Last of the top 5 meme responses
Oct. 4th, 2009 10:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
redfiona99As ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pyroyale knows, this was a difficult set of choices. And I haven't totally cheated, there is a top 5. But there's also sub-listings for the ones that didn't quite make it. They've been divided into 'good music', 'good lyrics', 'good singing' and 'good other things'. I'm sorry, but it was like choosing between labrador puppies.
I've gone for ones they wrote, so there's no space for 'Suicide is Painless' or 'Working Class Hero'. Also nothing off 'Journal for Plague Lovers' because I haven't listened to it properly yet, so this might yet get updated.
1 - No Surface, All Feeling - okay, actually probably the worst song on the list, but my favourite, mostly because some part of me will always be the 12 year-old girl this song resonated so strongly for. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ldINetLTaA&feature=related Fan video, but the original audio.
2 - Faster - if someone came to me and said, 'I need to hear the one song that encapsulates the Manics', this would be the one I'd get them to listen to. It's angry and raw, and name checks Sylvia Plath and modernist architecture, and is about all of that and none of that at the same time. It still holds the record for the number of complaints for any Top of the Pops appearance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hMqpR9AogI Top of the Pops performance.
3 - Motorcycle Emptiness - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YckDspM1AUw - that damn guitar line. And 'motorcycle nothingness'.
4 - Design for Life - As you may have gathered by the time taken to finalise this, these have not been easy decisions to make. This wasn't going to be on the list, then I heard it walking back to the lab, from a night out, and have taken it to be a sign. Because it is not one of my favourites, I mean it's awesome, and I used to use it to lull me to sleep at the worst of the bad times (I still hear the four beat silence between Elvis Impersonator:Blackpool Pier and this, even now). It's definitely the best example of mid-period Manics statuesque (yes, I treat them like artists, they get divided into periods, not just pre and post Richey). And I'm sorry, what other band would have their greatest (in terms of sales) hit start with the line 'Libraries gave us power'. It's all about the destruction of working class people by the parasitic activity of the business classes and the distractions provided by cheap entertainment (booze, on this occasion).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFsneyMNLvw
5 - This Is Yesterday - Chosen as an example of James Dean Bradfield's singing. It's a song that loses a tiny bit of it's value ripped out of the context of its album, because it follows Faster which is a almost peaen of destruction and anger, and this sounds so gentle in comparison. And it is softer, but is every bit as bleak.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGzybat3gzk&feature=related
Motown Junk - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCwxPAjqQxM Video chosen because it features them performing it when they were young. Also, important note, the Manics love the Motown sound, and the singer got beaten up for buying Motown records when he was younger.
La Tristessa - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQElO4ptsNY The bass line.
IfWhiteAmericaToldTheTruthForJustOneDayItsWorldWouldFallApart - don't look at me, they're a bit prone to alternative typography. I love the driving rhythm in this one. I am also greatly amused by the lyrics and it's a bit of an earworm. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ws5USgDraE
Kevin Carter, especially the trumpet solo, as performed by the drummer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7hw5NkSPvs
Ready For Drowning - The organ bridge before the chorus. The first verse breaks me somewhere hard, a mixture of JDB's singing and knowing the story behind it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ3vPyumqX4 Version with John Cale, never heard this version before, forever endebted to Pyroyale. However, since I praised the organ line, here's the original version - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRBjD91-NxE
1985 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OAYSXGL2BE - Again the bridge into the chorus.
Solitude Sometimes Is - It's tinkling and glockenspiely and not Manicsy at all. And that's what I love about them, there are no two Manics songs or albums that sound the same - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJUbkc7fB4U&NR=1
Yes - Still the angriest song the Manics ever had. It was a close choice between this and Faster for Faster's spot, but I prefer the music to Faster. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mtwZaRObP8 Lyrics - http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/manicstreetpreachers/yes.html
Elvis Impersonator:Blackpool Pier - This could be an anti-American tune, or about the encroachment of globalisation on culture or about the decline and fall of Blackpool and it's ilk. Goodness alone knows, but it has something. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfBafORLXEU Lyrics - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfBafORLXEU
Miss Europa Disco Dancer - Nicky Wire hates dance music, he hates the scene that surrounds it. He channels this into a anti-old world slow dance tune diatribe, which is an stonking disco track - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCKhj1r6kgM Lyrics - http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/manicstreetpreachers/misseuropadiscodancer.html Live version - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CrJXeECfGk (which means I now know why the bass line is complicated, because JDB switched to bass for the song.)
Freedom of Speech Won't Feed My Children - Very later Manics, and catches the essential nihlism of anything that Nicky Wire touches. They sent him away to do a solo album to get the nihlism out of his system. It mostly worked, eventually. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66FB6hHNXlw Lyrics - http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/manicstreetpreachers/freedomofspeechwontfeedmychildren.html
Your Love Alone (Is Not Enough) - I love the sentiment behind this, that yeah, love alone is not enough to do anything. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyrJJxGWQ5g Lyrics - http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/manicstreetpreachers/yourlovealoneisnotenough.html (Bonus - live version with Cerys Matthews - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfCWJSPmoX8)
Love's Sweet Exile - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIirv-XEidc Otherwise known as the one where Richey and Nicky writhe all over each other and put make-up on. Early Manics were not subtle about anything.
Little Baby Nothing - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUfKFQr90eo aka the one with Traci Lords singing. She isn't in the video but it's about her or rather her situation and the terrible way women are treated.
Judge Yrself - Which should have been on the Judge Dredd soundtrack. The song makes me damp around the eyes. The video makes me weep. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-aVJlqnUTo
Much though it pains me to say it, no matter how good the Manics are, if it wasn't for JDB's voice, they'd be nowhere. I have no idea where aforesaid pocket rocket gets it from but it's one of the most darling, if strange-syllable-accenting, voices going.
From Despair to Where - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Pcb0sOZTnQ
She Is Suffering - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh1OXNx3A8Y Live version - The second song is 4st 7lb, a song about anorexia.
Nobody Loved You - The song does this wonderful thing where the lyrics say one thing, and the voice says another and it's spine-tinglingly wonderful. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1OKvoLnwVE
You Love Us http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2pOTPwGSVw
Underdogs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpKDLA54_88
These two come as a matched set, because it's about how the band and their fans (and my, how rabid we get) interact.
Repeat - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Poe__y4OaQs They used to be oiky as all get out.
Stay Beautiful - Loved for the unspoken 'fuck off' in the chorus (as sung by the crowd when done live) and used to sign off letters about the Manics by fans and between fans. We are not a cult, we're just very loyal, which is why there's no Manics song that doesn't have at least two versions up on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZWkVEzsy1g&feature=fvsr
Roses In The Hospital - The other song with boundless swearing. It's an attitude song, and is where the title of their greatest hits, Forever Delayed, comes from. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jsZmcraVTY Album version because I hate the video for the single, and because most of the other versions edit it.
Small Black Flowers - It's heartbreakingly bleak and beautiful and I love this track so much. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19N9H1JXvko Live accousic version with harp from Later with Jools
Born a Girl - Which managed to accidentally cause a storm when it was put on This Is My Truth (Tell Me Yours), in between the new fans who objected to the queer subtext, the section of the female fans who objected to their gender being seen as the better option and the LGBTQ fans who objected to the co-opting. An interesting case because the Wire has always said that he'd much rather have been born a girl. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFgkZslPAM0
I'm Just A Patsy - The closest the Manics come to a conventional love song, and it's about how corrosive the love affair is and name-checks Harvey Lee Oswald. As I said, the attempts to remove Nicky's nilhism weren't anything like close to successful. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74xMi3eqIcQ&feature=fvw Pleasing because they're getting back to being angry but tempered with the better musicianship that they've developed and I'm sorry, but I love them.
pyroyale knows, this was a difficult set of choices. And I haven't totally cheated, there is a top 5. But there's also sub-listings for the ones that didn't quite make it. They've been divided into 'good music', 'good lyrics', 'good singing' and 'good other things'. I'm sorry, but it was like choosing between labrador puppies.I've gone for ones they wrote, so there's no space for 'Suicide is Painless' or 'Working Class Hero'. Also nothing off 'Journal for Plague Lovers' because I haven't listened to it properly yet, so this might yet get updated.
1 - No Surface, All Feeling - okay, actually probably the worst song on the list, but my favourite, mostly because some part of me will always be the 12 year-old girl this song resonated so strongly for. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ldINetLTaA&feature=related Fan video, but the original audio.
2 - Faster - if someone came to me and said, 'I need to hear the one song that encapsulates the Manics', this would be the one I'd get them to listen to. It's angry and raw, and name checks Sylvia Plath and modernist architecture, and is about all of that and none of that at the same time. It still holds the record for the number of complaints for any Top of the Pops appearance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hMqpR9AogI Top of the Pops performance.
3 - Motorcycle Emptiness - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YckDspM1AUw - that damn guitar line. And 'motorcycle nothingness'.
4 - Design for Life - As you may have gathered by the time taken to finalise this, these have not been easy decisions to make. This wasn't going to be on the list, then I heard it walking back to the lab, from a night out, and have taken it to be a sign. Because it is not one of my favourites, I mean it's awesome, and I used to use it to lull me to sleep at the worst of the bad times (I still hear the four beat silence between Elvis Impersonator:Blackpool Pier and this, even now). It's definitely the best example of mid-period Manics statuesque (yes, I treat them like artists, they get divided into periods, not just pre and post Richey). And I'm sorry, what other band would have their greatest (in terms of sales) hit start with the line 'Libraries gave us power'. It's all about the destruction of working class people by the parasitic activity of the business classes and the distractions provided by cheap entertainment (booze, on this occasion).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFsneyMNLvw
5 - This Is Yesterday - Chosen as an example of James Dean Bradfield's singing. It's a song that loses a tiny bit of it's value ripped out of the context of its album, because it follows Faster which is a almost peaen of destruction and anger, and this sounds so gentle in comparison. And it is softer, but is every bit as bleak.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGzybat3gzk&feature=related
Motown Junk - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCwxPAjqQxM Video chosen because it features them performing it when they were young. Also, important note, the Manics love the Motown sound, and the singer got beaten up for buying Motown records when he was younger.
La Tristessa - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQElO4ptsNY The bass line.
IfWhiteAmericaToldTheTruthForJustOneDayItsWorldWouldFallApart - don't look at me, they're a bit prone to alternative typography. I love the driving rhythm in this one. I am also greatly amused by the lyrics and it's a bit of an earworm. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ws5USgDraE
Kevin Carter, especially the trumpet solo, as performed by the drummer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7hw5NkSPvs
Ready For Drowning - The organ bridge before the chorus. The first verse breaks me somewhere hard, a mixture of JDB's singing and knowing the story behind it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ3vPyumqX4 Version with John Cale, never heard this version before, forever endebted to Pyroyale. However, since I praised the organ line, here's the original version - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRBjD91-NxE
1985 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OAYSXGL2BE - Again the bridge into the chorus.
Solitude Sometimes Is - It's tinkling and glockenspiely and not Manicsy at all. And that's what I love about them, there are no two Manics songs or albums that sound the same - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJUbkc7fB4U&NR=1
Yes - Still the angriest song the Manics ever had. It was a close choice between this and Faster for Faster's spot, but I prefer the music to Faster. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mtwZaRObP8 Lyrics - http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/manicstreetpreachers/yes.html
Elvis Impersonator:Blackpool Pier - This could be an anti-American tune, or about the encroachment of globalisation on culture or about the decline and fall of Blackpool and it's ilk. Goodness alone knows, but it has something. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfBafORLXEU Lyrics - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfBafORLXEU
Miss Europa Disco Dancer - Nicky Wire hates dance music, he hates the scene that surrounds it. He channels this into a anti-old world slow dance tune diatribe, which is an stonking disco track - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCKhj1r6kgM Lyrics - http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/manicstreetpreachers/misseuropadiscodancer.html Live version - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CrJXeECfGk (which means I now know why the bass line is complicated, because JDB switched to bass for the song.)
Freedom of Speech Won't Feed My Children - Very later Manics, and catches the essential nihlism of anything that Nicky Wire touches. They sent him away to do a solo album to get the nihlism out of his system. It mostly worked, eventually. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66FB6hHNXlw Lyrics - http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/manicstreetpreachers/freedomofspeechwontfeedmychildren.html
Your Love Alone (Is Not Enough) - I love the sentiment behind this, that yeah, love alone is not enough to do anything. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyrJJxGWQ5g Lyrics - http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/manicstreetpreachers/yourlovealoneisnotenough.html (Bonus - live version with Cerys Matthews - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfCWJSPmoX8)
Love's Sweet Exile - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIirv-XEidc Otherwise known as the one where Richey and Nicky writhe all over each other and put make-up on. Early Manics were not subtle about anything.
Little Baby Nothing - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUfKFQr90eo aka the one with Traci Lords singing. She isn't in the video but it's about her or rather her situation and the terrible way women are treated.
Judge Yrself - Which should have been on the Judge Dredd soundtrack. The song makes me damp around the eyes. The video makes me weep. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-aVJlqnUTo
Much though it pains me to say it, no matter how good the Manics are, if it wasn't for JDB's voice, they'd be nowhere. I have no idea where aforesaid pocket rocket gets it from but it's one of the most darling, if strange-syllable-accenting, voices going.
From Despair to Where - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Pcb0sOZTnQ
She Is Suffering - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh1OXNx3A8Y Live version - The second song is 4st 7lb, a song about anorexia.
Nobody Loved You - The song does this wonderful thing where the lyrics say one thing, and the voice says another and it's spine-tinglingly wonderful. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1OKvoLnwVE
You Love Us http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2pOTPwGSVw
Underdogs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpKDLA54_88
These two come as a matched set, because it's about how the band and their fans (and my, how rabid we get) interact.
Repeat - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Poe__y4OaQs They used to be oiky as all get out.
Stay Beautiful - Loved for the unspoken 'fuck off' in the chorus (as sung by the crowd when done live) and used to sign off letters about the Manics by fans and between fans. We are not a cult, we're just very loyal, which is why there's no Manics song that doesn't have at least two versions up on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZWkVEzsy1g&feature=fvsr
Roses In The Hospital - The other song with boundless swearing. It's an attitude song, and is where the title of their greatest hits, Forever Delayed, comes from. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jsZmcraVTY Album version because I hate the video for the single, and because most of the other versions edit it.
Small Black Flowers - It's heartbreakingly bleak and beautiful and I love this track so much. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19N9H1JXvko Live accousic version with harp from Later with Jools
Born a Girl - Which managed to accidentally cause a storm when it was put on This Is My Truth (Tell Me Yours), in between the new fans who objected to the queer subtext, the section of the female fans who objected to their gender being seen as the better option and the LGBTQ fans who objected to the co-opting. An interesting case because the Wire has always said that he'd much rather have been born a girl. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFgkZslPAM0
I'm Just A Patsy - The closest the Manics come to a conventional love song, and it's about how corrosive the love affair is and name-checks Harvey Lee Oswald. As I said, the attempts to remove Nicky's nilhism weren't anything like close to successful. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74xMi3eqIcQ&feature=fvw Pleasing because they're getting back to being angry but tempered with the better musicianship that they've developed and I'm sorry, but I love them.
