Primarily Found On:

Any Love (12″ Vinyl Single Release)

N/A

The precise date of release of the Any Love single is unknown, seeing as it was released just as a promo on a homemade record label in around the Bristol area. The best approximation is that it came out sometime in the summer of 1988.

04:57

Bonus - The bonus version features a different arrangement and also removes Daddy G’s and 3D’s vocal parts from the regular version. Included as with all versions of Any Love only on the Any Love 12″ vinyl single.

Instrumental - An instrumental mix of the regular version of Any Love exactly the same as the original song sans vocals. Included as with all versions of Any Love only on the Any Love 12″ vinyl single.

Acapella - The Acapella version of the regular version which removes the musical accompaniement to the song leaving only Carlton’s falsetto-voiced vocals. Included as with all versions of Any Love only on the Any Love 12″ vinyl single.

Written by David Wolinski

Produced by Grant Marshall, Rob Smith and Ray Mighty

Any Love uses a sample from the song Do The Funky Penguin by Rufus Thomas. It appears primarily on his 1971 7″ single release which is also called Do The Funky Penguin. It is not credited officially by Massive Attack.

Massive Attack themselves would redo Any Love again two tears later in 1990 for inclusion as a b-side to the single Daydreaming. The song was appropriately titled Any Love (2) and featured a new singer who replaced Carlton called Tony Bryan and who would also feature on Be Thankful For What You’ve Got. 3D and Mushroom would also be apart of the production of this new version unlike with the original version.

Carlton, Grant Marshall and Robert Del Naja

Carlton:

Any Love bears the distinction and honour of being the very first song released under the Massive Attack name, even though it would only feature one third of what would become the Massive Attack lineup. At the time of Any Love’s release as a limited edition promo 12″ vinyl, much of what had been The Wild Bunch and disbanded and moved on. For instance, two of the main architects behind the The Wild Bunch, Nellee Hooper and DJ Milo were busying working with Soul II Soul in London and living and DJ-ing in Japan respectively. This would leave Daddy G alone in Bristol to form Massive Attack in 1988. 3D and Mushroom would not join until just after the release of Any Love. In their absense, Daddy G sought help with the song’s production from another Bristol band with close connections to The wild Bunch, Smith and Mighty. The final component of the song was the singer who came if the form of falsetto voiced local singer Carlton McCarthy, or just simply Carlton, who in the next year would produce a solo album of his own in conjunction with Simth And Mighty, The Call Is Strong.

The Any Love single would end up being the only ever record released on the ‘Massive Attack Records’ label which was just a small label Daddy G setup with the intention of releasing Any Love and any future Massive Attack songs in the future. When Massive Attack recieved their major record label contract with Circa Records in 1990, Massive Attack Records became unnecessary and was made defunct.

Daddy G’s and 3D’s vocals on Any Love almost certainly were recorded at one of The Wild Bunch’s Soundsystem’s parties during the eighties and then sampled for the song.

Any Love has never once been played by Massive Attack. It may have been playbacked at Wild Bunch Soundsystem parties in the late 1980’s however.

DJ Milo thought’s on Any Love - “When Gee [Daddy G] went and did that record, I thought it was wicked and I was really proud of him for that” [The Wild Bunch: Story Of A Soundsystem (Album Booklet) - October 2002]

DJ Milo on the reason for the name Massive Attack for the Any Love single release - “Massive Attack was a name originally given to us by graffiti artist Brim from New York - ‘the underground massive’. I thought it was a wicked name but I wanted to turn it into an acronym sort of thing so it would read as T.U.M.A. So, I added the word ‘attack’ onto the end to make it work and it became ‘The Underground Massive Attack’. It got shortened from that.” [The Wild Bunch: Story Of A Soundsystem (Album Booklet) - October 2002]