Massive Attack – Group Four

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  General Comment:Could that be a metaphor for artistic creation? I mean she closes her eyes but her breath--her voice I suppose--goes beyond--it is unlimited--and her sixth sense--i.e. her intuition--acts on it. The guardian might then be the conscious creative part (see sober tea, martial arts, i.e. control, mastery) which is yet counter-productive (he locks the doors). So he is wasting his time... He can't prevent her from daydreaming and opening the "world" (which means the piece of art, I believe). What do you think? (PS: sorry for my sloppy English I'm not native).

  Flag SimpliCity47on April 04, 2012   Link

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  Song Meaning:Yeah, it's about a security guard. More specifically, it's about a security guard basically living out his days in the darkness with a security system that, by the lyrics, seems to border on having sentience. He's sipping his tea, watching the monitors, thinking about all the other things in his life that he could be doing, and then throwing those thoughts away because he's not hired to think. Ultimately he feels pretty listless about this whole thing, daydreaming the hours away.
  
  Meanwhile the security system of the building is living a simple life. There are cameras and alarms and whatever else connected up to its "brain" like a nervous system. It views the security guard as its God (which is actually pretty interesting if you think about the similarities in pronunciation with some English accents.) This security system, again having its own little thoughts, is pondering its own function and waiting for the moment can it can be of some use (ready to sing, ready to set off the alarms or whatever else if someone breaks in.)
  
  Then in the last portion of the song, something mysterious begins happening...It may be that an intruder finally does show up. Or maybe not. But whatever it is, the song takes on a spiritual, ritualistic, orgasmic quality as the security system plunges into a growing frenzy. Its little electric heart is beating faster and faster and faster as it repeatedly prays to its security guard god to open up the world, to bring something down. You can almost see a woman dancing in the moonlight with a long staff in her hand.
  
  The security system desires this thing more and more and more until finally ------
  
  Ahhhhhhhh... release!
  
  Apparently God the Security Guard heard the prayer. In the regular world, in meat-space, this prayer was probably just some kind of notifier on a screen. Totally mundane. You see, he's so busy feeling listless, so busy daydreaming, that he has no idea what kind of world exists right under his nose.
  
  There you go. That's Group Four.

  Flag Shogaron May 03, 2011   Link

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    Dude... you are brilliant.

    Flag Crane42on July 09, 2012  
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  General Comment:"Flickering I roam" = security guard patrolling with a (flickering) flashlight.

  Flag oulton9on May 02, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:Group 4 is still around. It's called G4S now (Group 4 Securicor). G4S doesn't just do your everyday security guard stuff. They have warzone force protection contracts (like Blackwater/Xe, Dyncorp, etc.). I'm heading out to Kosovo with them soon, then hopefully Afghanistan at some point.
  
  I like this song both for the music, and that it strikes a chord with me. I feel like it's talking about being a little bored with the monotony of your current security assignment, but still feeling the call of adventure and action around the world pushing you to roam. Not being able to escape it because it's all you think about anymore (even during sex, when he says "To think that I lay next to you / Wasting time when I could do / A simple job in strip lights"). Strikes home to me since I chose to be with a girlfriend instead of taking a nice assignment, and she ended up cheating on me later. So it was just wasting time.
  
  I've heard this song's supposed to be critical of G4S, but I don't hear it that way and I love it; the lines "I train myself in martial arts / As advertised / I reinforce my softened parts / As advertised" give me a laugh every time. And I interpreted the "free to roam... and magazines" to be magazines of firearms, as if your ammo is your "passport". A great song with a James Bond movie intro sound to it.
  

  Flag 5cardcharlieon December 04, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:Ok this is what i feel about this song. There are two different stories here.
  One one side we have this simple guy, working on the night shift of a security company, monitorizing and doing control walks on some kind of building. He is really tired of this job (fisical and mentally) and he dreams about being out.
  
  On the other side there is this great vocalist girl, getting ready for going out on a show. She just dreams about being on stage and is doing some warm ups.
  
  The climax of the song belongs to both of them. They reach the same feelings by accomplishing such different dreams in such different situations and I think this is what the song is all about. There is no recipe or guide to reach determined feelings, and even the most opposite people are the same sometimes...

  Flag ezekhiel2517on November 09, 2009   Link

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    Beautiful interpretation, ezekhiel2517! I never quite know what to make of this song, and I very much appreciate your insight.

    Flag Epiphany2000on September 26, 2010  
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  Song Meaning:I believe it is about a security guard working the prisons as Group 4 managed security of prisons in the UK at that time. I think he is paranoid in the prison at night and possibly on a drug or with a mental illness exacerbating that. I think it's done from his perspective reassuring himself through the night and finally dozing off. Group 4 blundered into letting a lot of prisoners escape and I think he finally gives in to his vices and gets high or goes to sleep.

  Flag Coffeewolf77on July 05, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:having a lot of experience with psychosis and extreme mental stressors (5-6 days without sleep is more intense than ANY drug), This song sums up the way that it feels. You're in a world of your own, free to do as you wish. Anything is possible. Yet, at the same time, it feels like a hell you're trapped in for two reasons: it's made up, and you know that it's back to the same old normal crap afterward. When you return to normal, however, it feels just as surreal as the "imaginary" does.
  
  I'm not sure if that's well defined, but it's exactly how this song plays off.

  Flag Emblaon March 05, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:I do think he is a security guard, but he works in a mental hospital or a home, over night, where this girl is staying. She's catatonic due to injury or mental illness, except every now and then she sings, and she beautiful. And he is taken with her. "To think that I lay next to you..." when I could be doing something else other than this job (a simple job in strip lights...maybe some sort of construvtion job). And when the day comes, his shift is up and he goes home...flickering I roam. I always picture him, on a closed circuit B&W monitor, walking the hallways, the picture kind of grainy...flickering I roam.

  Flag ptrap555on January 15, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:this song really turns me on
  it's on my sexy playlist
  :3

  Flag YellowNumberFiveon January 13, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:it is amazing how such different meanings can come from the same source. Massive is Epic.

  Flag the good guyon November 14, 2007   Link

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