Primarily Found On:

Blue Lines

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.

Massive Attack E.P. (Paul Oakenfold Mix), Singles 90/98The Fan – OST, Aural Opiates, Ultra Chilled

1st June 1991

06:36

Nellee Hooper Mix – Following on from remixs for the Unfinished Sympathy and Safe From Harm singles, Nellee Hooper would complete his final remix for Massive Attack with this mix, even though he would later go on to be the co-producer of Protection. Included on all singles releases of the Massive Attack E.P.

Nellee Hooper Mix (7″ Edit) – An edited version of the Nellee Hooper mix. As the name of the mix implies it is only available on the 7″ single release of the Massive Attack E.P.

Hot Knives Mix – This is a extremely rare remix (with a pretty inexplicable name) of Hymn Of The Big Wheel which was remixed by Massive Attack themselves. It appears only during the end credits of the 1996 film “The Fan”, and even then it is only played for roughly 1 and 1/2 minutes. The regular album version of Hymn Of The Big Wheel also appears on the soundtrack album for “The Fan” but sadly not the Hot Knives mix.

Edit – This is a truncated version of the regular album version. Included only on a rare CD promo sampler released only in the USA.

Written by Grant Marshall, Andrew Vowles, Robert Del Naja, Neneh Cherry and Horace Andy

Produced by Grant Marshall, Andrew Vowles, Robert Del Naja and Jonathan Sharp

Additonal Arrangement by Neneh Cherry

Recorded at Coach House Studios, Bristol and Hot Nights Studios, London

Mixed at Matrix Studios, London

Mix engineered by Jeremy Allom

See Blue Lines info section for further credit details by clicking here.

N/A

N/A

Horace Andy

Backing Vocals: Mikey General and Neneh Cherry

Because of the strong ties between Massive Attack and Neneh Cherry what with her husband, Cameron McVey being the executive producer of Blue Lines and 3D and Mushroom already having some experience with working with her on her own songs, it was a natural enough occurence that she should would get involved in some capacity with production of the album (with roughly half of Blue Lines being produced in her own London home). Thusly Hymn Of The Big Wheel came about mostly from a writing partnership setup between herself and 3D. 3D had already helped write a song of her’s called Manchild that had appeared on her last album.

The fact that Neneh Cheery also provides backing vocals on Hymn Of The Big Wheel apart from just helping to write it, is a not very publized fact.

Since this song, every Horace Andy song has been a cover version of one kind or another. This fact was finally broken with the release of Everywhen and Name Taken on 100th Window.

Hymn Of The Big Wheel has been played almost perpetually on every tour since 1995 up until the 2008 tour, were it was dropped to make way for the various new songs that would enter the setlist that year. Besides this exception, only on the 2006 for a small handful of dates in Europe did Hymn Of The Big Wheel fail to appear because Horace Andy was unable to make those dates due to an injury just before them. When Hymn Of The Big Wheel is played, it usually occurs roughly halfway through each setlist and of course has Horace Andy doing the vocals as he does not the album. He is joined on stage by Deborah Miller who supplies backup vocals , fulfilling the role Neneh Cherry did on the album version, with the only exception being on the 2004 tour were Deborah Miller was temporarily replaced on that tour by singer Hazel Fernandez. All the live versions omit the final minute or so on the album version tending to end right after the last chorus.

3D on his feelings regarding Hymn Of The Big Wheel and use of the didgeridoo – “The sentiments and the idea of the track are about life in general. I mean a didgeridoo is one of the oldest sounds you could possibly imagine” [Sounds Magazine - April 1991]

3D on the anti-pollution message in Hymn Of The Big Wheel – “Hymn Of The Big Wheel does build a bigger picture than the rest of the tracks on Blue Lines, because the rest are kind of unfocused – they just drift around and round in their own way, which is what we’re into, rather than paint an obvious picture or leave a message. We’re as worried about things like pollution as everyone else, it’s just we don’t want to write about it so obviously. We ain’t got no solutions to the problems, we’re just the same as everyone else living it. We’re just pointing things out to ourselves, rather than to everyone else. It’s just a story about a man talking to his son, talkking about the future or what’s gonna happen, what’s it all about? Just questions, y’know. We don’t offer alternatives like solar power or anything like that.” [NME Magazine - June 1991]