He was reading five books a week at the time, by all accounts, and so the lyrics are alive with musings on whatever he was devouring at the time. "I am stronger than Mensa, Miller and Mailer", he announces in Faster. "I spat out Plath and Pinter."
The subsequent release of Faster as a single allowed for one of the most memorable moments in Manics history. Their Top Of The Pops appearance in support of the release, included on the DVD, is fantastic, and provoked a record number of complaints. The band look amazing, each member decked out in military garb, and James Dean Bradfield sporting a black balaclava with the word JAMES scrawled across the forehead. Behind them, pillars of fire rage towards the ceiling.
Hard to imagine what's most alarming, though. The fact that the band are so visually commanding, or the fact that here they are on the highest-rated, most-commercial music show on British TV, at time when the chance of seeing a guitar on the show was as likely as seeing the corpse of Sam Cooke propped up with a brush shaft, spitting out sentiments along the lines of "I am idiot drug hive, the virgin, the tattered and the torn, life is for the cold made warm and they are just lizards."
Faster is a defining moment in The Holy Bible, a defining moment in the career of The Manic Street Preachers, a defining moment in British Pop, and a defining moment in the writing of Richey James Edwards. Specifically, it fetishises his disease, his illness, addresses the issue of his self-mutilation not in mournful, agonized tones, but in valedictory fist-raising defiance.
"I am an architect", it begins. "They call me a butcher."
Even this, though, is relatively mild compared to the intensely distressing narrative of 4st 7lbs. It is one of the few moments in The Holy Bible when the imagery of the lyrics, rather than being countered with the instrumentation as in Faster or Of Walking Abortion, is matched by an arrangement that is by turns angular, sinister, and unbearably poignant, and as a result, remains intensely unsettling.
Richey relates the tale of his own anorexia by presenting it as the thoughts of a teenage girl suffering the same. The track opens with another sample, this time taken from a BBC2 documentary dealing with the same subject matter. Prior to the clanging, rhythmic guitar line and ascending bass, a quivering female voice states, "I eat too much to die, and not enough to stay alive. I'm sitting in the middle waiting."
Article comments
1 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
hells bells. thats the third time i've used the word "fetishised" in almost as many articles. That Word Of The Day toilet-paper sure works better when a fella's got the runs...
2 - godoggo
re: fetishise: Your'e in America now, if I'm not mistaken. Allow me to introduce you to the letter Z.
That said, what in heaven'z name is LA Rock?
3 - wally bangs
Brilliant stuff, Duke. I bet you "laughed when Lennon got shot" too.
4 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
godoggo, i'm still residing in the UK, but it's a valid point. I keep forgetting to include the "z", which is odd, since is not only is it Costa Gravas' best flick, but it's a much cooler letter than s. I keep wondering why the MT desktop client has red lines under things i know are spelt correctly, and that's always the cause.
Wally, thanks man. And i didn't, probably, but i still roar along like as if i was there man. "Motown... Motown Junk!!"
5 - valeria
Here come the crazy urges to listen to the Holy Bible again, for maybe the millionth time in my life. It might be your incessant quotes that just beg a singalong, it might be that this article was just absolutely perfect.
6 - Duke De Mondo
Valeria, thank you! What a compliment it is, to have someone urged towards a re-listening of The Holy Bible on account of my scribbling.
and this reminds me, i really must pick up that grand new Everything Must Go set sometime soon...
7 - Drunks off my bollocks
Brilliant article. Expresses the importance, spirit and meaning of THB well. Doesn't slag off Lifeblood, which is also a bonus... 5 years old? The joy of teh_intarwebz and it's collectivist Elephantine memory. Well done, squire. Well done.
8 - Remedial_gash
Just picked up 'Journal for plague lovers' - a year late I know, and was revisiting earlier albums, in the age of 'random play', I don't think I've listened to an album since around 2005 (when this piece was written).
Anyway, what a fucking excellent piece of work, and please don't use 'z's - it's offensive to my eyes.
Gash