No.16 Manic Street Preachers – The Holy Bible

I was never that big a Manics fan, I’d liked a few of the singles off the first two albums but nothing really clicked enough to buy an album to check them out fully. I honestly can’t remember how I got a copy of The Holy Bible, but it was in my second year of Uni so it was probably Ben or Terry who had the album that I borrowed. I can’t remember when The Holy Bible clicked for me, but when it did, it really did. 

As an awkward young man with almost no blokey traits about him, there was something in the music and the way the band dressed that spoke to me. The leopard skin print and pink feather boas weren’t my thing. Nor was dressing like Hilda Ogden, but the knowing pretentious streak and too much eye make up?

Yea. That I was down with.

Starting your album with a song about prostitution and about how little value human life really has is one thing, but writing lyrics as full on as these is still pretty jaw dropping. James Dean Bradfield, the band’s main music writer, said in an interview “I remember getting the lyrics to ‘Yes’ and thinking ‘You crazy fucker, how do I write music for this?” And he wasn’t wrong. The some of the lyrics in question are:

“He’s a boy, you want a girl so tear off his cock

Tie his hair in bunches, fuck him, call him Rita if you want”

And then, straight after that, the band goes crashing into a song called  Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit’sworldwouldfallapart. This was a band not fucking about. 

But there’s lots of bands out there raging against the world. What sets the Manics apart from the rest is their more personal songs. Yes, there’s the furious politics, but in 4st 7lbs, James sings in first person as a teenage girl suffering from anorexia. It’s a brutal character study that most acts wouldn’t dare try, and has some of the most heartbreaking lyrics I’ve ever heard. It’s never preaching and when you learn that Richie, the songwriter, also suffered from anorexia, it hits even harder. I could just paste the entire song lyrics and it would be worth it but the lines 

“I choose, my choice, I starve to frenzy

Hunger soon passes and sickness soon tires

Legs bend, stockinged, I am Twiggy

And I don’t mind the horror that surrounds me” 

will always hit hard.

But the Manics always felt like they meant what they said musically. Richie once carved 4real into his arm with a razor blade during an interview when Steve Lamacq questioned the band’s integrity. The music industry has always been exploitative and has killed a lot of 27 year olds, but there was still a point in the 90’s where it felt that rock and roll could still change the world. This is something the band really seemed to believe and I don’t think it did them any good in the long term.

There are a few points that haven’t aged well. PCP feels like a misstep, but I can see how various band members, who could be full on edgelords, (before it had a name) would see political correctness as being “You can’t say anything these days”. And part of me really wants to hold a grudge with the Manics for proclaiming that they hated Slowdive more than Hitler, but it was the 90’s and being a dick got you column inches on the music press. So I just give the band the odd side eye whenever I remember to. 

I’m not sure there’ll ever be an album quite like this again. It’s far too 90’s. Making sure everyone knew just how well read they were, while being this emotionally raw and politically furious just doesn’t seem to be done anymore. The fact they were doing all of this when wanting to be a cross between the Clash and Gun n’ Roses is still ridiculous.

However, this level of intensity can’t be maintained. You can’t burn this hot, this bright, without consequences and Richey Edwards disappeared on the 1st of Feb 1995, with his car found by the Severn bridge. His body has never been found. After that, the Manics had to change and they released the aptly called Everything Must Go, and somehow became the rockstars they always dreamed of being. But the band could never be the same again.   

The Holy Bible is the best record to come out of Wales and would be pretty high up on any British list. It’s a raw, snot nosed, broken shell of an album. Full of pain, rage, hurt and most importantly defiance. An album that for better or for worse, will always be 4real.    

Oh, one last grab for some more indie credibility. Fuck the 20th anniversery remaster. The original mix is the best, warts and all.

I think I need to start wearing eyeliner again.

https://lynkify.in/song/4-st-7-lb-remastered/vCBz2lrF