Sly

Song Info On Sly

Primarily Found On:

Protection

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.

Sly (Single Release), Now That's What I Call Music 29, In Defense Of Animals Volume 2 (Cosmic Dub)

First Released On:

26th September 1994

Duration:

05:24

Variations/Remixes:

7 Stones Mix - Respected dance DJ Tim Simenon was the main man behind this remix with the unusual name of 7 Stones. This would be his only remix for Massive Attack. Included on all single releases.

7 Stones Mix Instrumental - An instrumental mix of the original 7 Stones mix exactly the same as the original remix sans vocals. Included only on the promo 12" vinyl release.

Underdog Mix - Underdog AKA Trevor Jackson offers his own interpertation of Sly here. This would be his first of three remixes for Massive Attack, the other two being Protection and Risingson. Included on all single releases.

Underdog Double Bass & Accapella - Removes the beat from the orginial whilst making the remix more minimalistic. Included on all single releases, but not the Singles 90/98 boxset.

Dogapella - A minor variation on the Underdog Double Bass & Accapella. Included only on the promo 12" vinyl release.

Cosmic Dub - This is the first ever Mad Professor remix of a Massive Attack song released. Included on all single releases and on No Protection.

Eternal Feedback Dub - Another remix by the Mad Professor. Included on all single releases but not on No Protection.

Credits:

Written by Andrew Vowles, Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall, Nelle Hooper, Nicolette Suwoton and Vivien Goldman

Produced by Andrew Vowles, Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall and Nellee Hooper

Strings Arranged and Conducted by Craig Armstrong

See Protection 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:

Sly uses a sample from the song Africa Talks to You by Sly & The Family Stone. It appears primarily on their 1971 release There's a Riot Goin' On . It is not credited officially by Massive Attack.

Covered:

N/A

Vocalist(s):

Nicolette

Lyrics:

I try to believe what I feel these days
It makes life much easier for me
It's hard to decide what is real these days
When things look so dizzy to me

I already know my children's children's faces
Voices that i've heard before
There's always more
There's always more

Wondering leaving the sea behind
To my home which everybody owns
Wondering, wondering
Where we can do what we please
Wondering

I feel like a thousand years have passed
I'm younger than i used to be
I feel like the world is my home at last
I know everyone that I meet

Somewhere in the music I can hear the bells
I heard a thousand years before
There's always more
There's always more

Wondering is this there all there is
Since I was since I began to be
Wondering, wandering
Where we can do what we please
Wondering

History:

Sly was the combination of Craig Armstrong's strings combined with Nicolette's unique sensual vocals. Massive Attack had choosen Nicolette to appear on the album Protection after hearing her first album Now is Early and being suitablely impressed by it.

Additional Info:

Some music press magazines reported just before the single release of Sly in the UK, that a Future Sound Of London remix would also be apart of the single package. Whether this was simply inaccurate reporting or if the remix was pulled at the last minute remains unknown as the remix did not appear on the single release. It has never been heard and no confirmation of it's existence exists otherwise.

One of the song-writers of this song is Vivien Goldman, whose credentials boast of being both a music journalist and musician. Even with her varied career in the arts, Sly is her only song she worked on with Massive Attack.

On Collected, the song's duration is 04:56, as the sweeping orchestral strings at the songs end has been omitted.

Live Appearances:

Sly has never once been played live, not even in any live TV appearances. Obviously, Nicolette never toured with Massive Attack and the only other Nicolette sung song, Three has likewise never been performed live.

Quotes:

3D on working with Craig Armstrong during the making of Sly - "To sort him out we gave him a lot of influential tracks, a lot of 50s big band music like Les Baxter and stuff and really filled him in on what we wanted. And given like four or five reference tracks and the groove and the song, he could have gone anywhere with that, but he picked up on the vibe and came back with the mood we're all into" [The Wire - September 1994]

Nicolette on why she choose to work with Massive Attack - "They heard my latest single at the time 'Wicked Mathematics' and got in touch with my then manager, asking if I would work with them on some tracks. I was really surprised because musically we came from two different worlds, but I was very happy to do it because I respected them a lot as musicians, and also because I knew it would be a challenge for me to work on something so different than what I was used to. So they brought me over to bristol to meet the band, we hit it off, and that was that" [MassiveAttackArea.com - February 2005]