearances:

Nature Boy has never once been played live neither by Massive Attack or David Bowie.

Quotes:

David Bowie on Nature Boy – “3D has put together a riveting piece of work. I’m totally pleased with the end result” [MTV News - March 2001]

3D on why they picked Nat King Cole’s Nature boy to cover – “Nature Boy was written for Nat King Cole, but its been covered by all the best crooners like Sinatra and Louis Armstrong. It’s quite a strange song, it tells a definite story from beginning to end and is very short and very beautiful” [MassiveAttack.co.uk – March 2001]

3D on the recording process behind Nature Boy – “We took the strings and harps, looped them, and then did this digital scratching technique on them. Then we added some obscure samples and other sounds, srcubbing the samples in backwards and forwards to give this really undulating feeling. Neil (Davidge) and me constructed the whole thing piece by piece. We just used the strings, some keyboard sounds and some strange little samples here and there” [MassiveAttack.co.uk – March 2001]

Primarily Found On:

Digital Download available from massiveattack.co.uk as of the 11th March 2002. (Has since been removed)

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.

Blade 2 – OST Special Cases (Single Release), Collected (Special Edition), I Against I

First Released On:

11th March 2002

Duration:

05:40

Variations/Remixes:

Instrumental – The instrumental version of I Against I is exactly that, an instrumental without any vocals but otherwise the same. Included only on the 12″ vinyl promo release.

Credits:

Written by Robert Del Naja, Neil Davidge, Grant Marshall and Dante Smith (Mos Def)

Produced by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge

Arranged by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge

Mixed by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge

Mix engineered by Lee Shephard

Additional Production by Alex Swift

Sampled:

I Against I is sometimes mistakenly confused as being sampled from a Bad Brains song from 1986, also known as I Against I. The two songs share nothing in common though besides the obvious; their name.

Covered:

N/A

Vocalist(s):

Mos Def

Lyrics:

History:

NME broke the news in October 2001 that Massive Attack had done a collaboration with hip-hop rapper and occasional turned actor Mos Def for an as yet undisclosed film project. It was then announced in January 2002 that the film in question would be Blade 2. It was agreed to release the song both simultaneously as a free download single on massiveattack.co.uk and as part of the Blade 2 soundtrack album.

Additional Info:

This song marks the first appearance of programmer Alex Swift, who would go on along with Lee Shephard to form an integeral part of the production team behind Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge for all of Massive Attack’s future releases.

I Against I was Massive Attack’s second download only single after Nature of Threat in 2000.

Besides I Against I, Massive Attack also made an unnamed instrumental song for inclusion in Blade 2 that is featured at some point during the film but is nowhere to be found on the soundtrack album. It is still unknown exactly where in the film this instrumental appears or what it sounds like.

Live Appearances:

I Against I has only been played live once ever at the Brixton Academy in London, UK on the 9th July 2004. It is also the only occasion that Mos Def has joined Massive Attack live on stage. This was a lucky occurence as Mos Def was at the time filming his role in the film “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” at the same time in London and found the time to perform at the show.

Quotes:

3D on the initial recording of I Against I – “He (Mos Def) did the lyrics and we completely reconstructed the track, took the lyrics off and started again in our usual fashion. Everyone really likes it so hopefully it’ll appear in some form or another” [NME Magazine - October 2001]

3D looking back on I Against I for Collected – “MINUTES OF FUN SLAMMING SCI-FI BEATS AND ORGANS AGAINST MOS DEF’S MACHINE GUN RAP”[Collected PR - January 2006]

Primarily Found On:

100th Window

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

29th Januray 2003

Duration:

06:37

Variations/Remixes:

N/A

Credits:

Written by Robert Del Naja, Neil Davidge and Sinead O’ Connor

Produced by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge

See 100th Window 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:

N/A

Covered:

N/A

Vocalist(s):

Sinead O’ Connor

Lyrics:

History:

What Your Soul Sings genesis came about from one of the very few leftover pieces of music composed during the 2000/2001 Lupine Howl period, which were mostly all scrapped. The gentle guitar riff and plucking of Angelo Bruschini that can be heard throughout What Your Soul Sings is what would be taken from those almost forgotten sessions to form the basis for the song when Massive Attack were writing what would eventually become 100th Window during 2002.

What Your Soul Sings was the second song after Future Proof to be written during the 100th Window recording sessions in 2002.

Additional Info:

What Your Soul Sings was at one point in 2003 very close to becoming the third single released from 100th Window after Special Cases and Butterfly Caught. A preliminarily date of the 1st September was even given to certain record suppliers but no tracklisting or artwork details were ever leaked. For whatever reason, the single release was unfortunately canned at the last minute and Butterfly Caught remained the final single from 100th Window.

Live Appearances:

What Your Soul Sings (along with A Prayer For England) has only been played live four times in total. It’s first time been played was at The Academy in Glasgow,UK on 9th April 2003 and played then for the next three shows up until the Manchester Apollo show on the 24th April 2003. In the three days between this last show and the start of Massive Attack’s five night residency at the Brixton Academy in London,UK, it was publicly announced that due to health reasons (a dubious reason as it was latter revealed that Sinead had quit the music business entirely, latter of course to return to it a few years later) Sinead O’ Connor would be unable to tour for the entire remaining duration of the 2003 tour. Dot Allison would take over for Sinead’s vocals on tour substituting on Special Cases but not on What Your Soul Sings or A Prayer For England either for that matter and these two songs were never played live again.

Quotes:

Neil Davidge on recording What Your Soul Sings – “That started when we brought in a violinist friend of ours, Stuart Gordon, and he played just a simple three-note two-chord thing. I used Pure Pitch to rearrange the notation and create the arrangement, rather than get a sample CD of string notes and then use MIDI. It’s only through the context of Pro Tools that I can fully realize things like that and it’s an essential part of the way I work these days” [Sound On Sound Magazine - April 2003]

3D on What Your Soul Sings – “That’s just Sinead being very optimistic and its all about self empowerment really. It’s very simple, very gentle and beautiful” [The Raft – February 2003]

Primarily Found On:

100th Window

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.

Playlist – Dance And Urban: Volume 15, Long Way Round: Music From The TV Series – OST, C.S.I: Miami – OST

First Released On:

29th Januray 2003

Duration:

07:37

Variations/Remixes:

Incantations – This alternative version of Everywhen, is more than likely a product of the 100th Window facsimile (also known as Version Point Five) project which 3D spoke of during the time around 100th Window’s release, which would have been the 100th Window songs represented as more simplified stripped back versions of the songs with arrangements taken from 2003 tour. This project failed to ever be fully completed and was never released however, evidently the new version of Everywhen (and also Small Time Shot Away) intended for this project were completed and released on Collected. This song is also notable as according to the Collected inner sleeve notes, Daddy G apparently contributed to writing this remix, which if true would be his first actual involvement in the creation process since I Against I in 2002.

Credits:

Written by Robert Del Naja, Neil Davidge

Produced by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge

See 100th Window 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:

N/A

Covered:

N/A

Vocalist(s):

Horace Andy

Lyrics:

History:

Horace Andy recorded his vocals for Everywhen during March 2002. 3D was also determined to write a track for Horace Andy completely without the use of samples or relying on cover versions as they had done on many previous Horace Andy sung songs. This ethos fitted in nicely with 100th Window’s “no sample” approach. There was also an intentional desire to make Horace Andy’s vocals on this track and Name Taken not sound anything like what he sounded like normally in the past, in an attempt to move away from any hints of reggae on the album whatsoever.

Additional Info:

This song along with Name Taken were the first Horace Andy sung tracks to be written entirely from scratch and not be cover versions of previous Horace Andy solo material or contain any samples since Hymn Of The Big Wheel on Blue Lines.

There is no guitar used at all on Everywhen. What many think is guitar is in fact drum effects put through multiple filtering processes.

Live Appearances:

Everywhen was first played live at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia on the 11th March 2003. It continued to be played throughout the duration of the entire 2003 tour except at festival dates. Its arrangement on this tour differed from the album version with the use of more live guitar samples and a more bombastic finale. It has not been played since the 2003 tour.

Quotes:

3D on the meaning behind Everywhen – “It’s the idea of a suspended beautiful moment, you know, a love song when you just crystallize that love for someone; just that moment that seems to be held, very pretty and pretentious at the same time” [The Raft – February 2003]

3D on the recording of Everywhen – “The drums on Everywhen, that was just a kick, rim shot and a hi-hat but put through various delays, Doppler effects and GRM pole filters that basically created a melodic backbone for the track. A lot of people think it’s guitar noises but there’s not a single guitar sound on that track” [Sound On Sound Magazine – April 2003]

Primarily Found On:

100th Window

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.

Special Cases (Single Release), Chill Two – Oriental Lounge

29th Januray 2003

Duration:

05:09

Variations/Remixes:

Akufen Remix – A remix by Akufen AKA Marc Leclair, a Canadian musician whose music is often described as being minimal techno or microhouse. Included on all single releases.

Luomo’s Casing – A remix by Finnish electronic musician Luomo AKA Vladislav Delay renowned for his glitch and ambient take on house music. Included only on the vinyl release (both retail and promo), with one exception being a very rare CD-R promo.

Radio Edit – An truncated version of the song for radio playback. Included on all single and promo releases.

Credits:

Written by Robert Del Naja, Neil Davidge and Sinead O’ Connor

Produced by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge

See 100th Window 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:

N/A

Covered:

N/A

Vocalist(s):

Sinead O’ Connor

Lyrics:

History:

Special Cases was probably the easiet and quickest song recorded for 100th Window. In terms of message it was quite simple and direct, about looking and observing the fragility of world and how chaotic somethings are and finding someone among all this to trust and emphatize with. Many people interperate this message as reflecting upon the state of the world was at the time it was written in 2002 with the impending war in Iraq and the uncertainty surrounding it.

The strings for the song were recorded by a 50 piece orchestra in June 2002 at Sony Studios in London,UK.

Special Cases was the third song after What Your Soul Sings to be written during the 100th Window recording sessions in 2002.

Additional Info:

When Special Cases was being made, it was earmarked from the beginning as being a potential single and would eventually end up being the first single release from 100th window and used to extensively promote the album. Before this though, 3D wished that A Prayer For England would be the first single release from 100th Window, however Virgin Records, wanted Special Cases to be the lead-off single, eventually persuadeing 3D to launch with Special Cases, leaving A Prayer For England as a possible second or third single release, that in hindsight would never happen.

Live Appearances:

Special Cases was first played live at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia on the 11th March 2003. It was played continuously during the first half of the tour but gradually saw less and less appearances live, until the end of the 2003 tour where it was omitted entirely. The violin sections of the song were played live on stage by violinist Lucy Wilkins. Sinead O’ Connor herself only did live vocals on this song a total of four times at shows in Glasgow and Manchester,UK during April 2003. All other live renditions of Special Cases feature Dot Allison substituting for Sinead O’ Connor’s absense. It has not been played since the 2003 tour.

Quotes:

3D on the initial recording of Special Cases – “It was one of the easiest songs that happened on this album because it was very direct and simple and very quick and when we played it for Sinead she just went ‘yeah i really love that i want to do something with that’ and she just wrote a song really quickly and it all just happened over night compared to the other songs” [100th Window Interview Disc – December 2002]

3D on Special Cases – “It is about suddenly feeling happy and lucky that your with someone you can believe in and trust. It’s that simple and direct” [100th Window Interview Disc – December 2002]

Primarily Found On:

100th Window

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.

Butterfly Caught (Single Release), Collected, Chillout 04/The Ultimate Chillout (Paul Daley Remix), Dimitris Papaspyropoulos Presents: One Dream Closer (Paul Daley Remix), Club Island Summer 2003 (Paul Daley Beatless Remix)

First Released On:

16th June 2003

Duration:

07:33

Variations/Remixes:

Paul Daley Remix – This version was mixed by one half of the now defunct dance band Leftfield. Included on all the UK single and promo releases.

Paul Daley Dub – An instrumental dub mix of the original Paul Daley remix. Included only on the vinyl release (both retail and promo), with one exception being a very rare CD-R promo.

Paul Daley Beatless Remix – As the name implies, the same Paul Daley remix but without any beats over the vocals. Not included on any single release or any Massive Attack release either. Only found on a dance compilation called ‘Club Island Summer 2003′.

Octave One Remix – An deep dub remix by Detroit techno outfit, Octave One. Included on UK single and promo releases.

RJD2 Remix – An remix from the American hip hop producer, RJD2. Included on all single releases.

RJD2 Instrumental – An instrumental mix of the original Paul Daley remix exactly the same as the original remix sans vocals. Included only on the vinyl release (both retail and promo), with one exception being a very rare CD-R promo.

Jagz Kooner Remix – A remix from ex Sabres of Paradise and current member of The Aloof, Jagz Kooner. Included on all single releases.

Point Five – An alternative mix done by Alex Swift on behalf of Massive Attack. Features no vocals over a stripped down beat with strings in the background. Possibly this version would have been included on the mooted 100th Window facsimile version that never materialized.

Radio Edit – An truncated version of the song for radio playback. Unlike most radio edits, this edit features some additional elements like piano during the main chorus and quite different ending. Used in the promo video for Butterfly Caught. Included only only on promo releases and the japanese single release.

Credits:

Written by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge

Produced by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge

See 100th Window 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:

N/A

Covered:

N/A

Vocalist(s):

Robert Del Naja

Lyrics:

History:

3D’s voice serves not only as the vocals for the song but also in other ways that are not immediately obvious. The bassline of Butterfly Caught for instance is 3D’s voice, but slowed down and worked upon. Nearly all the electronic sounding layers of that track are manipulated vocals.

The strings for the song were recorded by a 50 piece orchestra in June 2002 at Sony Studios in London, UK.

Additional Info:

Butterfly Caught was for a time considered to be packaged as a double A-side single which would have included a Shynola produced video for Antistar and/or live footage from 2003 tour so far. None of this would ever happen.

On Collected, the song’s duration is 05:08. It borrows most of its elements from the Radio Edit version for the song but its ending is more like the regular version, albeit trimed a bit down.

Live Appearances:

Butterfly Caught was first played live at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia on the 11th March 2003. It was played continuously during the first half of the tour but gradually saw less and less appearances live, until the end of the 2003 tour where it was omitted entirely. The violin sections of the song were played live on stage by violinist Lucy Wilkins. On many dates on the 2003 tour, when played, 3D would announce just before the song a dedication to someone called Nancy (presumably his girlfriend at the time). It did not feature at all during the 2004 tour. When the 2006 tour came around, Butterfly Caught was back on the setlist and was played as a constant throughout the tour until its end but this time without a dedicated violinist.

Quotes:

Neil Davidige on how the bassline was created – “We pitched it [3D's vocal] around, put it through Rectified and various other plug-ins to create that texture, and then edited that to create the bass line.” [Sound On Sound Magazine - April 2003]

3D on the violin in Butterfly Caught – “What I like about the violin in Butterfly Caught is that it is so non-definable; it sounds both oriental and western at the same time, as though it originated in Istanbul, when the Bosporus was still the limit between East and West.” [Humo Magazine - March 2003]

Primarily Found On:

100th Window

Also Found On:

N/A

First Released On:

29th Januray 2003

Duration:

05:44

Variations/Remixes:

N/A

Credits:

Written by Robert Del Naja, Neil Davidge and Sinead O’ Connor

Produced by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge

See 100th Window 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:

N/A

Covered:

N/A

Vocalist(s):

Sinead O’ Connor

Lyrics:

History:

A Prayer For England in it’s proto-form had an even more spikey and rough-edged bassline and guitar than what ended up in the finished song on 100th Window. It was a song that 3D felt would be best suited to Sinead’s voice and asked her as a form of contrast with the power of the unfinished song to write her lyrics over of it as if they were a form of prayer. The subject matter Sinead would pick as her prayer was the controversial issue of child abuse either in homes or institutions. This was probably inspired by her own Irish Catholic upbringing, what with the stranglehold the Church had in Ireland up until the 1970’s and the abuse that many children suffered at the hands of Irish clergy in schools.

Additional Info:

A Prayer For England was mentioned by 3D on repeat occasions during interviews during 100th Window’s release as being a likely contender for a single release. It would however never make as a single. It could be speculative to say that Massive Attack’s management decided not to pursue it as single release owing to it’s subject matter of child abuse and abduction in the light of 3D’s arrest and questioning over child porn offenses in February 2003, which even though were totally proven false, might have made A Prayer For England too contentious of a song to release.

Contary to some believes, A Prayer For England was not inspired by the Soham Murders tragedies in the UK which claimed the lives of two young girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman which occured in August 2002. 100th Window would have been almost virtually finished at this stage in time.

Live Appearances:

A Prayer For England (along with What Your Soul Sings has only been played live four times in total. It’s first time been played was at The Academy in Glasgow,UK on 9th April 2003 and played then for the next three shows up until the Manchester Apollo show on the 24th April 2003. In the three days between this last show and the start of Massive Attack’s five night residency at the Brixton Academy in London,UK, it was publicly announced that due to health reasons (a dubious reason as it was latter revealed that Sinead had quit the music business entirely, latter of course to return to it a few years later) Sinead O’ Connor would be unable to tour for the entire remaining duration of the 2003 tour. Dot Allison would take over for Sinead’s vocals on tour substituting on Special Cases but not on A Prayer For England or What Your Soul Sings either for that matter and these two songs were never played live again.

Quotes:

3D on A Prayer For England – “It was one of the tracks we really wanted to steer her [Sinead O'Connor] towards, because it felt it was not something comfortably to work with because it was a bit rawer and hard-edged and it was alot rawer when it first started than it is now. It was very spikey and rough and she said ‘what do you want me to do with this?’. And we said ‘why don’t you write a prayer over it.’ And that’s what she came up with, quite literally. And it was totally unexpected; the subject matter, but absolutely fucking amazing” [100th Window Interview Disc – December 2002]

3D on Sinead O’Connor choice of subject matter on A Prayer For England – “She’s been so outspoken and when you’re prepared to stand up and say things you become vulnerable. You’re out there. You’re available to be judged and criticised. She has a beautifully healthy anger and bitterness towards institutions – especially corrupt institutions – which I think a lot of people are beginning to feel. They’re beginning to feel frustrated by this country, by the world, by the institutions that govern our lives.” [Jockey Slut Magazine – February 2003]

Primarily Found On:

100th Window

Also Found On:

N/A

First Released On:

29th Januray 2003

Duration:

07:47

Variations/Remixes:

N/A

Credits:

Written by Robert Del Naja, Neil Davidge

Produced by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge

See 100th Window 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:

N/A

Covered:

N/A

Vocalist(s):

Horace Andy

Lyrics:

History:

Horace Andy recorded his vocals for Name Taken during June 2002 making it the last song written for 100th Window. 3D was also determined to write a track for Horace Andy completely without the use of samples or relying on cover versions as they had done on many previous Horace Andy sung songs. This ethos fitted in nicely with 100th Window’s “no sample” approach. There was also an intentional desire to make Horace Andy’s vocals on this track and Everywhen not sound anything like what he sounded like normally in the past, in an attempt to move away from any hints of reggae on the album whatsoever.

Additional Info:

This song along with Everywhen were the first Horace Andy sung tracks to be written entirely from scratch and not be cover versions of previous Horace Andy solo material or contain any samples since Hymn Of The Big Wheel on Blue Lines.

In early promo material released for 100th Window in print and online, the official lyrics for Name Taken included an extra line at the very end of the song which was “Where’s The Scars?”. This line is seemingly ommitted in the final version of the song, or is at least completely inaudible in the mix.

Live Appearances:

Name Taken was first played live at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia on the 11th March 2003.It continued to be played throughout the near entire duration of the 2003 tour. Its arrangement though during the first half of the tour differed from its arrangement during the second half of the tour, in an attempt to make the song more dynamic to perform on stage. It has not been played since the 2003 tour.

Quotes:

Neil Davidge on recording Horace Andy’s vocals in Name Taken – “We had a simple melodic structure, D would write the lyrics and then I’d get Horace to sing round the one line constantly going round and round, recording different ways of singing that line. Then I constructed the song afterwards, choosing the lines that worked best and that seemed to flow naturally, which was a very abstract way of working” [Sound On Sound Magazine - April 2003]

3D on Horace Andy’s vocals in Everywhen – “It was mad, trying to get Horace to sound like he wasn’t a reggae singer for the first time,” says 3D. “I felt we’ve done a lot of things with Horace that were a throwback to his history. He’s got such a great voice you don’t need to do that. I wanted to write some new stuff for him like I did on ‘Hymn of the Big Wheel” [Exclaim.ca – January 2003]