Tom Waits‘ first new original music in 15 years is “Boots on the Ground,” a vividly gruesome indictment of wars both foreign and domestic that he recorded with Massive Attack (for their first new music since 2020). He condemns soldiers pursuing people perceived as “Brown, mean and young, dumb and full of cum,” and he reserves special ire for the senators who deploy them. “Now who the hell are these federal pricks? … air-conditioned fuckstick loafers, sittin’ in a room full of army posters,” he asks about midway through the song, which lopes along at a bluesy pace with Massive Attack’s signature pensive atmospherics. It all leads to the haunting refrain, “Boots on the ground, boots on the ground.” Waits’ son Casey is also featured as a vocalist on the song.
The song arrived on streaming platforms Thursday, accompanied by a music video that Massive Attack created, which displays pictures by a U.S. photo artist called thefinaleye. “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,” says the video’s description, which includes links to various U.S. organizations that aid immigrants. The song will later be released as a 12-inch, available for preorder, with “Boots on the Ground” on one side and a spoken-word piece by Waits, “The Fly,” on the other. Proceeds from the 12-inch will benefit the ACLU and the Immigrant Defense Project.
“One day many years ago, I accepted an invitation from Massive Attack to collaborate,” Waits said in a statement. “Their long release delay never worried me. Today, as in all of mankind’s yesterdays, guarantees this type of song will never go out of style. 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.”
“It’s a career honour to collaborate with an artist of the magnitude, originality and integrity of Tom, but this track is arriving in an atmosphere of chaos,” Massive Attack said. “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 & abandoned mind.”
On Friday, Massive Attack will release a spoken-word piece reflecting the writings of Omar El Akkad, whose fiction works include American War and What Strange Paradise, and whose One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This Massive Attack is called a “nonfiction masterpiece.”
The song marks the first music release from Waits, who has spent much of his creative energy in recent years on acting since his 2011 album Bad as Me. The gruff-throated singer-songwriter will play John Malkovich’s brother in filmmaker Martin McDonagh’s upcoming film, Wild Horse Nine.
A protest song like “Boots on the Ground” reflects both Waits’ and Massive Attack’s activism in recent years. Massive Attack have been outspoken about their opposition to Israel’s war against Hamas, and the group’s Robert Del Naja was among the 500 protesters arrested in London on Saturday for supporting a group called Palestine Action. The group also teamed with Fontaines D.C. in 2023 on an EP to benefit Doctors Without Borders for their relief efforts in Gaza.
Waits, in 2017, granted Banksy the use of an instrumental version of his 1987 song “Innocent When You Dream” for the artist’s Wall Off Hotel installation in the West Bank. “To mark the 100 year anniversary of Britain’s former colonization of Palestine and its disastrous consequences, Banksy has mixed opulence and dystopia with his desire to highlight the daily lives and art of Palestinians,” Waits’ social media noted at the time. “The Irish are no strangers to strife and division, and Waits selected this Irish tinged waltz because of its lyrical and wistful mix of regret and dreams for a world without walls.” He also sang about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on 2006’s “Road to Peace.”
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