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False Flags

Massive Attack
Language: English


Massive Attack

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L'espressione “false flag” indica principalmente le operazioni militari sotto copertura, ma anche le campagne politico-mediatiche volte a propalare come vere clamorose menzogne, che nel corso della Storia sono state spesso il pretesto per le guerre più disparate. La tristemente famosa balla delle “armi di distruzione di massa” in mano a Saddam Hussein – il cui costo stiamo pagando ancora oggi e chissà fino a quando - è una delle più recenti e meglio architettate.

“False Flags”, the most overtly political song Massive Attack have done up to this point was inspired by the civil unrest centered around Paris which resulted in fierce rioting in the french capital during October/November 2005. These events inspired 3D in the making of the track as it became a commentary on the state of the European Union, a far more direct message than the vague decade-old Eurochild image which had a similar idea behind it.

Paris riots, 2005
Paris riots, 2005


The “Days of Rage” in the lyrics to False Flags is a reference to a famous riot undertaken by a US militant group, known as The Weathermen, in Chicago on October 8th 1969. This reference is more than likely also the same one where “The Weather Underground” the proposed working title for the then as-yet unreleased album, Heligoland” got its name.

The Weather Underground
The Weather Underground


The working name for the song originally was “Clueless Blues”. (Massive Attacks)
In city shoes of clueless blues
Pays the views and no man's news
Blades will fade from blood to sport
The heroin's cut these fuses short

Smokers rode a colonial pig
Drink and frame, this pain I think
I'm melting silver poles my dear
You bleed your wings and then disappear

The moving scenes and pilot lights
Smithereens have got 'em scaling heights
Modern times come talk me down
And battle lines are drawn across this town

Parisian boys without your names
Ghetto stones instead of chains
Talk 'em down 'cause it's up in flames
And nothing's changed

Parisian boys without your names
Riot like 1968 again
The days of rage, yeah, nothing's changed
Well pretty flames

In school, I would just bite my tongue
And now your words, they strike me down
The flags are false and they contradict
They point and click which wounds to lick

On avenues, this Christian breeze
Turns its heart to more needles please
Our eyes roll back and we beg for more
It frays this skin and then underscore

The case for war you spin and bleed
The cells you fill screen savers feed
The girls you breed, the soaps that you write
The graceless charm of your gutter snipes

The moving scenes and suburbanites
And smithereens got 'em scaling heights
Modern times come talk me down
The battle lines are drawn across this town

English boys without your names
Ghetto stones instead of chains
Hearts and minds, and U.S. planes
Nothing's changed

And English boys without your names
Riot like the 1980's again
The days of rage, yeah, nothing's changed
More pretty flames

Contributed by Bernart Bartleby - 2017/8/22 - 21:05


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