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  #1  
Old 07-04-2020, 18:48
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Is Symphony of Tourette the worst song ever written?

Lyrics don't make any sense.

Stutter stutter SAYS the little boy.

Since when the fuck did that ever make sense? The Manics did not do any research into Tourettes, rather Richey probably just heard Tourettes by Nirvana, heard him raving like a dickhead and thought "I know about this now to write a really shit song, Bradfield will love it as he'll be saying instead of doing the stuttering"

Then that guitar solo at the end. Just so crass.

Johnny Davidson wept. It's so poor. Up there with the worst songs ever next to Faster.
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Old 07-04-2020, 19:44
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faster, ah here
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Old 07-04-2020, 22:10
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I always thought it odd that they felt the need to explain what Tourette’s was in the sleeve notes. Perhaps things were different in 1993?

I suspect the exact same lyrics put to JDB in The THB era would have made a less crass song, but generally that last half of GATS is pretty weak.
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Old 07-04-2020, 22:40
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I think it's probably the first thing they think of when mentioning in interviews about "unintentional comedy".
It is improved for me by having a video where the Richey era Manics are scientists who turn the Muppet Babies Animal into a giant King Kong thing that pukes all over the city during the "Just... Opened... My mouth!".
"Fuck you fuck you I grunt and groan".
Like anyone here hasn't sung that to themselves over the past few years.
And no, I didn't bother making a video in my head for the other songs.
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Old 08-04-2020, 10:24
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"I Think I Found it" is the correct answer.
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Old 08-04-2020, 11:20
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I think each of us has a different answer for it (and generally it is "no, it's not that song, it's...").
Mine, for example, is So Why So Sad, and it has been so since I got to know the Manics (2006) till today.
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Old 08-04-2020, 16:32
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"I Think I Found it" is the correct answer.
I honestly find 'I Think I've Found It' such a charming little ditty.
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Old 08-04-2020, 17:49
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I've a vague recollection that this song came on the back of a documentary Richey had seen? Whatever the origin it's definitely a crude understanding of tourettes but back then that crude understanding was the understanding....sure they could have reflected a little more but I think they just ran with the idea of it being 'truth syndrome' .... the person who says what many think but can't bring themselves to say....So I think interpretation matters here but no I don't think it's one of their best but if you see it as about something more than just the condition it's not so easy to just write off

And sure stutter stutter says the little boy makes no sense...to the pedantic
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  #9  
Old 08-04-2020, 18:28
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Quote:
Originally Posted by raven View Post
I've a vague recollection that this song came on the back of a documentary Richey had seen? Whatever the origin it's definitely a crude understanding of tourettes but back then that crude understanding was the understanding....sure they could have reflected a little more but I think they just ran with the idea of it being 'truth syndrome' .... the person who says what many think but can't bring themselves to say....So I think interpretation matters here but no I don't think it's one of their best but if you see it as about something more than just the condition it's not so easy to just write off

And sure stutter stutter says the little boy makes no sense...to the pedantic
That documentary was John's Not Mad which bears little to no resemblance to the lyrics of the song. The closest that young Johnny gets to violence is shouting 'Fucking Nescafé!" in Tescos and then gobbing at his.ma across the dinner table because her cooking looks shite.

The Manics were the pedants. They dropped the ball by writing something so truly fucking awful it deserves brought up. Not even The Charlatans would write a lyric that bad.
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  #10  
Old 08-04-2020, 18:38
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Quote:
Originally Posted by raven View Post
I've a vague recollection that this song came on the back of a documentary Richey had seen? Whatever the origin it's definitely a crude understanding of tourettes but back then that crude understanding was the understanding....sure they could have reflected a little more but I think they just ran with the idea of it being 'truth syndrome' .... the person who says what many think but can't bring themselves to say....So I think interpretation matters here but no I don't think it's one of their best but if you see it as about something more than just the condition it's not so easy to just write off

And sure stutter stutter says the little boy makes no sense...to the pedantic
Quote:
Originally Posted by raven View Post
I've a vague recollection that this song came on the back of a documentary Richey had seen? Whatever the origin it's definitely a crude understanding of tourettes but back then that crude understanding was the understanding....sure they could have reflected a little more but I think they just ran with the idea of it being 'truth syndrome' .... the person who says what many think but can't bring themselves to say....So I think interpretation matters here but no I don't think it's one of their best but if you see it as about something more than just the condition it's not so easy to just write off

And sure stutter stutter says the little boy makes no sense...to the pedantic
https://youtu.be/mc649QTtuaU

Here are some of the angriest parts.

You don't hear Richey writing about being in a supermarket and barking at some dour old 80s cunts in the Weetabix aisle? Or that beautiful moment his mother suggests they get the dog Choosy instead of Bonus and he reprimands her by calling her a slut.

There's no truth syndrome here. Just righteous justice handed out to late 80s Britain where the only colours are the stains in the teeth of those who judge John for being right.
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Old 08-04-2020, 18:43
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bonesy View Post
https://youtu.be/mc649QTtuaU

Here are some of the angriest parts.

You don't hear Richey writing about being in a supermarket and barking at some dour old 80s cunts in the Weetabix aisle? Or that beautiful moment his mother suggests they get the dog Choosy instead of Bonus and he reprimands her by calling her a slut.

There's no truth syndrome here. Just righteous justice handed out to late 80s Britain where the only colours are the stains in the teeth of those who judge John for being right.
Choosy, choosy
My dog is my friend
No don't buy Bonus
Or into slut you will turn

CH:
Tried to buy my Weetabix
This dour cunt bought
The last box
Sorry dear, that's the nature of tourettes
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Old 08-04-2020, 19:43
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  #13  
Old 08-04-2020, 19:48
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bonesy View Post
That documentary was John's Not Mad which bears little to no resemblance to the lyrics of the song. The closest that young Johnny gets to violence is shouting 'Fucking Nescafé!" in Tescos and then gobbing at his.ma across the dinner table because her cooking looks shite.

The Manics were the pedants. They dropped the ball by writing something so truly fucking awful it deserves brought up. Not even The Charlatans would write a lyric that bad.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Bonesy View Post
https://youtu.be/mc649QTtuaU

Here are some of the angriest parts.

You don't hear Richey writing about being in a supermarket and barking at some dour old 80s cunts in the Weetabix aisle? Or that beautiful moment his mother suggests they get the dog Choosy instead of Bonus and he reprimands her by calling her a slut.

There's no truth syndrome here. Just righteous justice handed out to late 80s Britain where the only colours are the stains in the teeth of those who judge John for being right.
How does it make the band pedants? I've no idea what your last sentence means.......Any chance cabin fever is setting in?? I definitely feel like shouting Fuck It All in the weetabix aisle down asda at the minute... or any aisle

I know it's no truth syndrome....but that is how it was interpreted by some back at the time this doc was made...in the same way as others pretentiously argue that from madness comes great art etc etc.....there's no truth there just tics and an inability to stop yourself blurting out whatever you think you shouldn't say....like being told don't think of an elephant - so what do you think of?...what could be the worst dumb thing I could say right now....ah there I go....

I'm not arguing it's the best thing they ever wrote only that I don't think they meant it to be taken as a direct analysis of the condition maybe more about inarticulate rage .... not one of their finest I concede
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"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more," - Byron

'I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.' (from Sea Fever - John Masefield)


"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all" - Emily Dickinson
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  #14  
Old 08-04-2020, 20:15
Glyn Glyn is offline
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Top trolling with the last line of your post! but yeah it does stand out a bit as being poorly researched and on the nose.

My guess would be that it was one of Richey's earlier attempts at character writing. There's a clear change in his writing after GT from sloganeering to personal or character pieces (and obviously often the lines blurred). Patrick Bateman, Symphony of Tourette and (the far more successful) La Tristessa Durera are the first real stabs at the way of writing that he would perfect on The Holy Bible (Yes, 4st 7lb, Die in the Summertime) and the Journal For Plague Lovers lyrics (VSEC, Williams Last Words, Bag Lady).
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  #15  
Old 08-04-2020, 21:18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Son of Stopped View Post
Choosy, choosy
My dog is my friend
No don't buy Bonus
Or into slut you will turn

CH:
Tried to buy my Weetabix
This dour cunt bought
The last box
Sorry dear, that's the nature of tourettes
You win the internet Son of Stopped. Thanks for the laugh
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