The Manics released their debut album Generation Terrorists in 1992. Their combination of androgynous glam punk imagery, outspoken invective and songs about "culture, alienation, boredom and despair" soon gained them a loyal following and cult status. The band's later albums retained a politicized and intellectual lyrical style, while adopting a broader alternative rock sound. Enigmatic lyricist Richey Edwards gained early notoriety by carving the words "4 REAL" into his arm with a razor blade (narrowly missing an artery and requiring seventeen stitches) in response to the suggestion that the band were less than authentic. The dark nature of 1994's The Holy Bible reflected the culmination of Edwards' instability.
Following Edwards' disappearance, Bradfield, Moore, and Wire persisted with the Manic Street Preachers and went on to gain critical and commercial success, becoming one of Britain's premier rock bands. They have had eight top ten albums and fifteen top ten singles. They have reached number one three times, with their 1998 album This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours and the singles "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next" (1998) and "The Masses Against The Classes" (2000). The Masses Against The Classes Songfacts reports that the latter was the first UK #1 of 2000. They have also won the Best British Album and Best British Group accolades at the BRIT Awards in 1997 and 1999, and were lauded by the NME for their lifetime achievements in 2008. Their ninth studio album, Journal For Plague Lovers, was released on 18th May 2009 and features lyrics Edwards had left behind to the band weeks before his disappearance.
They came together in 1986, when James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire, Sean Moore and rhythm guitarist Flicker formed Betty Blue in the small South Wales town of Blackwood. Two years later, Flicker had left and Nicky's friend Richey Edwards (previously the group's driver) joined in his place. Richey would later say in Vox magazine, "If you built a museum to represent Blackwood, all you could put in it would be shit. We used to meet by this opening called Pen-y-Fan. It was built when the mines closed down but now the water has turned green and slimy. They put 2,000 fish in it, but they died. There's a whirlpool in the middle where about two people die every year". A bleak image, then, but it provided the necessary fuel to drive the band.
Inspired by the passion of The Clash, and moved by Thatcher's suppression of the miners, the band's lyrics exploded with politicised anger. Their first single, the self-financed Suicide Alley, didn't make great waves, and the band moved to London. There, they found a sympathetic character in the form of Bob Stanley: later a member of St Etienne, but then a freelancer for the Melody Maker.
Stanley released a collection of their demos as the New Art Riot EP in June 1990. It caught the attention of Philip Hall, who became their publicist and co-manager.
In early 1991 Heavenly released Motown Junk, an inspired three-minute punk blast. Later that year it was followed by You Love Us, a swaggering, arrogant self-regarding slice of brilliance.
The Manics paved the way for a resurgence of guitar bands in Wales. In the press, they were forced to live with punning headlines referring to sheep, boyos and leeks - they got all the clichés out of the way so the bands of the so-called Cool Cymru would be taken more seriously.
Yet their image often overshadowed the music. On 15 May 1991 came a turning point for the Manics. Following a gig at Norwich Arts Centre, Steve Lamacq, then writing for the NME, argued with the band that they were a cartoon band - not real punks. The band refuted this, but still Lamacq persisted. Frustrated, Richey Edwards took a razor and calmly carved the words 4 REAL into his forearm. Lamacq was horrified; Richey needed 17 stitches. Six days later the Manics signed to Sony. Richey had suffered from depression for many years, and self-mutilation had become increasingly common for him. But the Norwich incident was the first time the guitarist had aired his emotional problems in public.
In February 1992 the debut album Generation Terrorists was released. Heavily influenced by Appetite For Destruction, Richey said of it, "We wanted to sign to the biggest record label in the world, put out a debut album that would sell 20 million, and then break up. Get massive and then just throw it all away". The album sold 250,000 copies worldwide. Predictably they didn't split up, but the album polarised opinion between those that saw them as the new saviours of rock and roll, and detractors who considered them contrived and insincere. Not that the Manics cared: they were off on their first American tour, shortly after the LA riots, and singles such as Slash 'N' Burn and Motorcycle Emptiness were climbing up the charts.
The second Manics album was released in June 1993. Gold Against The Soul was overproduced and less passionate, but did contain the classic songs La Tristesse Durera (Scream To A Sigh) and From Despair To Where. However, they also chose to support Bon Jovi for a string of unwise live dates. The troubles continued with the death on 7 December 1993 of their mentor Philip Hall, who had been battling cancer for two years. Meanwhile, Richey's problems were worsening. Weighing less than six stone and subjecting his body to drinking and cutting binges, he was eventually admitted to the Priory in Roehampton.
Richey's despair was documented in what is now considered the Manics' masterpiece, 1994's 'The Holy Bible'. Unremittingly bleak, the opening song Yes contained the lines "I eat and I dress and I wash and I still can say thank you / Puking, shaking, sinking / Can't shout, can't scream, I hurt myself to get pain out". The song was about prostitution, but every line emanated from Richey's fragile state of mind. He rejoined the band for tours with Therapy? and Suede (and an early incarnation of Vitriol I.D.) in Europe, and a series of frantic shows at the London Astoria in December. The final night saw them destroying 10,000 worth of their equipment. "We'll never be that good again," said Nicky after the event. It was also their last live appearance as a four-piece.
Although they had never found transatlantic success, at the beginning of 1995 they were preparing to give America one last try. However, on 1 February Richey walked out of the Embassy hotel in London and never returned. His passport and money were found in his Cardiff Bay flat, and two weeks later his car was discovered beside the Severn Bridge - a notorious local suicide spot. The file on his disappearance remains open.
"We decided to carry on in April," said Nicky Wire in The Guardian, "after two months of waiting by the phone and feeling ill and exhausted. We thought we'd been so close, and in the end we couldn't do anything for him." September saw the band record a cover of Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head for the War Child "Help" album, and by January 1996 the Manics were recording their comeback album 'Everything Must Go'. It was released on 20 May to critical acclaim, went double platinum and yielded four top ten singles: 'A Design For Life', the title track, 'Kevin Carter' and 'Australia'. The sound represents a cross between the heavy rock of 'Gold Against The Soul' and a new, less agressive, almost Britpop like sound.
Two Brit Awards later, they released the LP This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours which gave the band their first number one single in If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next, perhaps the only song that references the Spanish Civil War to ever appear on Top of the Pops.
On December 31st 1999 the band said goodbye to the 20th Century with a gig at Cardiff Millennium Stadium, attended by upwards of 50,000 people. This was followed by their second number one single, The Masses Against The Classes, which hit the top spot despite not having a video or marketing support from their record company.
Shortly afterwards, Nicky stated that "the fourth era of the Manics is beginning".
The fourth era, so far, has involved an audience with Fidel Castro in Cuba, the 2001 album Know Your Enemy, and continuing success. Their long awaited greatest hits collection, Forever Delayed, appeared in October 2002, followed in 2003 by Lipstick Traces, a two-disc collection of covers, B-sides, and outtakes including the last song recorded with Richey, 'Judge Yr'self'.
The Manics returned in November 2004 with the more reflective Lifeblood, which featured the singles The Love Of Richard Nixon and Empty Souls, both of which went straight in at number two in the charts.
Not to rest on their laurels, the band released a 10th anniversary edition of The Holy Bible in December 2004 which included a digitally remastered version of the original album, a never before heard U.S mix and a DVD of live performances and extras.
In April 2005 the Manics released a limited 3 track E.P. titled God Save The Manics as a free download but with hard copies distributed also without cost at the final date of their small, intimate 'Past Present and Future' tour at Hammersmith Apollo, London - their last show before a two year hiatus.
Later that year the band contributed the new track Leviathan to September's War Child charity album Help: A Day in the Life, becoming one of the few bands to contribute tracks to both albums.
2006 saw both James Dean Bradfield and Nicky Wire releasing solo albums, The Great Western and I Killed the Zeitgeist respectively. But both insisted that this in no way meant an end to the Manics and in December the band headlined XFM's Winter Wonderland gig in Manchester.
2007 sees the band enter yet another era with their 8th studio album, Send Away The Tigers, which was released on May 7th.
The album Journal For Plague Lovers was released in May 2009 and features lyrics left to the band by Richey before he disappeared. They released several different versions of the album, including a special edition, which has a book featuring copies of the original typed lyrics and pictures that went with them, and a bonus disc with all the original demos, recorded at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, which they say is one of their favourite studios.
Their 10th studio album, Postcards from a Young Man, was released in September 2010. The album features several guest artists: Duff McKagan on A Billion Balconies Facing the Sun, John Cale on Auto-Intoxication and Ian McCulloch on Some Kind of Nothingness. A deluxe edition was also released containing a bonus disc with the original demos on it.
In 2011 the band released their second compilation National Treasures- The Complete Singles Collection, a release preceded by new single This Is The Day a cover of a ´¨The The song. The collection featured every single released since and including Motown Junk.
http://www.manicstreetpreachers.com
Life Becoming a Landside
Manic Street Preachers Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Very first second a screaming icon
Babies in time barely even recognise
Words that once stroked now bruising tired lips
My idea of love comes from
A childhood glimpse of pornography
Though there is no true love
Life becoming a landslide
Ice freezing nature dead
Life becoming a landslide
I don't want to be a man
Everyday more numb to agony
This the howl this the sigh of the lonely
One day I realize oil on canvas
Can never paint a petal so so delicate
My idea of love comes from
A childhood glimpse of pornography
Though there is no true love
Just a finely tuned jealousy
Life becoming a landslide
Ice freezing nature dead
Life becoming a landslide
I don't want to be a man
My idea of love comes from
A childhood glimpse of pornography
Though there is no true love
Just a finely tuned jealousy
Life becoming a landslide
A mile empty inside
Life becoming a landslide
Desire on its knees
Life becoming a landslide
A mile empty inside
Life becoming a landslide
Desire on its knees
The lyrics of Manic Street Preachers' song "Life Becoming a Landslide" touch on various themes including childhood, love, loneliness, and self-doubt. The opening lines speak of childbirth as a painful and traumatic experience for women, giving way to a screaming baby who is an icon of birth and new life. The second verse talks about the singer's perception of love, which comes from a childhood glimpse of pornography. He acknowledges that true love does not exist and that jealousy is a finely tuned emotion that is often mistaken for love.
The chorus of the song repeats the phrase "Life becoming a landslide," which can be interpreted as a metaphor for the overwhelming feeling of sadness and hopelessness that can arise from life's challenges. The use of the word "ice" suggests a numbing and freezing effect that can make it hard to connect with nature and feel anything other than emptiness. The final verse describes the singer's growing sense of isolation and detachment from the world, as he becomes more and more numb to his own pain and the suffering of others. The reference to oil on canvas suggests that art can never truly capture the beauty and complexity of life, particularly the delicate and fleeting moments that are often overlooked.
Overall, "Life Becoming a Landslide" is a poignant and introspective song that deals with the struggles of growing up and finding meaning in a world that can be both beautiful and cruel.
Line by Line Meaning
Childbirth tears upon her muscle
The physical pain of childbirth is described as a tear on the woman's muscles.
Very first second a screaming icon
The moment a baby is born, it becomes an iconic representation of life, screaming as it enters the world.
Babies in time barely even recognise
As babies grow up, they forget or do not recognize the earlier stages of their life.
Words that once stroked now bruising tired lips
Words that were once loving or soothing have now become harsh or hurtful.
My idea of love comes from
The artist's perception of love is influenced by their experience, which they describe as a glimpse of pornography from their childhood.
Though there is no true love
The singer asserts that true love does not actually exist.
Just a finely tuned jealousy
What is often thought of as love is actually just jealousy, carefully controlled and disguised.
Life becoming a landslide
The chaos and difficulties of life are mounting up and becoming overwhelming, like a landslide gaining momentum.
Ice freezing nature dead
The coldness of the world is draining its natural warmth and life, leading to death and decay.
I don't want to be a man
The artist rejects traditional masculinity and the societal expectations that come with it.
Everyday more numb to agony
The constant pain and suffering of life is making the singer emotionally numb.
This the howl this the sigh of the lonely
The artist's cries and sighs illustrate their feelings of loneliness.
One day I realize oil on canvas
Artificial constructs like oil paintings cannot replicate the natural beauty found in the world.
Can never paint a petal so so delicate
No matter how skilled the artist, they can never fully capture the delicate beauty of nature.
A mile empty inside
The singer feels a vast emptiness inside their soul.
Desire on its knees
Even their desires, usually a driving force in life, have been diminished and defeated.
Lyrics © OBO APRA/AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
ChainNonSmoker
Can't understand why this isn't widely considered as a classic, know it's not completely unpopular either but I think it's probably one of the greatest rock songs of 90's if not of all time.
It's definitive of an overlooked tune.
seekah1
The album isn't the best but this and Roses are utter MSP classics!
NickH
James was severely under appreciated as a rock vocalist.
CJ Hunt
*is. msp is still going
Esa Torkkeli
was ?
David G
And as a guitarist!
Sarah
Absolutely beautiful song. Richie was a genius ❤
MarcoNegrisEye
It's not all about Richey you know? If you think it's an "absolutely beautiful song" then that's thanks to JDB not Richey. For without JDB, Richey and Nicky's words would very likely never seen the light of day or ended up as some obscure poetry hidden in dusty books of a local library.
elliot 💋
@MarcoNegrisEye exactly! And this song wasn't just richey. Nicky wrote the song too. Its a common misconception for people who are uneducated about the manics that richey wrote all the songs before he disappeared. Pisses me off that Nicky doesn't get the recognition he deserves.
MarcoNegrisEye
@elliot 💋 if the roles were reversed and Nicky was the missing person it would likely be him to get the acclaim. Richey was immense to the Manics and we all miss him but there definitely is a myth that EVERYTHING about the early Manics revolved around Richey.