A Prayer For England
Song Info On A Prayer For England
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29th Januray 2003
05:44
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Written by Robert Del Naja, Neil Davidge and Sinead O’ Connor
Produced by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge
See 100th Window info section for further credit details by clicking here.
For the Collected version of the song, additional credits are:
Remastered by Mike Marsh at the Exchange and Tim Young at Metropolis Mastering.
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Sinead O’ Connor
A Prayer For England in it's proto-form had an even more spikey and rough-edged bassline and guitar than what ended up in the finished song on 100th Window. It was a song that 3D felt would be best suited to Sinead's voice and asked her as a form of contrast with the power of the unfinished song to write her lyrics over of it as if they were a form of prayer. The subject matter Sinead would pick as her prayer was the controvesial issue of child abuse either in homes or instituations. This was probably inspired by her own Irish Catholic upbringing, what with the stranglehold the Church had in Ireland up until the 1970's and the abuse that many children suffered at the hands of Irish clergy in schools.
A Prayer For England was mentioned by 3D on repeat occasions during interviews during 100th Window's release as being a likely contender for a single release. It would however never make as a single. It could be speculative to say that Massive Attack's management decided not to pursue it as single release owing to it's subject matter of child abuse and abduction in the light of 3D's arrest and questioning over child porn offenses in February 2003, which even though were totally proven false, might have made A Prayer For England too contenious of a song to release.
Contary to some believes, A Prayer For England was not inspired by the Soham Murders tragedies in the UK which claimed the lives of two young girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman which occured in August 2002. 100th Window would have been almost virtually finished at this stage in time.
A Prayer For England (along with What Your Soul Sings has only been played live four times in total. It’s first time been played was at The Academy in Glasgow,UK on 9th April 2003 and played then for the next three shows up until the Manchester Apollo show on the 24th April 2003. In the three days between this last show and the start of Massive Attack’s five night residency at the Brixton Academy in London,UK, it was publicly announced that due to health reasons (a dubious reason as it was latter revealed that Sinead had quit the music business entirely, latter of course to return to it a few years later) Sinead O’ Connor would be unable to tour for the entire remaining duration of the 2003 tour. Dot Allison would take over for Sinead’s vocals on tour substituting on Special Cases but not on A Prayer For England or What Your Soul Sings either for that matter and these two songs were never played live again.
3D on A Prayer For England - "It was one of the tracks we really wanted to steer her [Sinead O'Connor] towards, because it felt it was not something cormfortably to work with because it was a bit rawer and hard-edged and it was alot rawer when it first started than it is now. It was very spikey and rough and she said 'what do you want me to do with this?'. And we said 'why don't you write a prayer over it.' And that's what she came up with, quite literally. And it was totally unexpected; the subject matter, but absolutely fucking amazing" [100th Window Interview Disc – December 2002]
3D on Sinead O'Connor choice of subject matter on A Prayer For England - "She's been so outspoken and when you're prepared to stand up and say things you become vulnerable. You're out there. You're available to be judged and criticised. She has a beautifully healthy anger and bitterness towards institutions - especially corrupt institutions - which I think a lot of people are beginning to feel. They're beginning to feel frustrated by this country, by the world, by the institutions that govern our lives." [Jockey Slut Magazine – February 2003]