Massive Attack and Tom Waits have released a politically-charged collaborative single, Boots On The Ground.
The unsettling and haunting song is the first new music from 76-year-old Waits since his 2011 album Bad As Me. It features additional vocals from his son Casey Waits.
The release of the single is accompanied by a film created by Massive Attack utilising images taken by American photo artist thefinaleye.
Massive Attack say, "This montage work portrays a momentous American epoch that is yet to be named, and comes in the aftermath of the largest public protests in American history - focused on opposition to ICE raids, the militarisation of domestic forces, and state authoritarianism."
“It’s a career honour to collaborate with an artist of the magnitude, originality and integrity of Tom," the band add, "but this track is arriving in an atmosphere of chaos. Across the western hemisphere, state authoritarianism and the militarisation of police forces are fusing again with neo-fascist politics.
“Seen within the American emergency, at home and overseas, this track contains pulses of callous impulse and abandoned mind.”
Text at the beginning of the video references the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, ICE raids on migrant communities, state repression of public protest in America, and the fact that almost 33,000 military veterans are homeless in the United States.
The lyrics of the song's final verse read:
"It’s cold and hot, as Satan’s hoof
Spinning on the world I’m hiding on a roof
I kill a brown man I never ass knew
Choked on spit and then he turned blue
He spattered black blood, he rolled fin out
He died right here I got the pearl from his snout
A puff of gray smoke from the tongue of a cloud
He rotted in the sand and all that they found
was his boots on the ground."
Boots On The Ground will be released on vinyl by Massive Attack's new record label, Play It Again Sam, with The Fly, a spoken word track from Waits on the B-side.
The single is the first of several releases planned around the band’s upcoming gigs.
