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]