SPECIAL vs. Massive Attacks Unfinished Sympathy?

Special, from New Order's 1993 album Republic, is one of my all time favorite New Order songs.

I think its sad that NO have ignored it so much. They only ever played it live once, in 1993. NO should do Special on the next tour.

Special is such a beautiful song. Great melody, great bass work from Hooky, and its got some of Barneys best lyrics (I think that Republic is Barneys best set of lyrics, actually).

However..

I was driving in the car today and for the first time in years I listened to Massive Attacks beautiful classic "Unfinished Sympathy".

Now, I recall seeing an interview where Steve Morris said that Special was influenced by Massive Attack..

But man, Special is really SIMILAR to Unfinished Sympathy in a ton of ways, from the jingly seqeuncer line to the use of strings. After listening to US, the strings at the end of Special sound like they were directly sampled from UF.

Anyone else notice this?

I noticed something else cool. In the liner notes for Blue Lines, Massive Attack thank Public Image Limited. John Lydon must have been proud. I love PIL. Specially early PIL.

Special - used to love the song - great intro.

But Unfinished Sympathy is in a class of its own............

Love 'em both.Saw the thread title and thought you might have a good mash-up for me! Guess I'll have to have a go meself.

In the MTV Past Present and Future special from 1993, Steve said that Special was an intentional Massive Attack rip-off. Hooky added that the strings of RIAD were intentionally Ennio Morricone-like as well. Other than those, they said that they've never ripped off anyone consciously. ;)

Zachery Starkey wrote: Special, from New Order's 1993 album Republic, is one of my all time favorite New Order songs.

I think its sad that NO have ignored it so much. They only ever played it live once, in 1993. NO should do Special on the next tour.

Special is such a beautiful song. Great melody, great bass work from Hooky, and its got some of Barneys best lyrics (I think that Republic is Barneys best set of lyrics, actually).

However..

I was driving in the car today and for the first time in years I listened to Massive Attacks beautiful classic "Unfinished Sympathy".

Now, I recall seeing an interview where Steve Morris said that Special was influenced by Massive Attack..

But man, Special is really SIMILAR to Unfinished Sympathy in a ton of ways, from the jingly seqeuncer line to the use of strings. After listening to US, the strings at the end of Special sound like they were directly sampled from UF.

Anyone else notice this?

I noticed something else cool. In the liner notes for Blue Lines, Massive Attack thank Public Image Limited. John Lydon must have been proud. I love PIL. Specially early PIL.

I think Im on the same wavelength (for once!). Yesterday I listened to Special for first time in ages and recognised the strings at the end as those to Unfinished Symphony (not sympathy!).

And then this morning I has listening to a Ennio Morricone track (The Good, Bad & Ugly?) and the drum intro is EXACTLY the same as the drum intro to Ruined In A Day.

Doggy wrote: Special - used to love the song - great intro.

But Unfinished Sympathy is in a class of its own............

My sentiments exactly, Mr Reilly.

Doggy wrote:

But Unfinished Sympathy is in a class of its own............

absolutely yes...

Zachery Starkey wrote: Special is really SIMILAR to Unfinished Sympathy in a ton of ways, from the jingly seqeuncer line to the use of strings. After listening to US, the strings at the end of Special sound like they were directly sampled from UF.

Anyone else notice this?

absolutly I noticed that 10 years ago when I discovered Blue Lines. I even thought that Massive Attack sampled Special ...and had to have a close listening to the 2 songs to be sure. But finaly, comparing the release dates, I was wrong: Blue Lines came out 2 years earlier than Republic.

Unfinished Sympathy & Special: two great 'atmospheric' songs

Cant hear it myself, but Blue Lines is one of the best albums of the 90's.

Nice thread, prompted me to dig out Blue Lines again so many thanks, I've a lot of happy memories associated with that CD!

As for Ruined In A Day, the nerd in me is curious (before I head out and buy some Ennio Morricone stuff) if anyone on here knows whether it samples Morricone's stuff directly (and which song)? I've read before that Bernard used to listen to his stuff a lot when he worked for Cosgrove Hall. Check out the guitars too as they seem to be influenced by Venus In Furs by Velvet Underground

I liked the live version of Special that I heard from 1993. I thought it sounded pretty good. Not appropriate for a festival crowd...but perfect for a NO gig.

NO should have played Special at some of the 2006-2006 shows. it would have been a much better slow song than Run Wild, or hearing them play Atmosphere for the 457893407668439th time.

I love both Special and US. Both are gorgeous songs.

They're both very enjoyable songs. Special is one of the highlights of Republic and whether or not NO intentionally ripped Massive Attack off they put together something creative. Massive Attack are one of my favourite acts and Blue Lines/Protection are two of my top albums. They didn't even invent or term their tunes as 'Trip Hop'. The music media did that and it become a lazy catch all term for what they and others - Lamb, DJ Shadow, Portishead, Morcheeba, Howie B etc. were doing in the eraly/mid '90's. Don't know whether it would work well in NO's live set but could be interesting especially in a smaller venue like Manchester Apollo etc. The Ruined In A Day intro definitely sounds like the intro from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly but I can't tell whether this was sampled directly from Morincone - most likely as Chemical uses a sample from Cubik 22's single Night In Motion or created through the technology they were using at the time. Any thoughts? Cheers!

Listen to the album version of 'Ruined In A Day'. the very first bar of quiet drums that remains looped throughout the song is the first bar of the original soundtrack recording of 'The Good The Bad And The Ugly'. It's a direct sample.

Andy

They only ever played it live once, in 1993

A little known fact is that they actually played it twice. It also featured in the same part of the set the previous day (to Roskilde) when they played Montreux. It was cut out of the MTV broadcast.

johnny james wrote:

They only ever played it live once, in 1993

A little known fact is that they actually played it twice. It also featured in the same part of the set the previous day (to Roskilde) when they played Montreux. It was cut out of the MTV broadcast.

Fook me with a rusty paper clip! Little known is right! I guess that changes the thread over on the Ceremony board about the setlist that has been listed, and makes us want a copy of the audio!

Have to agree with Jarvo about it in a live setting though - too lightweight a song really, there's so much percussion going on that really doesn't cut through, particularly in an open-air setting. Pretty much how I expected Guilt is a Useless Emotion to go as well when played live, and I don't think I am far out.

Mountain Man wrote: Nice thread, prompted me to dig out Blue Lines again so many thanks, I've a lot of happy memories associated with that CD!

As for Ruined In A Day, the nerd in me is curious (before I head out and buy some Ennio Morricone stuff) if anyone on here knows whether it samples Morricone's stuff directly (and which song)? I've read before that Bernard used to listen to his stuff a lot when he worked for Cosgrove Hall. Check out the guitars too as they seem to be influenced by Venus In Furs by Velvet Underground

You should be able to download it for free off Limewire, Bittorrent or SoulSeek.

El Jarvo wrote:

NO Regret wrote: I think Im on the same wavelength (for once!). Yesterday I listened to Special for first time in ages and recognised the strings at the end as those to Unfinished Symphony (not sympathy!).

You getting your Schuberts and yer Massive Attacks mixed up?!

Unfinished Sympathy is rightly in a league of its own. Surely one of the greatest records of all time.

Of course its Sympathy. I know that, you know that. Think I just had one too many schurberts when I typed that!

They played Fine Time at the end and not Round And Round.