ARRIVING TODAY: Massive Attack and Tom Waits Team Up for “Boots on the Ground

Massive Attack and Tom Waits have shared a new collaborative single entitled “Boots on the Ground,” which marks the first new Massive Attack music distributed under what they’re referring to as a Spotify exemption policy. It’s also Waits’ first original music in 15 years and the first new tune from Massive Attack in six years. 

 

FLOOD Magazine

14 hours ago

FLOOD - Massive Attack and Tom Waits Team Up for “Boots on the Ground

The protest anthem comes with a spoken-word B-side from Waits entitled “The Fly,” as well as additional spoken-word reflections from the Egyptian-Canadian-American writer Omar El Akkad that will arrive tomorrow, April 17.

“It’s a career honor 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 shared of the collaboration. “Across the western hemisphere, state authoritarianism and the militarization 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.”

Added Waits: “One day many years ago I accepted an invitation from Massive Attack to collaborate. Way back then, we sent them ‘Boots on the Ground.’ Their long release delay never worried me. Today, as in all of mankind’s yesterdays, guarantees this song will never go out of style. Man’s fiasco folly 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.”

The single comes with a film made by Massive Attack in collaboration with the photographer thefinaleye. You can pre-order the 12-inch of “Boots on the Ground” here,  

Apr 16, 2026

Film created by Massive Attack (working with US photo artist 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. 

 

The film quotes statistics and research by the following sources: American Immigration Council, American Civil Liberties Union, Inside Higher Ed, National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, US National Library of Medicine, US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Privacy International, FactCheck.org. Viewers seeking further information or wishing to take action are encouraged to visit aclu.org, veterans-aid.net, immigrantdefenseproject.org, and freedomforimmigrants.org. 

 

Lyrics: Big legs dangle from a helicopter hole Big chug rhythm it’s gotta be now ho! Brown, mean and young Dumb and full of cum What can you use a marine for This is a fucking ass machine gun war With your boots on the ground Boots on the ground Boots on the ground Boots on the ground We trim your hedges, we fight your wars Wait in the trenches, and we fuck ‘til we’re sore Boots on the ground Boots on the ground Born shiny bullets in an army of ants Blow that horn, we sleep in our pants Big titties, big titties Well we holler and we burn down cities Boots on the ground Boots on the ground Shootin up the town Stayin in the hole until Jimmy Hoffa is found With my boots on the ground Well something goes tink when the cartridge is spent Where do you think all your cartilage went Boots on the ground Boots on the ground Now who the hell are these federal pricks? Hiding in the senate like a bloated ass tick Air conditioned fuckstick loafers Sittin in a room full of army posters A coal to a diamond, a vote into law They Campaign up all the blood they can draw Mold your world, a soldier’s just clay How much does every soldier weigh? Cut you off at the ankles and they throw that away Boots on the ground It’s cold and hot, as Satan’s .hoof Spinning on the world I’m hiding on a roof I kill a brown man I never ass knew Choked on spit and then he turned blue He spattered black blood, he rolled fin out He died right here I got the pearl from his snout A puff of gray smoke from the tongue of a cloud He rotted in the sand and all that they found was his boots on the ground, boots on the ground, boots on the ground All that they found was his boots on the ground, boots on the ground