#1
|
||||
|
||||
Is Symphony of Tourette the worst song ever written?
Lyrics don't make any sense.
Stutter stutter SAYS the little boy. Since when the fuck did that ever make sense? The Manics did not do any research into Tourettes, rather Richey probably just heard Tourettes by Nirvana, heard him raving like a dickhead and thought "I know about this now to write a really shit song, Bradfield will love it as he'll be saying instead of doing the stuttering" Then that guitar solo at the end. Just so crass. Johnny Davidson wept. It's so poor. Up there with the worst songs ever next to Faster. |
#2
|
||||
|
||||
faster, ah here
__________________
Nothing is secure but life, transition, the energizing spirit. No love can be bound by oath or covenant to secure it against a higher love. No truth so sublime but it may be trivial tomorrow in the light of new thoughts. People wish to be settled; only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them. |
#3
|
||||
|
||||
I always thought it odd that they felt the need to explain what Tourette’s was in the sleeve notes. Perhaps things were different in 1993?
I suspect the exact same lyrics put to JDB in The THB era would have made a less crass song, but generally that last half of GATS is pretty weak. |
#4
|
||||
|
||||
I think it's probably the first thing they think of when mentioning in interviews about "unintentional comedy".
It is improved for me by having a video where the Richey era Manics are scientists who turn the Muppet Babies Animal into a giant King Kong thing that pukes all over the city during the "Just... Opened... My mouth!". "Fuck you fuck you I grunt and groan". Like anyone here hasn't sung that to themselves over the past few years. And no, I didn't bother making a video in my head for the other songs. |
#5
|
||||
|
||||
"I Think I Found it" is the correct answer.
|
#6
|
||||
|
||||
I think each of us has a different answer for it (and generally it is "no, it's not that song, it's...").
Mine, for example, is So Why So Sad, and it has been so since I got to know the Manics (2006) till today.
__________________
.
|
#7
|
||||
|
||||
I honestly find 'I Think I've Found It' such a charming little ditty.
|
#8
|
||||
|
||||
I've a vague recollection that this song came on the back of a documentary Richey had seen? Whatever the origin it's definitely a crude understanding of tourettes but back then that crude understanding was the understanding....sure they could have reflected a little more but I think they just ran with the idea of it being 'truth syndrome' .... the person who says what many think but can't bring themselves to say....So I think interpretation matters here but no I don't think it's one of their best but if you see it as about something more than just the condition it's not so easy to just write off
And sure stutter stutter says the little boy makes no sense...to the pedantic
__________________
"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar: I love not man the less, but Nature more," - Byron 'I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied; And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying, And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.' (from Sea Fever - John Masefield) "Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops at all" - Emily Dickinson |
#9
|
||||
|
||||
Quote:
The Manics were the pedants. They dropped the ball by writing something so truly fucking awful it deserves brought up. Not even The Charlatans would write a lyric that bad. |
#10
|
||||
|
||||
Quote:
Quote:
Here are some of the angriest parts. You don't hear Richey writing about being in a supermarket and barking at some dour old 80s cunts in the Weetabix aisle? Or that beautiful moment his mother suggests they get the dog Choosy instead of Bonus and he reprimands her by calling her a slut. There's no truth syndrome here. Just righteous justice handed out to late 80s Britain where the only colours are the stains in the teeth of those who judge John for being right. |
#11
|
||||
|
||||
Quote:
My dog is my friend No don't buy Bonus Or into slut you will turn CH: Tried to buy my Weetabix This dour cunt bought The last box Sorry dear, that's the nature of tourettes |
#12
|
||||
|
||||
I've always thought it was fine.
__________________
|
#13
|
||||
|
||||
Quote:
Quote:
I know it's no truth syndrome....but that is how it was interpreted by some back at the time this doc was made...in the same way as others pretentiously argue that from madness comes great art etc etc.....there's no truth there just tics and an inability to stop yourself blurting out whatever you think you shouldn't say....like being told don't think of an elephant - so what do you think of?...what could be the worst dumb thing I could say right now....ah there I go.... I'm not arguing it's the best thing they ever wrote only that I don't think they meant it to be taken as a direct analysis of the condition maybe more about inarticulate rage .... not one of their finest I concede
__________________
"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar: I love not man the less, but Nature more," - Byron 'I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied; And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying, And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.' (from Sea Fever - John Masefield) "Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops at all" - Emily Dickinson |
#14
|
|||
|
|||
Top trolling with the last line of your post! but yeah it does stand out a bit as being poorly researched and on the nose.
My guess would be that it was one of Richey's earlier attempts at character writing. There's a clear change in his writing after GT from sloganeering to personal or character pieces (and obviously often the lines blurred). Patrick Bateman, Symphony of Tourette and (the far more successful) La Tristessa Durera are the first real stabs at the way of writing that he would perfect on The Holy Bible (Yes, 4st 7lb, Die in the Summertime) and the Journal For Plague Lovers lyrics (VSEC, Williams Last Words, Bag Lady). |
#15
|
||||
|
||||
You win the internet Son of Stopped. Thanks for the laugh
|
|
|