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Massive Attack’s Tear: Everything You Need To Know About This Song!

First released on: April 20, 1998

Duration: 05:29

Variations / Remixes:

Scream Team Remix – A remix attributed to both Primal Scream and Brendan Lynch operating under the name Scream Team. Massive Attack would return Primal Scream’s favor of remixing on their Exterminator track in 2000. It appears on every single release.

Mad Professor Mazaruni Vocal Mix – The UK dubbing producer and well known Massive Attack remixer puts his own style on this particular remix. Included only in the promotional releases and 12 “singles, until the arrival of the Box Set Singles 90/98 where this remix was included on CD.

Mad Professor Mazaruni Instrumental Mix – Similar to the vocal mix, except for the vocals, although they are still present (even though it is considered an instrumental) they are used more as echo effects throughout the song, typical of much of the repertoire by Mad Professor. Appears on all individual releases.

Edit: a truncated version of the song for radio playback. Cut out much of the beginning and end of the song. Included only in promotional releases.

Credits:

Written by Robert Del Naja, Grant Marshall, Andrew Vowles and Elizabeth Fraser

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

For the compiled version of the song, the additional credits are:

Remastered by Mike Marsh at Exchange and Tim Young at Metropolis Mastering.

Sampled:

Jazz pianist Les McCann’s song, “Sometimes I Cry”, was sampled for Teardrop. It appears mainly in the 1972 version of Les McCann Layers. Massive Attack does not officially credit it.

Covered:

Teardrop has been covered multiple times by many artists, usually only as a live performance. The artists who have performed Teardrop live are Elbow, Incubus, Jamie Cullum, Jose Gonzalez and Our Lady Peace. The most recent version is from 2007 by English singer-songwriter Newton Faulkner. There are also a large number of amateur singers who perform versions of this song, as can be seen by doing a search for these versions on YouTube.

Perhaps the most notable version of Teardrop is that of Massive Attack, as Teardrop is featured in Massive Attack’s song, Bullet Boy.

Vocalist (s):

Elizabeth fraser

Lyrics:

Love, love is a verb

Love is an active word

Feathers on my breath

Soft boost

Shakes me makes me lighter

Feathers on my breath

Tear on fire

Feathers on my breath

Nine nights of matter

Black flower blossom

Feathers on my breath

Black flower blossom

Feathers on my breath

Tear on fire

Feathers in me

Water is my eye

More faithful mirror

Feathers on my breath

Tear in the fire of a confession

Feathers on my breath

More faithful mirror

Feathers on my breath

Tear on fire

Feathers on my breath

You’re stumbling in the dark

You’re stumbling in the dark

History:

Teardrop began life as a simple harpsichord riff plucked by Neil Davidige one day in April 1997. Mushroom, who was the first in the band to hear this solo riff, immediately liked it and he and Neil Davidige got to work more. in it adding dark piano chords and rhythms. The working title for him at the moment was “No, don’t do it.” Mushroom’s number one choice (whose attachment to the song was very high) as the lead singer of the song was none other than Madonna, who Massive Attack had previously worked with in 1995 on “I Want You.” However, both 3D and Daddy G, who had heard the song’s initial demo at this stage, had another vocalist entirely in mind, Cocteau Twins’ Elizabeth Fraser. In the two-on-one division, Mushroom eventually lost, though not before sending Teardrop’s backing track to Madonna, who apparently had a crush on the track and was disappointed when the rest of Massive Attack informed her that they already had a vocalist for. the song. song. This is just one of many occurrences that one could cite to Mushroom’s gradual dislike of Massive Attack and of course the band’s gradual departure in 1999.

Elizabeth Fraser wrote and sang the lyrics for Teardrop shortly after famous singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley, her boyfriend at the time, died in a drowning accident. Some speculate that Teardrop’s lyrics reflected his state of mind at the time and might even be subtly about Jeff Buckley’s death.

Additional Information:

Teardrop was the first single released to promote Mezzanine, although it was not the first single from the album, as Risingson was released almost a year earlier in the summer of 1997.

The producers behind the 1999 Academy Award-winning film “American Beauty” intended to use Teardrop as the main theme song to accompany the film. Massive Attack objected to the use of the song in the film after reading a short synopsis of what the film was about. After viewing the finished film, 3D would later comment on how it was wrong to deny “American Beauty” the use of Teardrop, when the film became the 1999 critical blockbuster at the box office.

Live appearances:

Teardrop was first performed live at the Olympia in Dublin, Ireland on April 15, 1998. During most of the 1998/1999 tour dates, Elizabeth Fraser was unavailable due to the fact that she was pregnant at that time. moment. However, she made a memorable appearance at the Royal Albert Hall concert in June 1998. Debbie Miller did her voice on Teardrop for this tour. On the 2003 and 2004 tour, Liz Fraser was not yet present, and now her voice has been replaced by Dot Allison’s. For the 2006 tour, Elizabeth Fraser would finally return to playing live and singing her voice not only for Teardrop but for Liz Fraser’s other tracks on Mezzanine, and proceeded to do the entire tour with Massive Attack.

Quotes:

3D on Teardrop: “It’s a moment of slight relief from some of the other moments on the album. It was a fairly simple track to create musically and we weren’t sure what to make of it.” [ChannelV TV – June 1998]

Mushroom on Liz Fraser’s choice of Madonna as vocalist – “Sounds good now” [Q Magazine – January 1999]

Daddy G in the fight with Mushroom during the making of Teardrop: “At the time, it seemed like an act of treason.” [Q Magazine – January 1999]

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