The 12″ of Massive Attack‘s “Boots on the Ground,” their collaboration with Tom Waits, will be out September 4 (preorder it in the BV shop), and the b-side is a new spoken word piece by Tom titled “The Fly.” That has now been shared.
“Today, as in all of mankind’s yesterdays, guarantees this type of song will never go out of style,” says Tom. “Man’s folly of fiascos is a feast for the flies. Hence, the B side of Massive Attack’s upcoming 12 inch ‘The Fly’ features my appreciation for the winged nuisance.” Here’s a stanza from it:
You have no house, well you have mine
You have no real friends, stay away from the wine
House fly go to sleep say goodbye, no one will weep when you die
On horses, on houses, in May, any spill is a pond where you play
Buzzing and hovering table tops, when you land it abruptly stops
Get a job, turn off the siren, go into town, see if anyone’s hiring
You have such a short life, who is that there, your wife?
You can watch the animated video for “The Fly,” and the video for “Boots on the Ground,” below.