Working titles

[Automatik]

Originally Posted by circle-the-wagons

i'm sure Nicky was toying with an album title before hitting upon PFAYM along the lines of 'Give Em Enough Rope'...i remember reading it in an interview he did.

Very interesting indeed. Not heard this. He must have been wanting to use that old Clash title for a while, because this NME article from 2000 says that the album after TIMTTMY would be 'Give 'Em Enough Rope'.

So KYE was nearly Give 'Em Enough Rope, Fidel, Door To The River and Solidarity...!

[circle-the-wagons]

very thorough detective work! Yes it looks like Nicky had always had it in the back of his mind to use it so its reared its head up at moments, probably more so in James and Seans company in private than Joe Public will ever know haha! can just imagine James and Sean both doing this when he suggests it... James Sean

[Automatik]

Originally Posted by circle-the-wagons

can just imagine James and Sean both doing this when he suggests it... James Sean

Haha! Yep, sounds distinctly like Nicky getting all 'inventive' when in interview mode.

[circle-the-wagons]

we need and we will always need another invented Nicky vocal disease!

[handsome_devil]

This is from memory from about 15 years ago, but wasn't the rumour that they were going to call KYE 'Money for Old Rope' as a homage, instead of the direct lift from The Clash?

[Marconi Delorian]

I thought the band said it was bollocks and never considered? Just like 'Preparation Nation' was going to be the first single from KYE!

[MSPKYE]

Originally Posted by handsome_devil

This is from memory from about 15 years ago, but wasn't the rumour that they were going to call KYE 'Money for Old Rope' as a homage, instead of the direct lift from The Clash?

I remember that one, with the lead single 'Fidel', think it came from the old Planet Sound page on Channel 4 teletext, but yeah James absolutely rubbished it on the radio when they announced the Cardiff Coal Exchange gig I think it was

Originally Posted by Marconi Delorian

I thought the band said it was bollocks and never considered? Just like 'Preparation Nation' was going to be the first single from KYE!

Ah that one was hilariously bad, with the fake artwork of some Japanese fighter pilot....

[Scarecrow]

Some good titles they nearly went with. Except one at least; weren't they toying with the idea of calling Journal 'I Know I Believe In Nothing But It Is My Nothing'?

[Automatik]

Originally Posted by NasalScarecrow

Some good titles they nearly went with. Except one at least; weren't they toying with the idea of calling Journal 'I Know I Believe In Nothing But It Is My Nothing'?

Ah, that's right! I thought I'd read its working title somewhere.

For the most part I think they chose the right final titles, although I much prefer 'Litany' to Lifeblood.

[cherrybomb]

Goodbye Suicide must have been very close to being the final title given the sleeve ideas shown in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBWPtNPcJSk

[cherrybomb]

Originally Posted by Automatik

Haven't seen a thread on this, so here I go again.

As I mentioned before, I have 'shadow' playlists of each studio album, consisting of b-sides and extra tracks from that era. I name them after the working title of each album, thus:

Culture, Alienation, Boredom & Despair (GT era)
Sounds In The Grass (EMG era)
Manic Street Preachers (TIMTTMY)
Fidel (KYE), also separated into two thematic albums named Solidarity and Door To The River as Nicky's hindsight preference would have had it
Litany (Lifeblood)
It's Not War - Just The End Of Love (PFAYM)
70 Songs Of Failure And Hatred I (RTF)
70 Songs Of Failure And Hatred II (Futurology)

In the Mastertapes interview James said the working title for THB was Songs Of Death (or something similar - I didn't write it down).

Does anyone know what the working titles of GATS, TBGOG, SATT and JFPL were?

THB was The Poetry of Death I believe.

[Automatik]

Originally Posted by cherrybomb

THB was The Poetry of Death I believe.

That was it. Thank you.

I think it's actually a more confrontational and powerful title than THB, to be honest.

[Marconi Delorian]

I think The Poetry of Death is a bit lame, to be honest. Like it's trying too hard. The Holy Bible is perfect - stark, intimidating and perfectly suited for someone's holy truths.

[allisvanity]

Yeah prefer The Holy Bible as a title too.

Don't really care if Lifeblood was called Litany instead though. It would just mean I don't listen to an album called Litany rather than not listening to an album called Lifeblood.

[Routine Builder]

Was door to the river recorded for KYE or reworked for FD. On a sonic level, it sounds like absolutely nothing on KYE. I wish the lads would do another stings infused album again and not synth strings like on PFAYM....