Massive Attack - False Flag (with the best interpretation I ever read)

Lyrics:

In city shoes
Of clueless blues
Pays the views
And no-mans 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
more pretty flames
In school i would just bite my tongue
And now your words they strike me dumb
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 screensavers 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

Interpretation, by Matt2971
http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858581839/

False Flags"

'False flag operations are covert operations conducted by governments, corporations, or other organizations, which are designed to appear as if they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is, flying the flag of a country other than one's own. False flag operations are not limited to war and counter-insurgency operations, and have been used in peace-time; for example, during Italy's strategy of tension.'

(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_flags)

The song is obviously anti Iraq war, and bites into the whole corrupt economic and social system that underpins such a war. This is perhaps unsurprising since:

'[Robert] Del Naja is - perhaps notoriously - open in his views, and has no qualms about criticising government policy. He was strongly opposed to the 2003 war against Iraq, and with fellow musician Damon Albarn personally paid for full page adverts in the NME magazine.'

(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Del_Naja)

It's hardly surprising then that in a media system controlled by the system, �False Flags� hardly saw the light of day.


"In city shoes
Of clueless blues"

Reference to the ubiquitous uniform of city businessmen and women the world over. A rererence to the core of the corrupt economic system.


"Pays the views
And no-mans news"

Reference to the corporate ownership of the media. In effect the media is payed - through advertising - to dispense standard "views" as directed by the system. This is interspersed with �no-mans news�: pointless stories about celebrities and such to comatose the masses.


"Blades will fade from blood to sport
The heroin's cut these fuses short"

Possible reference to the thinking masses being comatosed themselves by drugs. "Blades will fade" and "blood" referencing cocaine (which is cut with blades) and heroin (injected into the blood stream - �spore� would be more effective than �sport�). The cutting short of fuses suggests that the youth's reliance on drugs prevent the action of dissent that is needed and called for in the song.



"Smokers rode a colonial pig
Drink and frame this pain i think"

And even those not going the whole hog with drugs are comatosed from the pain of modern life by using dope and drink.


"I'm melting silver poles my dear
You bleed your wings and then disappear"

Another heroin reference.


"The moving scenes and pilot lights
Smithereens have got 'em scaling heights"

The "pilot lights" could be a reference to crack, which is often home-made by heating a solution in spoon above a cooking ring, rendering the �scaling heights� part of the line obvious. However, there's a second possible meaning of the line (which could be double) where �smitherines� references the TV images of the US bombing of Baghdad, and certain sick people getting excited by them.

(See http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=smithereens)


"Modern times come talk me down"

The �modern times� of the unwise masses living lives as prescribed by a system that has brainwashed them, and the wise being similarly eliminated by their own escapist drug habits, literally �talk down�, or shout louder than those actually trying to say something like Del Naja.


"And battle lines are drawn across this town"

Battle lines of opinion are drawn everywhere between the wise who percieve the corruption of the system, and the unwise and brainwashed who do not, or are evil enough to ignore it.


"Parisian boys without your names"

'Without your names' may refer to anonymous identities on the internet, the only partly free media left, and the great hope for organising any change.


"Ghetto stones instead of chains"

Not sure about this. �ghetto stones� could be a crypic reference to computer mice � a modern day tool of dissent, or it could be more literal. The ghettos having the same chaining effect of imprisonment of the masses.


"Talk 'em down cause it's up in flames
And nothing's changed"

Nothing has changed wince the last uprisings of the people, like the anti-Vietnam war movement in the 60s.


"Riot like 1968 again"

There were 'a series of protests and a general strike that caused the eventual collapse of the De Gaulle government in France.' (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1968).


"In school i would just bite my tongue
And now your words they strike me down
The flags are false and they contradict"

See the title piece above. Del Naja possibly heard the phrase from a teacher at school.


"They point and click which wounds to lick"

Possible reference to the 'wound' inflicted by the media after their wrongful accusations against him:

'In 2003 there was controversy surrounding allegations of indecent material when the police arrested Del Naja on suspicion of downloading child pornography. The investigation was later terminated and no charges were brought. An expert witness from the case wrote in April 2007 about the sloppy police work leading to the investigation.'

(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Del_Naja)


"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"

Reference to religion - which is no better than the system (In fact it's just the superseded previous system) � having the same effect to just turning the youth onto drugs as an escapism.


"and then underscore"

Another possible internet reference. The underscore character used in many screen names.




"The case for war you spin and bleed"

Reference to the false �case for war� (Iraqi WMDs etc) that was made in the West by the system.

Note the use of "you" and "your" throughout this section. This refers to the system itself.


"The cells you fill"

Reference to Guantanamo Bay, and also possibly the general false imprisonment of people for non-offences. Like drug offences.


"screensavers feed"

A possible reference to attempts to sterilize the Internet.


"The girls you breed"

Reference to the idiotic celebrity wannabes that are the role models of young women brainwashed by the system.


"the soaps that you write"

Another method of brainwashing the masses being the banal soap operas on TV.


"The graceless charm of your gutter snipes"

The general phrase �gutter snipes� can be used for people of low moral fibre:

(See http://www.webster-dictionary.net/definition/Guttersnipe)

However, specifically, the slang 'gutter press' in the UK refers to the particularly hugely popular, but dually manipulative and mindless tabloid papers like The Sun and The Mirror:

('Tabloid newspapers are sometimes pejoratively called the gutter press' - See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutter_press.)

So 'gutter snipes' could reference the journalists working for them. This is relevant to the "no-mans news" above, and also Del Naja's own experience with them (See 'which wounds to lick' above).


"Hearts and minds and US Planes
Nothing's changed"

Says it all.

"And english boys without your names
Riot like the 1980's again"

The race riots of the early 80s and poll tax riots of the late 80s were the last civil uprisings in England.

(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brixton_riot_(1981) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poll_tax_riot)


All in all, a pretty obvious call to war against the current system. Well needed.