Mid-Week Music: Massive Attack - "Unfinished Sympathy"
From high school through to after college, I had a subscription to Rolling Stone magazine. Remarkably, the magazine had a classifieds section in the back in which you could find interesting things. I got a promo poster of Laura Palmer, "dead, wrapped in plastic" from ABC for Twin Peaks. I got a book by members of Monty Python. All of this was free - you just sent a note to an address using the United States Postal Service. No internet shenanigans.
So some time in 1994, a couple of years out of college, I see a classified for getting a sampler of music by a band called Massive Attack. Being rather shallow and literal, I thought this sounded like a proper hardcore industrial band and jumped at it and sent in the requisiting postcard or whatever. You can imagine my surprise when the CD that shows up has two songs featuring Tracey Thorn, a downtempo instrumental track, and various mixes of the main song, "Protection." I was a huge Tracey Thorn and Everything But The Girl fan (despite them not being industrial or hardcore whatsoever) so all misunderstandings were forgiven. When the full album Protection by Massive Attack came out the next year, I bought it and loved it.
SURPRISE! I got another package in the mail many months later: a VHS tape from the same record label with several Massive Attack music videos on it. Remember, the internet at that time did not have video in any significant way. YouTube wasn't a thing until 10 years later. If you were into film and video, you spent time combing through the shelves at Kim's in Manhattan or used mail order. So getting a free VHS in the mail was pretty cool and exciting.
Even more exciting was a video on this tape featuring Shara Nelson walking through Los Angeles (?), belting out a banger of a song, all in a single camera take. What was this sublime song, built around an old-school breakbeat, Nelson's intense vocals, and orchestral strings? We played the video over and over. Turns out it was from Massive Attack's previous album, Blue Lines, which I had never heard of. I am not kidding when I tell you that I listen to these two albums, Blue Lines and Protection, at least once a month each, to this day.
I think the song's brilliance comes from the emotional buttons it pushes, in the music and in the lyrics. "You're the book that I kept open, and I now I've got to know much more," "the curiousness of your potential kiss, got my mind and body aching" etc. The strings arrangement is pretty simple, rhythmically, but the chords chosen have huge emotional effect. The story goes that the band tried to play the strings part with synthesizers, but it sounded cheesy. They hired an orchestra to play the part and had to sell their car (!) to pay the bill. I would guess that they thought it was worth it in retrospect.
Again, not a lot of significance this week—just a great song that I love and I hope you like it, too.
Love,
David
