#4st 7lb

[drugstoreshane]

and i don't mind the horror that surrounds me

[iamtryingtobelieve]

[iconicjohnny]

Definitely a “Listen to The Holy Bible” kind of day.

[4llisvanity]

Trying to play 4st 7lb at the right speed got me SWEATING

[thewanderinguterus]

I wanna walk in the snow 

and not leave a footprint 

[cosmicscale]

4st 7lb is the seventh track from the Manic Street Preachers’ album The Holy Bible. 4st. 7lb. is also the average weight just sufficient for an adult human to live. The song tells a story from the prospect of a girl suffering with anorexia but lyricist Richey Edwards was also suffering at the time.

It begins with dialogue from a 1994 BBC documentary, Forty Minutes: Caraline’s Story, about Caraline Neville-Lister, a young woman suffering from chronic anorexia and bulimia.

"I eat too much to die and not enough to stay alive. I'm sitting in the middle waiting."

“Every word of that is Richey's, and it's pretty autobiographical. I think that when he was admitted to hospital, he was down to about six stones, which, for a five-foot-eight 25 year old, is pretty grim.” - Nicky Wire, Melody Maker, 27 August 1994

I wanna be so skinny that I rot from view I want to walk in the snow and not leave a footprint I want to walk in the snow and not soil its purity

“In terms of never wanting to be noticed, I've never wanted that. When I was young especially, I used to keep myself to myself. I don't feel I have the right to intrude on anyone else, and I don't think anyone should necessarily want to listen to me.” - Richey Edwards, Melody Maker, 3 December 1994

Notes:

Karen refers to Karen Krizanovich, a sarcastic agony aunt who wrote for the comedy sections of Sky Magazine in the 90s.

Kate (Moss), Emma (Balfour), Kristen (McMenamy), all supermodels at the time. Twiggy, a prominent model in the 60s, known for being really thin.