Risingson

Song Info On Risingson

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.

Risingson (Single Release), Collected, Singles 90/98, , Oorgasm 1 (Underdog Remix), 50,000,000 DJs Can't Be Wrong - Volume One: Mixed Up Beats (Otherside)


First Released On:

7th July 1997


Duration:

04:58


Variations/Remixes:

Underdog Remix - Following on from his remix work on Sly and Protection, Underdog would turn the regular version into a furious drum'n bass tune. This remix would mark Underdog's last ever remix for Massive Attack. Included on all single releases.

Underdog Instrumental - An instrumental mix of the original Underdog remix exactly the same as the original remix sans vocals. Included only on the promo 12" vinyl release.

Otherside - This is in fact an alternative mix of Risingson done by Massive Attack themselves. It augments the song with even louder and abasive guitars and drum beats. The added guitar parts were done by Jon Harris, who would later become apart of Sunna, one of the bands on Massive Attack's Melankolic label. Included on all single releases.

Otherside Instrumental - An instrumental version of the Otherside mix exactly the same as the original remix sans vocals. Included only on the promo 12" vinyl release.

Underworld Remix - This remix was done by Darren Emerson from the now defunct dance band Underworld. Very much intended for clubs, it strips away all vocals in the regular song down to just the line "Toy-like, Boy-like". Included only on the promo 12" vinyl release, until the arrival of the Singles 90/98 Box Set where this remix was included on CD for the first time.

Setting Sun Dub 2 - This is a previously unheard mix that surfaced in June 2007 upon the opening of Massive Attack's official MySpace page. It is streamed on the aforementioned page in a heavily compressed but listenable quality. As the title of the remix sugests it is a dub remix of the original Risingson wit the remixer remaining amonyous, possibly Massive Attack themselves.


Credits:

Written by Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall and Andrew Vowles

Produced by Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall and Andrew Vowles

Engineering and programming by Doc Savage

See Mezzanine 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.


Sampled:

Risingson uses a sample from the song "I Found A Reason" by The Velvet Underground. It appears primarily on their 1970 release Loaded. It is credited officially by Massive Attack.

Apart from this aforementioned sample, Risingson also uses a sample from the song Practice Makes Perfect by Wire. It appears primarily on their 1978 release Chairs Missing. It is not credited officially by Massive Attack.


Covered:

N/A


Vocalist(s):

Robert Del Naja and Grant Marshall


Lyrics:

3D:
I seen you go down to a cold mirror
It was never clearer in my era so
You lick a shine up on your forehead or
Check it by the signs in the corridor
You light my ways through the club maze
We would struggle through the dub days
I see myself in there upon my lover
It's how you go down to the men's room sink
Sad we talk of how madmen think
I sink myself in hair upon my lover
I don't know if I'm another miss
Don't know you from another
See me run now you're gone...
(Dream on)

Daddy G:
Why you wanna take me to this party and breathe?
I'll die to leave
Every time we grind you know we severed lines
Where have all those flowers gone
Why you wanna take me to this party and breathe?
Long time passing
Why you keep it testing, keep on tasking
I keep on asking

3D:
Toy-like people make me boy-like
Toy-like people make me boy-like
They're invisible, when the trip it flips
They get physical, way below my lips
And everything you got is hoi-polloi like
Now you're lost and you're lethal
And now's a fine time
You've got to leave all
These good people
(Dream on)

Nicer than the bird up in the tree top
Cheaper than the chip inside my laptop
All the variations you could do with me
Nicer than the girl up in a mind you free

Daddy G:
Automatic system remote control
Come to move your soul

3D:
You're gonna fade into the background
Like a better smoke'll bring you back round
Like a man slide inside you my dear
Your cheap beer's filled with crocodile tears
See 'em run now you're gone
(Dream On)

Toy-like people make me boy-like
Toy-like people make me boy-like
I found a reason
I found a reason
Dream On(x3)


History:

Risingson ended up being the first completed song from Mezzanine and was released a good ten months before the album would come out as limited edition single only within the UK. The single release was intended both to serve as a preview to Massive Attack's long awaited third album (as they came to the conclusion that the album would not make it's original 1997 deadline) and also as a promotional tool for the 1997 tour.


Additional Info:

Risingson was the first single released from Mezzanine, preceeding its sister album by over ten months.

Risingson would mark Daddy G's first return to vocals on a Massive Attack single since Daydreaming.

Neil Davidge is credited as being "Doc Savage" on the single release of Risingson. This is the only other occurrence besides Wire where he is credited as such.


Live Appearances:

Risingson 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 1997.

During the 1997 tour, the backdrop to the stage was a large canvas poster of the image from the Risingson single.

Since the 1997 tour, Risingson has become a permanent fixture on the live setlist on all subsequent tours. It is usually the second or third track played at each show.

Before his departure from the band, Mushroon would perform DJ duties (such as the use of The Velvet Underground sample and doing scratching) during this song. Daddy G would take up this DJ role on the 2006 tour.

Since the 2003 tour, Arden Hart, the live band's keyboardist has performed backing vocals on Risingson.


Quotes:

Daddy G on Risingson - "The way we approached the vocals on that track and the fact that it was a totally different way of doing things than we usually do; with the whole thing with the chorus to chorus that we got on it. Quite an unorthodox way of appraching a rap track" [Mezzanine Interview Disc – March 1998]

Angelo Bruschini on Risingson's chart performance - "They were very, very nervous. There was a big sigh of relief when that sold, I think" [Q Magazine - January 1999]

3D on why Risingson was released almost a year before Mezzanine in 1997- "Risingson was a wierd track because, it was more developed than some of the other ideas on Mezzanine and we were talking about going on tour that summer [1997], and we felt we needed to justify our presense on stage, so we needed to put something out there, at least! [Collected EPK - March 2006]