Lyrics You Don't Fully Understand

[Judge_yrself]

Westminster more ugly than a gas chamber - if you wanted to demonstrate the Manics early lyrical approach in one line, that would be a strong choice! But more importantly: does this mean they hate Westminster more than Slowdive or not? Haha

Bethlehem Radio is a good one. Never quite got that one, although the WWII link is interesting!

I never quite got one of the lines in Black Holes for the Young: "Sandy, sandy feet, ice cream to sleep." I've always thought the song was about souless London urban young professional types, so where does the sand come in? Stretching further afield to Brighton? Is 'Ice Cream to Sleep' a reference to people being so childish that they have to have a kids treat to put them to sleep?

[counterlanguage]

Originally Posted by Judge_yrself

I never quite got one of the lines in Black Holes for the Young: "Sandy, sandy feet, ice cream to sleep." I've always thought the song was about souless London urban young professional types, so where does the sand come in? Stretching further afield to Brighton? Is 'Ice Cream to Sleep' a reference to people being so childish that they have to have a kids treat to put them to sleep?

I remember Nicky saying it's about London in general and how he hated it - especially the whole coffee shop culture that had just started to become fashionable. There's a hilariously grumpy quote from him in 98:

""Drinkin' 100 percent car fumes! I’d just go in my back garden with a flask and sit there if I wanted to be 'continental!'"

So I reckon the 'sandy, sandy...' line is probably a reference to summer holidays on the beach, an early appearance for Tenby - as there are a few bits in the lyric where he's yearning for home.

[*Found That Soul*]

This one has always confused me.

"Take the GIs, I will have the spies"

[Judge_yrself]

Genius, of all places, suggests the following for the GI's line:

"The final line draws on Cold War imagery of the East and West exchanging prisoners.

This implies a tacit peace and a resolution of the unspoken conflict between the sisters, and the society that institutionalised them."

I don't know if that's correct but I can see how it fits.

[Europa Gluten Free]

I always thought the last line of Tsunami was quite a nostalgic line about a memory of Nicky and his brother playing with toy soldiers - to extend the idea of the song being about inseparableness between siblings seeing as the main levels of the song might well about the silent twins / about Nicky and Richey / about Nicky and his brother.

[Comrade Mike]

Off the top of my head, "Cut your hair in front of businessmen" (Sorrow 16) and "As a ball with a touch feels through its fall" (Too Cold here) are odd lines for me.

[Judge_yrself]

"Cut your hair in front of businessmen" I took as being either the idea of making yourself presentable for the approval of bosses who will employ you as a wage slave. Alternatively, it could be a cynical jab at the music biz - record labels are businesses after all, and they will try to dictate or jump into trends, image of bands being a big part of that

[counterlanguage]

Sorrow 16's full of lines that seem to have been influenced by the Situationists - for me the song mostly seems to be about the people who conform to things like expected ambitions/appearances, and how the Manics refuse to do that. So yes, cut your hair so people know you're going to do what's expected of you.

There are a couple of lines that make me think they're talking about someone more specific - "Your Vanity Kills People / Paint Your Ego In Blood." Not sure who though. Patrick Bateman just sprang to mind but the song was released before American Psycho was published - so much for that theory.

[Son of Stopped]

Originally Posted by Judge_yrself

Is 'Ice Cream to Sleep' a reference to people being so childish that they have to have a kids treat to put them to sleep?

Studio 1997/98

Nicky:... So... noone else gets an ice cream before going to?...
Sean': We'll stick it as a b-side. Stick it as a fucking b-side...

[Routine Builder]

Is it not I scream instead of ice cream (the inverse to Peeled Apples "The more ice cream, the Morrissey")

[Europa Gluten Free]

Originally Posted by Routine Builder

Is it not I scream instead of ice cream (the inverse to Peeled Apples "The more ice cream, the Morrissey")

This reminds me of the good days on the forum around 2009 when JFPL was out.

The more I see, the less ice cream....

Trespass your torments, Nicky Wire who you wanna be?

Ah the memories!

[TheUglyLie]

Originally Posted by *Found That Soul*

This one has always confused me.

"Take the GIs, I will have the spies"

Think this thread gets the closest to explaining that line… http://foreverdelayed.org.uk/forum/s...ad.php?t=59945

[Scarecrow]

Originally Posted by Europa Gluten Free

This reminds me of the good days on the forum around 2009 when JFPL was out.

The more I see, the less ice cream....

Trespass your torments, Nicky Wire who you wanna be?

Ah the memories!

Zane Lowe's "yeah man, bravo".

[Bambi]

The one that I've always intended to ask Wire about if I bump into him in the street*.....

Look through my venetian blinds
Dusting the past off my mind
Seeing orange everywhere

So....... anyone??


*my ex actually did once bump into him in the street and, rather sweetly, the first time she got to say the words 'my boyfriend' about me was to Nicky Wire of all people.

[whiterevolver]

Is it too obvious to give an honourable mention to 'Revol', a song so baffling not even the rest of the band know what the hell Richey was on about?

I can remember having a really in depth and lengthy conversation with a friend of mine about "got no future, just dead stars for dead eyes" and our completely different interpretations of it.

He thought it reflected the inevitable decay and entropy of life and the universe, but I imagined it related to the vacuity and shallowness of certain elements of pop culture and how that airlessness is received and reflected by people who don't want to care.

(Ah, to be a pretentious teenager again...)