Music has an amazing ability to touch our souls in ways that nothing else in life can. Music is memory and we connect events to songs and sounds. A fragment of a riff can take you back to an entirely different place and time. A beat can be a portal to a different part of your life. Lyrics are often indelibly etched into our souls and may have a poignant resonance that rings eternally inside us. So for my first entry into a new section, ‘Song That Made Us’ I would like to submit the Manic Street Preachers – ‘Faster.’
One of my favourite songs, this is something I can listen to repeatedly. Occasional listeners of the Manics will be familiar with their late nineties output in which they embraced a wider audience. My favourite work from them comes from a little earlier and is from their 1994 album, The Holy Bible. Released prior to the disappearance of the band’s rhythm guitarist and lyricist, Richey Edwards, the album deals with a gulf of deep and challenging issues. From anorexia to the holocaust, the band touch on it all.
The lyrics to Faster can be a bit tricky to catch. Richey’s unnatural writing style did not lend itself easily to music. Stand-out lyrics include ‘if you stand out like a nail then you will be knocked down,’ ‘I know I believe in nothing, but it is my nothing’ and, ‘I’ve been too honest with myself I should have lied like everybody else’.
‘I am all the things that you regret a truth that washes and learnt how to spell. ‘
‘So damn easy to cave in, man kills everything’.
I’d like to hear about your go-to songs. What inspires you? Throw me some comments below…
Image was taken by me at Cardiff Motorpoint Arena; May 2018
Fantastic band, brilliant song, legendary album!! 🖤🖤
ahh a fellow fan?
Absolutely!!
Seen them live both with and (sadly) without Richey a few times.
One of the best bands – lyrically and musically – of all time in my opinion!
🖤🖤
Nice. Never saw them with Richey, but I think I’ve seen then about eight or nine times since then. Still excellent live now, even if JDB looks increasingly like del boy as he ages.
Aww, I’ll always be (not so secretly) in love with JDB no matter how Del Boy he gets! 😂
To be fair I was just fourteen when I saw them without Richey – way too young in a lot of ways to fully appreciate it! 🖤
There are a lot of JDB lovers around. There are whole appreciation groups on Facebook for them. You are not alone.
And I don’t think I’m the only guy that has a not so secret crush on Nicky in his skirts. 🤣 especially when he is doing sex pistols covers dressed up last year! 🤪😍
To be fair they both have a certain charm! 😉They express their masculinity in such different ways – fascinating! 🖤
I always find del boy and rodney to be an unlikely combo. But it works. They seem like lovely blokes too!
That should have said I was fourteen when I saw them WITH Richey – that’ll trust me not to check my typing before I press send!
😕🖤
This new category sounds like a winner to me – especially since there are so many epic songs out there that spark memories.
It’s always fascinating to me when you meet someone of the exact same age as you (who also speaks the same language), and you casually mention a song you loved when you were a teenager. Almost every time, there is a beautiful shared moment of ‘I LOVE THAT SONG TOO!’ Great way to make a connection.
I’m glad you like the idea. There’s a great poet called chaoticblonde who posts the name of a song after each of her poems. I read her poems and always get blown away and then see the song at the end and I always get that ‘I LOVE THAT SONG TOO’ She’s inspired me to think about talking about musical inspiration more. I’m enjoying the fact that youlittlecharmer is also a fan too (and I’m guessing around my age based on the comments)
It’s always good to find that connection!
Hopefully going to get this type of post up once a week so keep checking back 🙂
If I had to pick a tune that really inspires me…hum. The Flesh Failures/Let the sun shine in (specifically the film soundtrack version). Man a lot of the songs from Hair really resonate with me.