United Snakes

Filed Under: Songs
Tags

Tags: collected, dot allison, false flags, heligoland, neil davidge, robert del naja, UVA

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Video still from the UVA animated promo video for United Snakes.

Development

United Snakes as well as another song called Speed of Dark were produced during 2001/2002 with intention to be included on The Matrix Reloaded soundtrack. However, the music supervisor for the soundtrack, Jason Bentley upon hearing the two Massive Attack contributions changed his mind on their inclusion and opted for the soundtrack to have a more “nu-metal” vide to it, thus leaving Massive Attack out of it completely.

Additional Info

The working title for the song was Bullet, at least going by when it was first played live on the 2004 tour.

While originally released in the Summer of 2006 on a limited edition promo single, it took until the release of Heligoland (were it appeared on the special edition version of the album) in February 2010 for United Snakes to become more widely heard in the Massive Attack fan community, with many falsely assuming the track was from the Heligoland recording sessions.

Live Appearances

United Snakes was first played a handful (five in total) of times during the South American leg of the 2004 tour where it would go on to be replaced with Black Melt for the rest of the tour. Its very first live appearance was at the Creamfields festival in Mexico City, Mexico on the 24th May 2004. While the name of the song was never publicly announced by Massive Attack, according to setlists available at the time, United Snakes was known as Bullet. Unlike the regular version of United Snakes which only featured 3D on vocals, this live version also had Dot Allison singing in harmony along with 3D.

United Snakes would not be played live for another four years until the Castlefield Arena in Manchester, UK on the 6th September 2008 accompanied by a unique visual display involving a cinema like screen (covering the entire front of the stage) and projector combo designed by UVA (the designers of all of Massive Attack’s live visuals since 2003).

United Snakes finally entered the live setlist in a permenant fashion in 2010, where it was featured as the opening song on every Massive Attack show for that year, replacing the Heartcliffe Star opener from the 2009 shows setlist.

Photo from when United Snakes was perfomed live at the Castlefield Arena in Manchester in September 2008, with the UVA visuals projected over a giant silkscreen.

Notable Quotes

Massive Attack’s record label on United Snakes – “Which indeed has a sneaking snake-like bass wobble and startling drum breaks and edits – a real journey [Virgin Records PR - June 2006]

3D on the double A-Side promo release of the False Flags/United Snakes EP – TUNEFUL, SOFT AND WARM ON THE UNITED SNAKES SIDE, AND MEAN ,SERIOUS AND DEEP ON THE FALSE FLAGS SIDE [Official Massive Attack Forum - September 2006]

Lyrics

Blackbird. Blackbird. To my door. My door. Take it up with you. (? ? ? ? ? ?) For you oppose. It’s too hard. It’s too hard. Lost (for?) words. Blackbird. Their spies, their spies, their spies. Blackbird. To my door. Play it cool. Careful. When in charge. (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ) Take it up with you. (? ? ? ? ? ? ?) For you oppose. Their spies, their spies, their spies. Take it up with you. (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ) Take it up with you. (? ? ? ? ? ? ? ) For you oppose. Their spies (Repeat until end)

Promo Video

The visuals for Massive Attack’s song United Snakes were originally designed for the band’s live show at the Castlefield Arena, Manchester in September 2008, and were then compiled together into a loose form music video and released onto the internet over a year later in October 2009 in a blog post on the MassiveAttack.com blog.

Starting with rigid black and white stars and stripes, United Snakes quickly shifts to more organic shapes. The creation of these spontaneous forms was made possible by ‘sketching’ the outlines using Openframeworks software, developed by Dave Ferner who worked for UVA for several years.