False Flags
The links below will take you either to the Collector section of MASSIVEATTACK.IE, or to an external website - either amazon.com or discogs.com, where you can find out more about all the the album (s)/release (s) that this particular Massive Attack song appears on.
10th March 2006
05:40
Unkle Surrender Sounds Session #2 - Remixed by James Lavelle of UNKLE fame, UNKLE’s first remix for Massive Attack since the UNKLE Situation remix of Karmacoma. It was also played during many of Lavelle’s solo DJ gigs throughout 2006. Included only on the False Flags/United Snakes EP.
Unkle Surrender Sounds Session #2 (Dub) - Much like the first remix but with 3D’s vocals reduced only to the line “Our eyes roll back and we beg for more”. Included only on the promo CD version of the False Flags/United Snakes EP and not on the Itunes release or the 12″ promo vinyl release.
Written by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge
Produced by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge
Arranged by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge
Recorded and engineered by Lee Shephard
Radiohead’s song “The Bends” off their similarly titled 1995 album is the vocal sample (”Where do we go from here?”) heard at the end of False Flags. It is not credited officially by Massive Attack.
N/A
Robert Del Naja
False Flags, the most overtly political song Massive Attack have done up to this point was inspired by the civil unrest centered around Paris which resulted in fierce rioting in the french capital during October/November 2005. These events inspired 3D in the making of the track as it became a commentary on the state of the European Union, a far more direct message than the vague decade-old Eurochild image which had a similar idea behind it. Originally there was no set timeline to release False Flags, as it was very much a track of the moment which would have lost its edge if included on the next proper album which was not due for at least another year. A digital download was the first obvious option but this was then changed in favour of releasing it on Collected, Massive Attack’s “Best Of”, when the idea of such a career retrospective was touched upon by Massive Attack’s management.
The “Days of Rage” in the lyrics to False Flags is a reference to a famous riot undertaken by a US militant group, known as the Weathermen, in Chicago on October 8th 1969. This reference is more than likely also the same one where “The Weather Underground” the proposed working title for the as-yet unreleased LP5 from Massive Attack got its name.
The working name for the song originally was “Clueless Blues”.
False Flags was first played live at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, USA on the 26th April 2006. It was played throughout the duration of the 2006 tour but usually omitted from the setlist on festival dates. When it was played, it would always be the opener for each show, with much more added guitar than the regular version throughout the song climaxing in a dramatic ending to none other than a piano-based sample of another Massive Attack song Heat Miser.
3D on False Flags - “And we had another track called False Flags which was more political and, again, quite simple and it was written around the time of the riots around France. Again it was sitting around, we were thinking about maybe putting it online, y’know, do something digital with it, but that was obviously something which was surpassed by the idea of putting a collection out.” [The Independent Newspaper - March 2006]
3D on both False Flags and it’s accompanying promo video - “It’s very beautiful, its very sad and its very now.” [Collected EPK - March 2006]
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