Primarily Found On:

Collected

Also Found On:

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.

Live with Me (Single Release)

First Released On:

13th March 2006

Duration:

04:51

Variations/Remixes:

Alternative Version - A string-laden version of the song over Terry Callier’s vocals without any beat or bassline for distraction. The strings for this version were re-arranged by composer David Arnold, previously well-known for his work on the recent James Bond films. Some press sources before the release date, stated this track as being called the “Stripped Back” version. Featured only on the single release.

‘Hidden Conversations’ Version - This reproduction of Live With Me is featured exclusively on Terry Callier’s 2009 released album ‘Hidden Conversations’. This version was recorded in Terry Callier’s recording studio in March 2008, with help from Neil Davidge along with Terry’s own band of musicians. The resulting track is a more jazzy lounge take on the original. The ‘Hidden Conversations’ album also contained 2 new collaborative tracks between Terry and Massive Attack named Wings and John Lee Hooker.

Radio Edit - A truncated version of the song for radio playback. Cuts off nearly a minute from the regular version, mainly towards the end of the song. Is only featured on promo releases of the song.

Video Version - This version is only available as part of the soundtrack to the promo video for the song. It differs from other versions in that it combines some of the “Alternative Version” at the start of the video before transitioning into the regular version of the song roughly 40 seconds in.

Credits:

Written by Robert Del Naja, Neil Davidige and Terry Callier

Produced by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidige

Arranged by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidige

Recorded by Lee Shephard and Marco Migliari

Mixed by Head

Strings Arranged by Michael Jennings

Sampled:

N/A

Covered:

The Twilight Singers covered Live With Me with vocals from Mark Lanegan. It is found on their “A Stitch In Time” EP.

Vocalist(s):

Terry Callier

Lyrics:

History:

Live With Me was among the first slew of tracks conceived in the newly constructed Massive Attack studio in Bristol in 2005. Coming off the back of making two separate soundtrack projects, Danny The Dog and Bullet Boy respectively in the previous year, Live With Me was influenced by these soundtrack excursions, using a film score approach to writing - employing putting down quick sketches and getting basic chord structures going such as melodies and riffs. This resulted in a more simple and organic song than other recent material, which recalled Massive Attack’s soulful heyday.
The track was originally not conceived as being apart of Collected but for another film soundtrack which Massive Attack were working on in 2005, probably under the name of their recently created film music production company known as OnePointSix, but at the last minute before the film began shooting, the film’s production was shut down. The film in question was never named but would have required a jazz blues soundtrack, similar in sound to Live with Me. Once the idea of doing a “Best Of” retrospective came along, one of the abandoned songs from this soundtrack, Live with Me whom Massive Attack had gotten soul legend, Terry Callier to do the vocals back in June 2005 for was dusted off the shelf for inclusion on Collected.

Additional Info:

Live with Me is the final 14th track on Collected, the sole new inclusion on the album and used to promote Collected as a single release as well.

Terry Callier apart from this song also recorded 4 other songs with Massive Attack around the same time. Two of these songs were most likely Wings and John Lee Hooker, which were released in 2009 on Terry’s album, Hidden Conversations. The other two songs remain unnamed and unreleased

Terry Callier’s vocal take on this song was recorded in just one day.

Live Appearances:

Live with Me was first played live at the Wireless Festival in London, UK on the 23rd June 2006 (not counting the BBC radio session at Maida Vale, London in May). It was only played a handful of times during the 2006 tour owing to the fact that Terry Callier was unavailable for many of the dates played and Massive Attack’s unwillingness to replace his live vocals with someone else. The live version is a pretty much faithful rendition of the album version of the song.

Quotes:

3D on the reasons behind Live with Me - “Live With Me features Terry Callier and is deliberately a soul track. It shuts those up who believe we can’t replicate our first album.” [Metro Newspaper - March 2006]

3D on Terry Callier and Live with Me - “An amazing voice and an amazing songwriter.It was a very different approach to 100th Window - more organic, less complicated.” [Uncut Magazine - April 2006]