Massive Attack: Totally Wack

“[T]here are many here among us for whom the life force is best represented by the livid twitching of one tortured nerve, or even a full-scale anxiety attack. I do not subscribe to this point of view 100%, but I understand it, have lived it. Thus the shriek, the caterwaul, the chainsaw gnarlgnashing, the yowl and the whizz that decapitates may be reheard by the adventurous or emotionally damaged as mellifluous bursts of unarguable affirmation. And one could, if so inclined, take it even further than that…”

“A Reasonable Guide to Horrible Noise” (Lester Bangs, 1981)

*

I had no idea that the late, great critic Lester Bangs understood me so well.  The above quote came out from his collection of writing on music entitled “Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung” (not the best title for anyone else’s collected work), and I have thought about many of the musical noises I grew up with when I first discovered this collection. I was teenager who thought that everything I heard on the radio or certain video channels were there to just offend me. An entire stream of flaccid pop songs and overdone heavy metal were what awaited me if I decided to do nothing more than accept what was thrown my way. The independent record store, college radio, select record collections of select friends and my own imagination guided me toward what Bangs would claim were “mellifluous bursts of unarguable affirmation.” I needed to hear what others threw down.

And that was why I made many grim mistakes that still haunt me.

*

In 1988, I was sent out to visit family in England in both the bucolic and inner-city areas of London. I loved the contrast that was clear just twenty minutes away by car or via The Underground, and it definitely had an effect on my taste in art, namely music. I came home after six weeks and began a very deep and prolonged love affair with rap, house, acid (the music, folks), and any other experimental noises I could find. One particular icon was Neneh Cherry. Her “Raw Like Sushi” album was a very good introduction to a whole scene that had completely escaped my attention while I was there (my taste in British music pre-visit was very much progressive-rock themed). And I blame her for what came next:

“We were lazy Bristol twats. It was Neneh Cherry who kicked our arses and got us in the studio. We recorded a lot at her house, in her baby’s room.”

Daddy G

Coming from the horse’s mouth, this quote from Daddy G (Grant Marshall) of the band Massive Attack reveals what I always suspected about the group: they had to be pushed before they could disturb the eardrums of those of us who just wanted a change.

And he was not alone. The original group was formed by Mr. Marshall, 3D (Robert Del Naja),  Mushroom (Andrew Vowles), and one name that some people suppose is worth remembering, Tricky (Adrian Thaws) in the mid-1980s. Charming names aside, there is not much to say about them that the press has not hyped up to a disproportionate degree. Their first album, “Blue Lines” brought in all the sludge and grime of the city of Bristol without the art or the talent. No wonder they had so many collaborators over the years (Shara Nelson, Horace Andy, Damon Albern, Hope Sandoval, Elizabeth Fraser, Sinead O’Connor, and...Tom Waits?). They simply could not do it on their own. How else to explain the defections of two of their members, the fact that they have only put out four more albums under their own name (“Protection”, “Mezzanine”, “100th Window”, “Heligoland”) or the fact that they have not had any significant chart presence in almost two decades?

So sad…

I could go on about how they cut their name to “Massive” during the first Gulf War, or the fact that one member was arrested on drugs and other charges, or that the best thing to come out of their collaboration is the career of Tricky (a dubious distinction in itself). Let’s just say that four albums is enough and that the use of “Teardrop” on the television program “House” absolves many of their sins.

Maybe…

*

Thank you for reading!

If you liked this, you can add your Insights, Comment, leave a Heart, Tip, Pledge, or Subscribe. I will appreciate any support you have shown for my work.

You can find more poems, stories, and articles by Kendall Defoe on my Vocal profile. I complain, argue, provoke and create...just like everybody else.

Give it a look...