Feb 16
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Nostalgic Pushead
Can we talk about ‘Nostalgic Pushead’? Because it’s really the only song in the Gold Against the Soul catalogue (besides maybe ‘Symphony of Tourette’) that vaguely indicates the direction they took with The Holy Bible. Snarky, minor chorded and ragged, electric riffs resembling rich hands waving you away to the gutter with shame, this song rides along the edge of crisp production and conceptual explosion.
The music is fucking perfect. It’s raw and bleak and broadly blasted, completely condemning the glittery yuppie faith. The chords are ballsy and minor in the way that only The Holy Bible was able to replicate. “Rebellion only sells at a profit…“ These notes absolutely capture the nasty cadence belonging to the Manics’ most critically acclaimed and seminal album. If I had to pick one track that led to The Holy Bible, both lyrically and musically, this would be it. Boasting bright chords and nasally charged vocals tackling worlds of decadence and distilled business violence (read: American Psycho), Nostalgic Pushead is loud and and reluctantly punk and violently poetic. It burns, pleasantly. It drives a tire-iron into your status quo.
I am the raping sunglass gaze of sweating man and escort agencies 60s alienation the anthem of care Now a knife constantly slashing eyelids Slavery to the beat Slavery to the chord Slavery to the pleasure Slavery to the god They dig the new scene and their parties Where Stonehenge is worshipped and drug’s a deity Vicarious thrills re-run their youth We follow we have no voice the dead Radio nostalgia is radio death I wanna cover diamonds on my wife Hard rock nostalgia the Stones on CD Tranquilised icons for the sweet paralyzed So cool the new sound of the decade Thinks it’s so fresh not a post Elvis still All taste is nothing, old pictures blowdried Rebellion it always comes at a profit i am a face of fashion in SoHo square My tie is Paul Smith or Gaultier My cheeks blood red as my favorite Port But hey, cocaine keeps cholesterol at bay Slavery to the beat Slavery to the chord Slavery to the pleasure Slavery to the god Some god.
https://open.spotify.com/track/4p8rxrS9kEtkmDg9Iy7hkU
Revisiting this blog with a new modus operandi: not everything has to be a dissertation, and there are plenty of tiny revelations– particularly with regard to Manics lyrics.
Today’s tiny revelation came from “His Last Painting”, an oft-overlooked track from the oft-overlooked KNOW YOUR ENEMY.
The nothing in me, the apostle in me No interpretation for the heart of me
We know Nicky was inspired by THE HOLY BIBLE while writing this record, and what a powerful thought that line is: that an “apostle”, in making known his beliefs, only uses words and rhetoric, which are things that can be interpreted; yet, there is no interpreting the basics of the human heart. And whether Nicky wrote these lines with Richey in mind or not, it becomes more potent in light of Richey’s attitude towards love in general as well as his own sexuality. (I think it’s pretty clear Richey was gay and it fucked with him a lot. I’m not sure why that subject is so “taboo” among Manics fans– are we all aging, over-sensitive fuckheads who don’t want to dredge up the past or interpret it, or to suggest that Richey was not entirely “4real” and told nothing but the truth all the time?)
Anyway.
I really like those lines.
Mausoleum
Love is war, the Manics would have you believe. Or so write Nicky and Richey, who always blend their political repercussions with a more intimate level of bitterness. The theme is pervasive across the band’s entire repertoire (see previous post Love = War), but nowhere is it more effective than in THE HOLY BIBLE’s oft-overlooked track ‘Mausoleum’. There is a stunning streak of godless despair in this song. It rails against love, war, and religion all at the same time.
wherever you go I will be carcass whatever you see will be rotting flesh
According to Richey, the war imagery in this song comes directly out of WW II, the Holocaust, and the desolation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki—casualties of which will always be visible, despite the ‘good’ side (Allies) having won the war.
Meanwhile, the lover says: Look at me, I’m proof that you fucked up. As long as I’m around, you’ll never forget. (Perhaps a motivation to vanish.)
humanity recovered glittering etiquette answers her crime with mausoleum rent
Humanity is ‘her’. Crimes against humanity—this death is the awful proof.
Or, ‘her’ could be someone specific, someone involved in a disastrous affair. Etiquette, or societal approval, has been achieved—but at the expense (rental) of a deathlike depression. ‘Gliterring’ emphasizes the monetary aspect: gold glitters, and material wealth is gained despite the emotional cost.
Finally, the use of ‘her’ can relate to Eve’s original sin.
regained your self-control and regained your self-esteem and blind your success inspires
The winners of war are on top, having regained their esteem, but virtually ignorant to what winning the war has actually done—killed millions of people and left destruction in its wake.
Our lover has ‘succeeded’ with another, giving the surface appearance of contentment, but neglected another for his/her own sake.
and analyse despise and scrutinise never knowing what you hoped for and safe and warm
Violence and ego win out. You explain yourself away, disregarding any alternative path you could have taken. The choice is ‘safe’, sanctioned, honored by history.
The lover took the easy way out—the way society deems to be the ‘right’ way. He can regret all he likes, explain himself away, but the final choice of comfort over love nails the coffin.
but life is so silent for the victims who have no speech in their shapeless guilty remorse obliterates your meaning
The victims who have no speech: the dead, the ‘losing’ side of the war, are relegated to the background of history. Their voices have a questioning effect: did we do the right thing? Who cares; we won; that’s what matters.
The former lover is relegated to ‘leftovers’. Not allowed to speak about the relationship, for various reasons—skepticism, embarrassment, posterity. But grin and face the cameras; look, everyone seems so happy!
no birds the sky is swollen black and no birds holy mass of dead insect
In mythology, birds often symbolize hope. If there are no birds, there is no hope.
Literally, Hiroshima has no birds—only remains. Maggots feed on the dead; their only funeral a religious ceremony of vermin. Go and read BAREFOOT GEN, people.
Also, a loss of idealism. Dig your depressed head into the ground like a tick.
come and walk down memory lane no one sees a thing but they can pretend
Revisionist history. With so many people looking at the past with imperfect memory, some things are bound to be lost. Despite this, the populace thinks they know exactly what happened.
A lover is invited to witness his betrayal from the beginning. Revisionist history exists in a romantic sense. Viewed from one point of view, an emotional debacle is always the other person’s fault.
life eternal scorched grass and trees for your love nature has hemorrhaged
This is one of the greatest couplets in literary history.
In the first line, eternal life must witness the ‘scorching’ death of one of its most obvious incarnations (nature). With regard to religion, ‘life eternal’ is promised if you love God, yet those who wage holy war are hardly in touch with God.
And then, love is the only thing to blame for this; it has left the world BLEEDING. Look, the words scream. This is what your so-called ‘love’ has done. Our past has been left to decay.
Where else could you see the words love and hemorrhage in such natural proximity?
and life can be as important as death but so mediocre when there's no air no light and no hope
This is the most fascinating bit of the song for me, because you can hear Nicky and Richey lyrically sparring (although not as blatantly as in ‘Life Becoming a Landslide’… more on that later). You can almost see them arguing on a debate panel: ‘Life can be as important as death!’ ‘But so mediocre when there’s no air, no light, and no hope!’ (‘Fuck you!’ ‘Fuck you!’)
prejudice burns brighter when it's all we have to burn the world lances youth's lamb-like winter
This takes the juxtaposition of love and war and puts it right out in the open. Prejudice, of course, is at the very root of war, and World War II in particular. Despite overcoming the opposition while waving their flag of ‘justice’, the Allies subjected their own citizens to Nazi-esque discrimination.
The final words take innocence and split it in two. A ‘lamb of god’ rendered obsolete. Love has been lanced by the world. Social schemes win out, despite all youthful earnest.
In a word: ouch.
Echoes
Today’s post is brought to you by Nicky’s obsession with redundancy. Now, we all know he’s been writing about the same damn thing for 20 years, but this is not a post about that—nor is it an indiction or examination of common themes in Manics songs (like the previously mentioned Love = War). Here I’ll be talking about specific references to previous lyrics in the Manics’ own catalogue, explicit and intentional, perhaps simply an indication of Nicky’s laziness but more likely a stab at making a point. [Note: I will be avoiding instances of the extremely consistent use of ‘4EVER’ and ‘4REAL’ in the interests of a future post about those.]
I got the idea while listening, as I do quite often, to REWIND THE FILM—which I think is a fascinating record; but then, I rather enjoy it when the Manics get all sad and plaintive, which explains my fondless for LIFEBLOOD while everyone else seemed to think it was crap. Anyway, I was specifically listening to ‘Show Me the Wonder’, and, well, wondering why it sounded so damn familiar:
Show me the wonder I have seen the birthplace of the universe Show me the wonder I have seen miracles move in reverse
Oh, wait a minute.
Show me a wonder you can’t be sure of I exist in a place—a self-made vaccuum… Show me a wonder Show me a wonder -‘Found that Soul’, KNOW YOUR ENEMY.
Obviously, Nicky can’t believe his eyes. Or he wants to see something that will make him not believe his eyes. ‘Found That Soul’ always struck me as a song about attempting to regain your self-confidence, but in the context of ‘Show Me the Wonder’, which I think is about being desperate to believe in something, it seems clear that ‘Found That Soul’ was more of an indignant stab at belief/religion in general moreso than personal worth.
Now, speaking of LIFEBLOOD, ‘Cardiff Afterlife’ was highly publicized as being about the Manics’ early years, and Richey in particular.
The paralysed future, the past sideways crawl I must give up on this It makes no sense at all
Sideways crawl… where have we heard that before? Thinking… thinking… OH RIGHT!
I have crawled so far sideways I recognise dim traces of creation -‘Die in the Summertime’, THE HOLY BIBLE.
Nostalgia, childhood memories, all that, yes. But there’s also a recognition that aging in years does not necessarily guarantee wisdom or a worthwhile ending. A certain someone died in the summertime, and a certain someone is now living the ‘afterlife’. Well played, Nicky.
This next one is a more obvious instance than most, but I figured it deserved a mention… because ‘Your Love Alone (Is Not Enough)’ features a GUEST singer—gasp—which means nobody has time to talk about the lyrics because they’re all too focused on what it means for James to sing opposite Nina Persson! [See my rant on guest singers in a future post.] But I digress…
You stole the sun straight from my heart from my heart from my heart With no excuses, just fell apart fell apart fell apart -‘Your Love Alone’, SEND AWAY THE TIGERS.
It’s not even a mystery. From THIS IS MY TRUTH TELL ME YOURS, approximately ten years earlier:
You stole the sun from my heart… -‘You Stole the Sun From My Heart’.
Not subtle. But still echoing. If anything, it’s just another indication that ‘Your Love Alone’ is sort of like ‘You Stole the Sun From My Heart, Part 2: The Revenge’.
But now… now, my favorite. The context here is so entirely different it’s almost enough to throw you off. ‘Autumnsong’, again from SEND AWAY THE TIGERS, does a great job at masquerading as a hopeful, happy-go-lucky ditty with its promise that ‘the best times are yet to come’. Right! But then, the bridge…
So wear your hair in bunches and your jacket loose
Who’s wearing his/her hair in bunches? And why? Because, as Richey so shockingly wrote in 1994…
He’s a boy, you want a girl so tear off his cock Tie his hair in bunches, fuck him, call him Rita if you want -‘Yes’, THE HOLY BIBLE.
Rita has a nice ring to it, Richey. Nobody’s stopping you from re-doing your hair, you know. This kind of makes re-examining the entirety of ‘Autumnsong’ a neccesity, with particular attention paid to the parts about ‘clearing your hair’ and ‘running’ and ‘painting your face’. Zing!
There’s also the fact that ‘Enola’ (as in 'Enola/Alone') is ‘Alone’ spelled backwards (obviously)... just like ‘Revol’ is ‘Lover’ spelled backwards, and since Enola Gay is the name of a plane that dropped an atom bomb, Revol is the name of… oh shit!
ADDENDUM: I forgot to mention that, also in 'Your Love Alone'--I could have placed us in exile is almost certainly an echo of 'Love's Sweet Exile'.
Little Baby Nothing
These lyrics bothered me the first time I read them, for reasons I couldn't really explain at the time. 'Little Baby Nothing' is supposed to be a reference to women, and how men use them for pleasure, and how fragile they are deemed by patriarchal society. But over the years of sifting through lyrics, I've discovered that Nicky and Richey loved to put up a front of writing about political issues when many of their songs were just about themselves—even love, that sad old topic that Richey so adamantly decried.
The source of my initial confusion first came at the end of a verse. After taking on the persona of a vapid woman for the first few stanzas, the narrative of the song changes without warning: Your pretty face offends / because it's something real that I can't touch. Who is the 'I' here? Until that point it's easy to attribute to an empty woman (My mind is dead / everybody loves me). But... the references don't hold up. Why would this woman be staring at her own pretty face? It's like an experimental narrative switching points of view. Which might be perfectly valid under literary circumstances. However, in an interview, Nicky admitted that the entire song was written by Richey, with the except of the last two lines.
Eventually, as an experiment, I subsituted Richey for the 'I' of the narrator... and strange lines started to make endless sense.
No one likes looking at you Your lack of ego offends male mentality They need your innocence To steal vacant love and to destroy Your beauty and virginity used like toys
Richey could really be talking to anyone here. But, impotent? Virgintile? I really don't think it was anyone female. "No one likes looking at you"? Why not? Isn't this supposedly about a pretty girl used for her beauty?
My mind is dead, everybody loves me Wants a slice of me
This sentiment speaks perfectly about the life of a rockstar. Idolized and worshipped. The 'Cult of Richey' was developed. And pardon me for saying so, but slice is a particularly potent word in the context of Richey's well-known self injury.
Hopelessly passive and compatible Need to belong, oh the roads are scary Hold me in your arms I wanna be your only possession
Oh, now this is interesting. Why would a random woman be on the "road"? Rockstars, on the other hand, are always on tour.
All they leave behind is money Paper made out of broken twisted trees
Rockstardom makes you rich.
Your pretty face offends Because it's something real that I can't touch Eyes, skin, bone, contour, language as a flower
Surrealism as fame. Also, Nicky was the only other band member using language. (See 'Revol'.)
No god reached me, faded films and loving books Black and white TV All the world does not exist for me
Well documented is that Richey grew up in a religious Catholic family, yet his own faith was extremely limited. He made straight As in school because he loved to read. His writings are those of one who is incredibly well-read, yet had trouble connecting with reality.
If I'm starving, you can feed me lollipops Your diet will crush me
Richey was anorexic.
My life just an old man's memory
Does your dad ever reminisce about "classic" old bands you've never heard of? Little baby nothing Loveless slavery, lips kissing empty Dress your life in loathing Breaking your mind with Barbie doll futility Richey was always expressing his hatred of "real love", but he still used sex as an outlet. Physicality was empty for him. Little baby nothing Sexually free, made-up to break up Assassinated beauty Moths broken up, quenched at last The vermin allowed a thought to pass them by This is perhaps the same reference to Tennessee Williams' poem as seen in 'Removables'. You are pure, you are snow We are the useless sluts that they mould Rock 'n' roll is our epiphany Culture, alienation, boredom, and despair Purity is a state that many anorexics strive toward, and evidenced in Richey's own words, it held a certain divinity for him as well: "Salvation is purity." Clearly, there is someone Richey sees as pure—someone he cannot touch.
The 'Little Baby Nothing' turns out to be Richey himself. The last two lines are Nicky's and, ironically, speak of the only way Richey could voice his opinions and come to these inevitable conclusions: Rock 'n' roll is our epiphany.
Indeed, it is.
Intravenous Agnostic
Musically, it’s the highlight of Know Your Enemy—piercing, distinct, and infectious. The Manics at their best.
But let’s face it: the words sound like Nicky sat down with lyrics in one hand and a dictionary in the other and looked up random words until he made the song as oblique as humanly possible. To disguise something, maybe, or just celebrate the cadence. Who knows?
The fact remains these are some seriously awesome words. I aim to give each one the proper attention.
Into a vein exhibit the derelict
A secular mosaic distracted at birth
A Cubist abstraction let it live forever
Narcissism so lonely so live by the sea
All those lovely short I sounds! Let’s sit back and celebrate that, shall we? Mmmm.
A derelict is something abandoned by choice, such a ship, or a homeless (and thus abandoned) person. (Also seems to be one of Nicky’s favorite words.)
Secular is a description that means, essentially, unreligious. A more rarely used meaning is something that happens once in a blue moon and lasts for a definite period of time, thus being worldly rather than divine.
A mosaic is a decoration made of artistically arranged pieces, usually of different colors and substances, that add up to a larger picture when completed.
Cubism is a modernist art form, the most important features of which are showing all sides of an object at the same time, and depicting said object as fragmented (see: Picasso, Matisse).
Narcissism is self-obsession or self-love, originating from Ovid’s tale of Narcissus, a man who falls in love with his own reflection.
Cosmetic polemic
Distinguished by relics
Destructive aesthetic
Intravenous agnostic
Cosmetic describes something that is done or relates to purely visual, aesthetic, or surface attributes.
A polemic is a controversial position or argument, usually in refute of a larger scheme of rules.
A relic is a remnant of the past that may have religious associations with the culture it came from.
Aesthetic is similar to cosmetic in that it pertains to pleasuring the senses only, although cosmetic has more of a visual connotation.
Someone who is agnostic is not committed to either believing or disbelieving in a higher power—he or she thinks that anything so ultimate will always be unknown.
Brutality is needed in a capitalist society
Television abandoned my very entity
Nature failed me but then it made me
We all pray for pluralist babies
Capitalism is an economic system based on private ownership, production, and profit.
An entity is a self-contained being or existence.
Pluralism is the simultaneous holding of two offices, beliefs, or otherwise ‘irreconcileable’ truths.
Dismayed dispossessed
Life becomes Calvinist
So sparkle and believe
Linguistics die easily
Dispossessed means homeless, or otherwise deprived of a sense of belonging.
Calvinism is a sect of Christianity that preaches original sin and predestination.
A linguist is one who uses language well, or speaks many different languages well.
The language of abandonment and loneliness is everywhere (derelict, dispossessed, abandoned), as is the notion of surfaces leading to problems (cosmetic polemic, destructive aesthetic). When it comes to religion or ultimate reality, there are two options (agnosticism, pluralism, nature failing/making), and all of this relates to something vital in the past (relics, at birth).
So, let’s see what we have here…
Presenting intravenously, or injecting directly into the bloodstream, some abandoned thing or person. An unreligious but long-lasting combination of qualities (mosaic) has been distracted, or distracting, since birth. This vague or difficult to determine thing can be examined from all sides at the same time, so, although it is fragmented, it will last forever—even if self-obsession is a lonely way to live.
A purely visual or surface-related substance/thing leads to argument. This gains meaning only when seen in relief against the past. Something about the past sees beauty in destruction and degradation, so there is an injection of skepticism towards both the present reality and any sort of divinity (hope).
The excuse for all this is that capitalism breeds a ‘dog eat dog’ mentality. More images of abandonment, this time from the self. Nature did something wrong but at least there is existence, OR, nature did something wrong and then redeemed itself. There is also a desire to produce people/descendants who see the world as working in two different ways.
Someone has been weirded out and abandoned by all senses of security and loyalty. The result is to turn to a strict doctrine that preaches the original sin of mankind. Now there is belief, and a small sense of pleasure (sparkle), despite the fact that language is weak and the people who deploy it even weaker.
"Fascinated by good, destroyed by evil, what is there to believe in?" -Ready for Drowning.
Yeah, Nicky, we know you're not over it.
Revol
This song has baffled many a Manics fan for years. It seems to be a list of leaders and their taboo sexual habits. But taking a closer examination reveals an interesting alternative. No matter how worldly + educated a poet claims to be, I say with utter certainty that if he purports to not put personal struggles into his words, he’s a lying bastard. When it comes to ‘Revol’, I think Richey is a lying bastard.
First of all, if you look at the list of dictators/world leaders/political figures objectively, there is no particular tie to each one and the epithet that follows him. Is Richey making this up? Did these things actually go on in their private lives? And what the hell is his obsession with Russians?
The really intriguing thing is that the lists of leaders are organized, simply, in chronological order: Lenin, Stalin, Kruschev, Brezhnev, Gorbachev, Yeltsin. All Russian leaders, one after the other, according to who succeeded whom. The second list is organized in the same way: Napoleon, Chamberlain, Trotsky, Che Guevara, Pol Pot, Farrakhan. While not all of one country, the names are listed, nevertheless, in nothing more complex than chronology.
Assuming, therefore, that these names are tossed in as an afterthought, does their order in relation to each epithet really matter? No. I owe this one to my Manics mentor and friend Melinda: why not just take off the names entirely, and see what happens?
Skipping over the German words in the chorus for a moment, the one thing everyone seems to agree on—and the thing that makes the most concrete sense—is that 'Revol' is actually 'Lover' spelled backwards. Perhaps this is Richey's way of showing that all love is backwards, old-fashioned, and ultimately false. However, just suppose, for a moment, that Richey actually is speaking to a lover. Suppose that the song is a diatribe against said lover, which is why the 'name' of the person ('Revol') is repeated throughout the song.
Now, onto those German words, whose LITERAL definitions are, respectively, ‘living space’ (lebensraum), ‘culture struggle’ (kulturkampf), and, colloquially, ‘get the hell out’ (raus raus, fila fila). All of these phrases, though politically significant to the Nazi party, can also be related to having a fight with a flatmate/neighbor/whatever and, subsequently, becoming bitter and exacting means for the person to leave. (It’s also significant to note that none of the German words are capitalized.)
With the leader's names removed, the German words literally translated, and the word 'revol' reverted to its 'backwards' meaning, we are left with the following set of lyrics:
Awaken the boy
Bisexual epoch
Self love in his mirrors
Married into group sex
Celibate self-importance
Failure is his own impotence
Lover lover
Lover lover
Living space
Culture struggle
Get the hell out
Childhood sweethearts
You see God in you
Honeymoon, serenade the naked
You're all target now
Withdrawn traces bye bye
Alimony, alimony
Lover lover
Lover lover
Living space
Culture struggle
Get the hell out
Lover
Well now. That story doesn't sound familiar, now does it?