Primarily Found On:

Mezzanine

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.

Man Next Door (Euro Radio Edit)

First Released On:

20th April 1998

Duration:

05:55

Variations/Remixes:

Euro Radio Edit - A truncated version of the song for radio playback for European radio stations. It trims off much of the beginning and end of the song. It might possibly have been used to guage interest of a commercial single release of Man Next Door. Included only on a rare promo CD of Man Next Door.

Credits:

Written by John Holt

Produced by Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall, Andrew Vowles and Neil Davidge

See Mezzanine info section for further credit details by clicking here.

Sampled:

Man Next Door uses a sample from the song “10.15 Saturday Night” by The Cure. It appears primarily on their 1986 release “Staring At the Sea”. It is credited officially by Massive Attack.

Apart from this aforementioned sample, Man Next Door also uses a sample from the song “When The Levee Breaks” by Led Zeppelin. It appears primarily on their 1971 release “Led Zeppelin 4″. It is not credited officially by Massive Attack.

Covered:

N/A

Vocalist(s):

Horace Andy

Lyrics:

History:

More than likely, Man Next Door is a product mostly of Daddy G’s desire to do a reggae cover. The reggae cover ended up being Jamician reggae singer’s John Holt’s Man Next Door which had originally been recorded in the 1960’s. This song had already previously been covered by the 1970’s post-punk band The Slits, who had already turned the original upbeat reggae number into a more down tempo moody tune, which probably inspired Massive Attack, in their own take of the song, moreso than the original John Holt version.

Additional Info:

In September 2000, the UK Conservative Party used a snippet of Man Next Door as background music to accompany the entrace of the then party leader William Hague. When Massive Attack were alerted of the use of their own song, which the Conservative party had not asked permission to use, Massive Attack became very indignant not so much with the unauthorised use of their song but moreso on political grounds, as the Conservative party were using it to promote their right wing policies which Massive Attack were not supporters of. Massive Attack threatened legal action against the Conservative party. It is uncertain exactly what happened afterwards, but it appears that no legal action against the Conservative party ever actually took place. For more information on this incident, click here to visit the corresponding entry in the news section.

Live Appearances:

Man Next Door along with a sampling of a few other Mezzanine-bound tracks were first played during the 1997 tour partly to gauge crowd reactions to these newly demoed songs. It’s live debut to be exact was at the Royal Dublin Showgrounds in Dublin, Ireland on 21st June 1998. It was a constant feature of both the 1997 tour and the 1998/1999 tours. During the 2003 and 2004 tours it was ommitted entirely. Man Next Door would make its live appearance after a nearly eight year gap during the North American leg of the 2006 tour.

It’s live arrangement is typically the same as the regular album version with Horace Andy performing live vocals.

Quotes:

Horace Andy on the previously recorded versions of Angel - “The band only knew the Dennis Brown version. I’m singing them the John Holt version” [Mojo Magazine – July 1998]

3D on the unauthorised use of Man Next Door during a Conservative Party conference - “We’re completely fucked off with The Tories. How dare they use us to promote their bullshit” [Q Magazine - October 2000]