During the Manics Top 50 countdown on Twitter, the person who selected each of the 50 songs in the highest position was linked in to each tweet, which was also a call for those people to write about the song they love for this blog. Since that call, some of you have come back with some typically verbose responses which are now presented here.
If you haven't managed to get round to writing yours yet, don't worry.....you can still send them and I'll add them on when they come through. New additions as they are added after the first version will be shown in red font. Happy Manics fan reading!
In Their Own Words
50. Europa Geht Durch Mich - 1002 points / 41 picks
Placed highest by: @MentalJargon (4th)
49. Golden Platitudes - 1006 points / 40 picks
Placed highest by: @30yearwar (1st)
48. Judge Yr'self - 1009 points / 43 picks
Placed highest by: @MildManics (2nd)
47. Rewind The Film - 1067 points / 43 picks
Placed highest by: @lonelyaesthetic (2nd)
46. Complicated Illusions - 1071 points / 42 picks
Placed highest by: @diapause78 (4th)
45. Mausoleum - 1075 points / 42 picks
Placed highest by: @porthjess @Chuzzwozza (3rd)
44. Revol - 1099 points / 45 picks
Placed highest by: citymanblue (4th)
43. Kevin Carter - 1103 points / 42 picks
Placed highest by: @gloomyok @amirsuleman (3rd)
@gloomyok - I could say I placed this one so highly because I love playing it on bass and it wouldn’t be a lie. But it wouldn’t be the whole truth either.
Everything Must Go was the second Manics album I ever listened to (Lifeblood was my baptism of fire) but it was the first I started doing ‘research’ for, by which I mean googling stuff. I had so many questions! Who the hell is Willem De Kooning? But before that one, by sheer track listing order, the question was who the hell is Kevin Carter? and will looking up this mystery man allow me to understand these rather obscure lyrics?
I remember reading that Wikipedia page eagerly, slowly understanding, as if translating. Now the line ‘click, click, click / click himself under’ which sounded to me like a bunch of whatever revealed itself as an incredibly grotesque yet poignant statement about the man whose photographs slowly led him to despair.
To me Kevin Carter symbolizes the unique quality of the Manics work: the way it can be enjoyed on different levels. You can enjoy the very surface: catchy melodies, cool guitar solos (epic trumpet solo in this particular case) and all-around quality tunes. But you can also dip your toes and start looking up the references: all these books, politicians, poems, historical figures… And you can also straight up dive in and start reading these things, watch documentaries, spend an afternoon down a Wikipedia rabbit hole, even write a few paragraphs about one of their songs! Isn’t it lovely?
42. Sepia - 1108 points / 47 picks
Placed highest by: @ManicBeata @10000_manics (3rd)
41. Donkeys - 1145 points / 49 picks
Placed highest by: @porthjess @jackmansavfc (2nd)
40. This Joke Sport Severed - 1195 points / 49 picks
Placed highest by: @beksthebloody (1st)
@beksthebloody - I bought JFPL way back sometime and never listened to it properly until I went 0 to extreme Manics Fan in the space of a weekend listening to Do You Love Us.
Some part of JFPL immediately invaded my soul and has never left - it was like I had found something I didn't know I was missing and it was a musical comfort blanket I had sitting on my shelf all these years and never took down until maybe it was when I needed it most.
This Joke Sport Severed is the song that unlocked everything. Played on repeat while I come to figure out the emotions I'm feeling. It's the song that made me pick up the guitar and play music again. It's a perfect piece of poetry to me.
39. Walk Me To The Bridge - 1223 points / 59 picks
Placed highest by: @jennifer_eileen (4th)
38. Condemned To Rock 'N' Roll - 1241 points / 46 picks
Placed highest by: @BrickingBadger @richierabs @RichKelly_ @0xytocinn (1st)
37. Slash N' Burn - 1260 points / 56 picks
Placed highest by: @marcsedison (2nd)
36. Found That Soul - 1262 points / 49 picks
Placed highest by: @MonkeyMarl @biscuitporpoise (5th)
35. Life Becoming A Landslide - 1282 points / 46 picks
Placed highest by: @marcsedison @dansm1th3 (3rd)
@dansm1th3 - Where to start with this song? It is perhaps able to bring out the most emotion in me from any Manics song. The melancholic opening, the brutal rise as the guitar and drums kick in, all build to the soaring stringed finale in the final chorus. On another day I could have very easily placed it at number one, if it had not been for the personal and nostalgic connections I have for Motorcycle Emptiness and All Surface No Feeling pipping it to the post. As I mentioned on Twitter I think the vocals are James’ best, the way he controls and alters his voice through the different sections of the song transcend my own understanding of singing to the point where I can’t help but just listen in awe.
The lyrics are hauntingly beautiful, this is Nicky and Richey at their best in portraying the harrowing realities of life, in a way only they can. ‘My idea of love comes from, a childhood glimpse of pornography’. I mean, how amazing is that? It’s poetry in motion. The song had such a deep impact on me early on in my Manics fanhood, and in my own opinion it is undoubtedly the high point of Gold Against The Soul and one that takes a long time to get off the turntable (I think my record for most consecutive listens is 14!). It’s a love that has stood the test of time and will undoubtedly continue to do so for many years to come!
34. Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky - 1327 points / 55 picks
Placed highest by: @PhilipM04217017 (4th)
33. Enola/Alone - 1328 points / 55 picks
Placed highest by: @AliceBoothLewis (2nd)
@AliceBoothLewis - EMG was the album that turned me on to the Manics. It fast became a bit of an obsession for me. I'd fallen for this band in a big way. I loved the album - knew it word for word - but one track stood out. Every time it comes on - without fail, no matter how I'm feeling or what is going on around me - it takes me back to that exciting time. It lifts me; still, 27 years later. I feel a bit silly saying this, but it almost makes me feel like the real me whenever I hear it. Inhibitions gone, playing it loud and singing even louder. A song of glorious release.
32. Die In The Summertime - 1384 points / 48 picks
Placed highest by: @Wrestling20Yrs (1st)
31. The Everlasting - 1388 points / 52 picks
Placed highest by: @MovieEvangelist (1st)
30. Peeled Apples - 1417 points / 57 picks
Placed highest by: @KurtMarcECurtis @TinkHolloway (3rd)
@KurtMarcECurtis - That bridge to the chorus is exceptional, and it's got a bigger chorus than you remember. Best set of lyrics on an album of excellent lyrics. I adore a good ride cymbal and a bass breakdown. The guitar sound is cool af. Great way to start the second best album ever made!
29. Of Walking Abortion - 1458 points / 54 picks
Placed highest by: @myclwd (1st)
28. PCP - 1496 points / 57 picks
Placed highest by: @KurtMarcECurtis (1st)
@KurtMarcECurtis - This song for me is the finest example of the Manics I love. The lyrics, and the way they are delivered, are utterly tremendous. It has so many great touches, the drum breaks, the little bass runs, and the top guitar work. The heartpounding energy, the mind-blowing lyrics. What a way to end the greatest album ever made!
27. International Blue - 1520 points / 66 picks
Placed highest by: @TinkHolloway (2nd)
26. ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldfallapart - 1563 points / 55 picks
Placed highest by: @Chuzzwozza (2nd)
25. Still Snowing In Sapporo - 1594 points / 65 picks
Placed highest by: revolbiscuit (1st)
@revolbiscuit - Why is 'Sapporo' at the top of my list? Obviously, I love everything about it - its mood changes and its long theatrical stops; James' lonely, haunting vocal in the verses and the subtlety of the bridge picking its way in, with JDB's vox taking on a kind of calming assurance, before guitar blam-a-lams herald in the chorus. And what a chorus - like Hokusai's In The Well of the Great Wave of Kanagawa, it dips and crescendos beautifully with droplets and tsunamis of melody and meaning.
We know what it's all about. Nick misses Richey immeasurably, and here he's watching old videos, likely for the GATS anniversary boxset and Pieces of Sleep, and he's instantly back there, last date of a Japanese tour in '93. I watched the Japan 93 GATS tour TV special yesterday as well. Richey seemed at the top of his game, smiling, laughing, talking Japanese, smoking a cig. With a razor sharp memory, Wire recalls the time and place with his friend at his best, and the perfect symmetry of the 4....and now they're 3. And for me, this track has everything. It remembers, it grieves, it dissects and it celebrates. It's a singalong. And it fucking rocks. And that solo/riff is to die for.
24. 1985 - 1597 points / 56 picks
Placed highest by: @LondonLady70 (2nd)
23. Ready For Drowning - 1620 points / 59 picks
Placed highest by: Truba9 (2nd)
22. Your Love Alone Is Not Enough - 1657 points / 67 picks
Placed highest by: @EdBiggsLGM @peterswan_ (4th)
21. Tsunami - 1749 points / 68 picks
Placed highest by: @GreenBitterfly @jackmansavfc @mylittlegempire (1st)
20. Roses In The Hospital - 1754 points / 65 picks
Placed highest by: @bentirs @w_onderwalls (2nd)
19. 4st 7lb - 1782 points / 61 picks
Placed highest by: @newartriot @gloomyok @ChorizoGarbanzo @A_J_T_1970 (2nd)
@gloomyok - I know that a lot of Manics fans have a very personal connection with this song, but not me. I can’t say I’ve ever suffered from an ED. I don’t relate to the lyrics. Still, I felt I had to place this one in my top 10. It was one of the first Manics songs I’d ever heard and I did so without knowing beforehand what it was about, who Richey was or what even happened to him.
I couldn’t make out all of the lyrics then (I’m not a native speaker and JDB doesn’t make it any easier!) but I’ll never forget how the line ‘I want to walk in the snow and not leave a footprint’ felt like a punch in the gut. I just couldn’t believe how one could use such innocent words like “snow” and “footprint” and put them in such an order, in such a way that evoked a feeling so horrific. By the end of the song, I felt nauseous. It’s not everyday that someone gets such a visceral reaction for a song, is it? And it even has time for some pitch-black humor! ‘Choice is skeletal in everybody’s life’. I mean, what the hell!
No disrespect to JDB and Sean’s staggering musical translation of the lyrics but to me 4st 7lb is a testament to the power of words. It could have been just prose, black on white, and still be an incredibly powerful piece of art that would have left me feeling like shit. It’s diabolical.
Like that photograph, The most beautiful suicide, there’s some guilt in finding beauty in a song like this. I feel terrible for staring, but I can’t take my eyes off. And I wouldn’t want to.
18. Everything Must Go - 1814 points / 62 picks
Placed highest by: @PatRedmond @DrGaryMarriner (2nd)
17. Prologue To History - 2027 points / 74 picks
Placed highest by: @LondonLady70 @enola_Ole (1st)
16. The Masses Against The Classes - 2037 points / 72 picks
Placed highest by: @MentalJargon @biscuitporpoise @enola_Ole (2nd)
15. Archives Of Pain - 2339 points / 68 picks
Placed highest by: @ricardlawless @MentalJargon (1st)
@ricardlawless - Archives of Pain sets its stall out pretty early. It starts with a mother whose child was a Peter Sutcliffe victim, and follows with a creeping bass line in drop D. (Drop D is a guitar tuning where you lower the top string by a tone) Other than The Intense Humming Of Evil, this is one of the darkest intros on what is a very dark album. Although it shares some similarities with metal music, it has a depth to that darkness, and introspection. It questions the band's intention, as well as society's intentions. Through graphic imagery it debates if murders should be subject to their own torture, and why we unjustly celebrate them. It also pulls the band into this, asking if they are also to blame for endorsing this?
The intensity of the performance only adds to this. The screamed vocals, the building crescendo of the guitar solo, the sinister stabs of guitar on the verses. I'm not sure, but is it the Manics song with the longest guitar solo, and the only one to be in drop D? Maybe it's obvious because I chose this as my number 1, but The Holy Bible is my favourite album. I think there are other songs on the album that may surpass this lyrically, but musically it speaks to me. It's not subtle in any way, it's a hammer blow to the skull. It has no pretensions of being a lovely melody, or delightful harmonies, it is to the point and abrasive. For me the music is a counter point to the lyrics. They are asking should we? Whilst the music is screaming do it!
Personally this is one of the few Manics songs I can play from start to finish, and one I have performed live. Maybe 19 year old me wanted to shock my music teacher by performing this live, I can't totally recall my intentions, but it was a great song to sing. As we were a college band on a music course, we were largely performing to parents. My friend's mother seemed to hang on for dear life as I screamed "Not punish less, rise the pain, sterilise rapists." The fact that it followed a Mark Knopfler song probably didn't help to prepare her. Ranking the songs for my top 50 was really difficult, and there are many changes I would make now. Archives would still be number 1 though. For me no song better encapsulates The Holy Bible and what it was trying to achieve. Kill Yeltsin, who's saying?
14. This Is Yesterday - 2367 points / 74 picks
Placed highest by: @marcsedison @oldcornc @ManicBeata (1st)
@oldcornc - There is no doubt that Edwards, Jones, Bradfield and Moore write songs that reach into people and drag things from them that they didn’t know were there. They spark emotion, they remind us of who we are and what makes us tick, or not. For me, this is yesterday is a bridge. It’s the bridge between the first and second incarnation of the band, Musically and lyrically.
Is it longing for a return to the past or is it a realisation that everything is futile? Is it a call from Nick that he can see the iceberg? Who knows?
If this song was a year younger, it’d be a perfect response to Richey’s disappearance. In fact in many ways it fits better on EMG than it does on The Holy Bible.
But why is it the best? It’s a song I can play when happy or sad. It’s a song I can sing along to. It’s a song that takes me to places I loved with people I loved.
There’s been a few comments about acoustic versions and whilst they’re good, they miss the dynamic of being performed by a full band, especially when we get the guitar solo and Sean’s snare! For me the best version was on the 1999 NME annual probe compilation CD, which I believe was recorded live in Cardiff. A band who had truly crossed over, but who still kept in touch with their past.
13. Stay Beautiful - 2423 points / 83 picks
Placed highest by: @DiscoDollie75 @jenvidg (1st)
12. Sleepflower - 2618 points / 91 picks
Placed highest by: @AndDarkWithin @_happycactus @MildManics (1st)
11. Motown Junk - 2628 points / 79 picks
Placed highest by: @ofmilesfromhome @Pyfbrown @liars_honey (1st)
@Pyfbrown - This was always going to be my number one, that position was never in doubt. I've always thought that this is the perfect song to play on vinyl - maybe it's because for years I only ever had it as the B-side to the 'Slash N' Burn' 7", so it's now ingrained in my memory as such. It's also the first Manics song I ever heard.....was it on the Indie Chart on the Chart Show, was it on Snub, I'm not sure which came first, but it didn't mean much to me at the time.
As time has gone on my favourite songs have changed, but eventually this just pushed its way to the front and is unlikely to be beaten. The guitar crackling into life, the primal energy as it warms up, before Wiring you into the mains (pun intended) for the next 168 seconds or so. Not only my number one Manics song, arguably my number one song. Full stop.
10. You Love Us - 2722 points / 90 picks
Placed highest by: @Diagrid3 @AChinnick90 @sdrake767 (1st)
9. From Despair To Where - 2754 points / 86 picks
Placed highest by: @RicheyJones1234 @densk14 (1st)
8. La Tristesse Durera (Scream To A Sigh) - 2776 points / 87 picks
Placed highest by: @PatRedmond Maddie Caridad @havinaradox @WelshDragonHQ (1st)
Maddie Caridad - I love the lyrics, that fabulous riff and the fact the title was taken from a letter written by Vincent Van Gogh to his brother.
7. Little Baby Nothing - 2839 points / 82 picks
Placed highest by: @democracycoma1 (1st)
@democracycoma1 - As I understand it, the video is one of the band’s least favourite – I mean only James Dean Bradfield is even in it and the symbolism and iconography are on overdrive. In a way, it’s a bit ridiculous, but there’s still something mesmerising about it.
And there’s something mesmerising about the whole song. From the opening instrumental (truncated for the single version) to the closing refrain – the melody captures you and it carries you – and it makes my hairs stand up – every single time I hear it.
Kylie Minogue was the band’s first choice for the song’s duet but wasn’t available for contractual reasons – though she did later perform the song live. But it’s good that she wasn’t, because the vocals of former pornographic actress Traci Lords (who isn’t in the video either) are incredible and I don’t think it would or could be the same song without her – as she explained, they were lyrics she identified with.
This is of course a song about the exploitation of women and the sex industry. There are hints perhaps of Richey’s feelings of emasculation too, but as clever a lyricist as he was his verses and his metaphors here are actually pretty blunt – I mean, how could you be more literal than “used, used, used by men”? Every word bites and every line paints a picture.
His use of the word snow as a synonym for purity is something he returned to in the Holy Bible track 4st 7lbs, and the slogan-like refrain of “culture, alienation, boredom and despair”, according to Richey the central theme for every Manics song, will forever resonate. No other band could have written the song. No other band could take such dark subject matter and turn it into something so beautiful – and that’s ultimately why I’ll never tire of it.
Also found at https://democracycoma.wordpress.com/2022/04/12/little-baby-nothing-manic-street-preachers-greatest-song/
6. No Surface All Feeling - 3120 points / 93 picks
Placed highest by: @emilymjhyatt @yekim_mikey @Truba9 (1st)
@emilymjhyatt - It’s very stirring for me; it’s a well of emotions where I can find joy, rapture, sadness, nostalgia and happiness. Its incredible live and when I see them play it its always a beautiful, uplifting and almost spiritual experience.
I first heard it when they played The White Room in 1996. I'd got Everything Must Go on CD but I hadn't really bothered with it, I was still obsessed with The Holy Bible and had TV appearance induced A Design For Life overkill! They played No Surface All Feeling and it just floored me, it's so big and beautiful and powerful yet it had a gentle element to it. I taped it and played it so often the tape for creased! That version led me to engage properly with Everything Must Go and I instantly adored the album version.
One particular live outing of it in Llangollen in 2017 took my breath away, a massively intense experience that had me crying, sitting on the floor with my head against the barrier, just absorbing everything in waves. I’d just been told my best friend was dying, that gig and that track were incredible catharsis for me. That was the date No Surface, officially surpassed Faster as my favourite Manics song. It continued to be there for me after he died, I made some artwork whilst listening to it and that became one of the pieces approved to be on a Secret 7” copy of No Surface All Feeling. That record is now one of my prized possessions.
It’s got everything I need in a song, it can be played loud or quiet, it can be emotionally huge or tender, it sounds a bit magical.
5. Yes - 3274 points / 90 picks
Placed highest by: @keenomanjaro @jplanasuk @davidwells661 @Raindogtaylor (1st)
4. If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next - 3309 points / 89 picks
Placed highest by: @adamglasspool @BraddersCentric @BorgoBarbara @hcd199 @10000_manics @gunnerdave83 @diapause78 @PhilipM04217017 @JKgiro85 @jennifer_eileen (1st)
3. A Design For Life - 4567 points / 116 picks
Placed highest by: @SilentRefusal Emmy @heather1917 @iamstevemurphy @cam_sh @EinBleistift @deporbags @Dai_Howells @LaMurphF1 @Barnspaul31 @jkhoman @SarahEyles1 @A_J_T_1970 @biscuitporpoise @PaulMatthewman @traceyw1981 @peterswan_ (1st)
@deporbags - Well I'm not going to tell people who aren't Manics fans that ADFL is the greatest song ever written and not have it as my No 1. How a band came back from losing Richey to release this will always amaze me. Fck Thatcher and fck tories. Nicholas Wire you legend.
Emmy - Part of the draw the Manics had to 13-year-old me back in late 1991 was they were like me, albeit male, older & from a few mountains over. Yet, there was little true working class, Welsh representation during my formative years & when they burst into my consciousness via NME, tele slots, Radio 1’s Evening Session, I knew I’d found my band. As the 90s rolled by, I held my fandom lightly & was unsure what the future held following Richey’s disappearance. Knowing they were not the boorish live-for-the-weekend types like Oasis, not sneering class tourists like Blur, kept me listening. Having a band exist, which upheld the mind-set, which was instilled in me & which small pockets of the Valleys still held dear: that education broadens you & sets you free – was enough for me, even if there was nothing more from them. I would enjoy what existed & be grateful that it did.
Then, the release of A Design for Life changed everything for me. There are moments in your life that a song gets you, it looks you square in the eye & sees every fibre of your soul & very being. A Design for Life is that song for me.
Basic you say; yes, it is. Overexposed you shout; most definitely. Overplayed you shrug; of course it is. Too popular you sneer; absolutely I agree.
The criticisms flung its way all have their truth, but for me it is more than just a song. It is an unveiling; an exposing of the truth of the reality of what it means to be from the post-industrial, working class valleys of South Wales.
From the opening strum all the way through to the closing beat, ADFL takes me on that, almost, mythical hiraeth journey of the longing for something now gone, perhaps a something that never was. Every line is a statement of intent, to me both a lament & call to arms around what has been & what could still be. Hearing the landscape, which surrounded me expressed in a song, was something else. It captured my heart in a way no other song had ever done before, or has done since.
It is no exaggeration to describe 90s Wales as a bleak place. The miners’ welfare libraries, which had once stood as cathedrals of learning in every valley, were, like the rest of the landscape, derelict or decaying. Work had all but disappeared; raising the question if there was no work, then what was the purpose of the place & us as a people. The dignity work brings had been lost in the mire of sneers, dismissal & ignorance from those who had created the mess that the communities found themselves in. People were lost in a melee of drink & violence as there was literally nothing else to do, the tools, which allowed us to stand tall, had been removed or depleted. It is the reference to being scarred by a bottle, which sears through me the most. The valleys are a tough place to live; the tough dangerous work created a tough people. The violence which took place was very much part of daily life, it was met with a shrug & acceptance rather than pearl clutching outrage. Something, which I often forget having moved out over twenty years ago. That all we were left with was a drinking culture saddened me, surely, there was more to life than boozing, fighting & shagging. The hope there was more led me to put my head down & study hard enough to go to university (am I ever thankful I was the last cohort before the fees landed) & escape. Yet I carried, & still do, the feeling that experiences & opportunities in the world were not for people like me – the insidious message that we were “other” refuses to leave no matter how hard I push against it.
Yet there is hope coursing through the song’s core. Hope that maybe one day there could be an embracing of the parts of the culture, which gave power, dignity & pride. Hope that freedom can be found through meaningful, appreciated existence. The bittersweet admiration for a place that has had its soul torn out but still keeps on trying to be its authentic self.
It is the song that when played life I have a tear in my eye, pride in my heart & I sing loudest. Sometimes I wonder if it could be an alternative Welsh National Anthem! ADFL is the song, which I fall deeper in love with as I get older. This was the easiest placing on my chart & the one Manics song I really would never let go.
2. Faster - 4820 points / 117 picks
Placed highest by: @AliceBoothLewis @LeesonPalmer @Chuzzwozza @wadedc1 @porthjess @archivesofjames @Paul_Franklyn @jacarnie @bentirs @LaPoose @dreamingac1ty @SteveBurnett_ @newartriot @ApolloScream @rickl80 @smudger63 @EdBiggsLGM @HollyBaleen Peter Stockdale (1st)
@AliceBoothLewis - The Rolling Stones were always my absolute favourite band, until I got into the Manics and they quickly equalled The Stones. Both bands were my obsessions during my formative years - against the grain of what 99.9% of teenagers were into in my home town. But as much as I adore The Stones still now, they never wrote anyrhing lyrically or musically that comes anywhere close to Faster. And as much as I would like to think I'm a pretty intelligent person, there's no way I could put so many ideas together especially with so much venom and eloquence all rolled into one. This song says everything I'd want to say, but in such a perfect way. And the music just matches flawlessly. It has seen me through tough times, where some of the lyrics seemed to mirror my situation. Just complete genius. My favourite song by anyone, ever.
1. Motorcycle Emptiness - 4910 points / 119 picks
Placed highest by: @roisinmckeon @lonelywreckage @Parky1977 @dr__alex @mark_ness @w_onderwalls @Matt_Nixey_1985 Jennifer @domlikesrabbits @dansm1th3 @DrGaryMarriner @ChrisBickley1 @glorygerbil @MarshFactor @_DerekMcHugh_ Steven Gill @tomsky11 (1st)
@roisinmckeon - This song is absolute perfection. Imagine writing those lyrics at that age - it blows my mind. The guitar riff - kills me every time. My first concert in over 18 months was the NHS gig in Cardiff. I was so happy to be at a gig again. And the Manics too!
I was not prepared for how emotional it was going to be. When they opened with Motorcycle Emptiness , I bawled crying. All the frustration of the pandemic just melted away in seconds, the song was such a release. Like a cloud had been lifted.
I'm here for the 6'09" album version too. An epic and powerful song that for me is the Manics.
@dansm1th3 - As I am one of seventeen (!) who voted for Motorcycle Emptiness to be crowned the winner, I shall leave the intrinsic discussion of the song to those who can undoubtedly do it more justice than I, and instead tell a story about how I discovered a certain band from Wales…
January 2nd 2017. Deep inside a YouTube wormhole of 1990s Top of the Pops appearances, I came across a video from a band called Manic Street Preachers. The somewhat aggressive name stood out to my angsty, disillusioned teenage self, and within that short 3 minute clip, I began a journey that changed my life and that I never, ever want to end. Adorning a stage of red roses and Nicky draped in his signature leopard print, the band were introduced and James’ infamous Les Paul Custom gave me perhaps one of the defining moments of my life to that point.
What stood out first was the riff. Oh, that riff. It still rattles triumphantly around my brain almost everyday like a treasured memory you just can’t displace. Not that I would ever want to of course. It gives me the same level of comfort as a warm summers day and still fills me with the same amount of awe and wonder today as it did when I first heard it. The lyrics are undoubtedly politically charged, but they also carry a theme of resilience that appeals to everyone who has ever felt alone, scared, or directionless. Words which I carry around with me to this day like a badge of honour, ‘under neon loneliness’ acts as a sort of mantra to live your life, the loneliness of being surrounded by everything. It’s a feeling that only the Manics themselves and the fans can truly understand. The feeling of being a sort of mainstream outsider. Emerging and cementing themselves at a time where grunge and later Britpop were the taste of the day, the Manics always remained true to themselves, and the fans always stuck with them. I’ve never experienced such a close relationship between a band and their fans than the Manics, and to me, Motorcycle Emptiness is the epitome of that relationship. A universal language that brings a community together.
It’s certainly had that defining impact on me, introducing me to the greatest band in the world, without whom I honestly do not know where or who I would be today. That’s the real magic of the Manics, they change lives. Once the Manics have reached you it’s hard to let them go, and let’s be honest, why would you want to?
I remember the first version I heard was the 4 minute radio version, with the guitar outro significantly shortened. When I finally realised the album version was longer, that outro blew me away, how can somebody possibly play guitar THAT good? Nowadays it’s taken it’s place live as the set opener, which always gets the blood pumping from the off and on some occasions, the emotions flowing. It’s perhaps a lot of people’s first introduction to the band, their first dip into the pool of mainstream music, and here we are today, discussing why it has been voted the fandoms favourite track. To reach that accolade against the rest of the Manics’ back catalogue, it must be doing something right! What a band, what a song. Long may it reign.
@mark_ness - "Possibly the only song to successfully combine stadium rock with bedsit angst" is how I once remember this song being succinctly and accurately described.
And although the G'n'R vibes of the music are very much rooted in the era of classic rock, the themes of Motorcycle Emptiness are still as relevant today, maybe even more so? Neon signs have just been replaced by targeted ads while you doom scroll social media, that's all.
I've found it to be an odd choice of set opener in recent years for the Manics; in my opinion it still deserves to be at the climax of their gigs. Even if you've heard it live hundreds of times before, it is still exciting to hear how JDB will ad lib the "All we want from you are the kicks..." middle 8 and those guitar solos.
I remember the first time I heard it on the radio. It was late 1996 and at the time, the only Manics songs I knew were the 4 recent singles from Everything Must Go. But that riff and chorus immediately elevated this song above all of those (yes, even ADFL), and 25 years on, Motorcycle Emptiness has remained not just my favourite Manics song, but my favourite song by anyone. Ever.
