Mezzanine

“There’s always an underlying darkness no matter what we do. It’s always sad or dark or slightly menacing. It’s an instinct I guess” - Neil Davidge

Posted on Thursday, 28th February 2008 • View Comments • Print This Post

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.

Chilled In The Sun

First Released On:

20th April 1998

Duration:

05:54

Variations/Remixes:

N/A

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.

Sampled:

Mezzanine uses a sample from the song "Radioactivity" by Kraftwerk. It appears primarily on their 1975 release "Radioactivity". It is not credited officially by Massive Attack.

Covered:

N/A

Vocalist(s):

Robert Del Naja and Grant Marshall

Lyrics:

3D:

I'm a little curious of you in crowded scenes

And how serene your friends and fiends

We flew and strolled as two eliminated gently

Why don't you close your eyes and reinvent me

Daddy G:

You know you've got that heart made of stone

You should have let me know

You could have let me know

3D:

We'll go 'till morning comes

And traffic grows

And windows hum

i>Daddy G:

Spending all week with your friends

Give me evenings and weekends

Evenings and weekends

3D:

I could be yours

We can unwind

All these half floors

You'd agree it's a typical high

You fly as you watch your name go by

And once the name goes by

Not thicker than water nor thicker than mud

And the eight k thuds it does

Sunset so thickly

Let's make it quiet and quickly

Don't frown

It taste's better on the way back down

I could be yours

We can unwind

All these half floors (x3)

Will lead to mine

We are we are... (sting me now)

We can unwind

All these half floors

Will lead to mine

Will see to

All these half floors

Will see to

All these half floors

Will lead to mine

We can unwind all our flaws

History:

The title track from the album Mezzanine, went through many changes (roughly about five different varations that differed majorly from each other, none of which have ever been heard) throughout the production and mixing stages of the album. Gradually, Massive Attack became frustrated with the song during the mixing process and settled on the way it sounds now, not ultimately been satisfied with it but being forced to stop working on it. This also makes it probably the last song to be completed for the Mezzanine album.

Additional Info:

Mezzanine, the song, was responible for lending it's name to the album, Mezzanine and not the other way around. Typically, Massive Attack have always left the naming of all their albums to the very end. 3D decided to name the album after the song because of the no man's land or twilight zone or even a floor between floors (as the lyrics in the chorus would seem to suggest) the song embodies, which were the same qualities that the album, Mezzanine embodied as a whole come it's completion time.

Live Appearances:

Mezzanine was first played live at the Olympia in Dublin, Ireland on 15th April 1998. Since then, it has become a near permanent fixture to the live setlist in all subsequent tours. It's live arrangement is typically the same as the regular album version with both 3D and Daddy G (except for when he was absent for some of the North American 2006 tour) performing live vocals.

There is a distinct possibilty that the opening intro song of the 1997 tour was one of the earlier versions of Mezzanine, as indeed it contained a few lyrical lines ("Give me evenings, Give me weekends") that would eventually make their way onto the finalised Mezzanine track.

Quotes:

3D on both the naming and recording process behind Mezzanine - "The track we called Mezzanine [was named] quite a long time ago but it changed shape quite alot over the last six months. In fact, we completely reinvented it about five times, out of frustration" [Mezzanine Interview Disc - March 1998]

3D on the meaning behind Mezzanine - "Slightly confusing when you feel like you're in two places at once, one is an altogether more exotic place and the other is the reality where you struggle to find a grip" [Vox Magazine – May 1998]