Personal song-lyric interpretations?

[Slideling]

I find "Symphony of Tourette's" a protest against the idea that a child should be considered cruel.

Has there ever been a remix of this song?

[Tetsuo]

There was a(nother) documentary on tourettes on BBC there the other day. It's a double whammy - it's both blackly comedic but also quite tragic due to the lack of control it leaves you with.

[Mr Richey]

Already gone on record with this one, but I see the song 'Journal For Plague Lovers' as being Richey's deconstruction of religion, specifically Christianity.

[&ria]

i will go to my grave, swearing on a stack of nmes that "all is vanity" is about being in patient in mental health treatment.

"haven't shaved for days, gives the appearance of delay"
you're not allowed access to "sharps" such as razors while you are in treatment.

"i would prefer no choice; one bread, one milk, one food, that's all"
i know james thinks this is richey "showing his slightly unfashionable side, his left-wing authoritarian side". but i think it reflects how food is dealt with while your in patient. i don't know about the uk, but in canada you are daily given a sheet of paper that groups food by food groups and you pick one item from each food group for each meal. you can pick more than one, but you have to pick at least one unless you have special dietary restrictions. this is especially true if you are being watched for an eating disorder. your food intake is constantly monitored and your choices are limited.

"i am confused, i only want one truth; i really don't mind being lied to"
therapists never give any concrete answers. they want patients to find answers for the themselves, but when you are so broken that you are just begging to be fixed you just want fucking answers. even if its all lies. at least its something.

"it's not what's wrong, it's what's right; makes me feel like i am talking a foreign language some times"
when you are entirely batshit, out of your head crazy you think there is a lot more "right" with you than "wrong" with you, regardless of evidence otherwise. when you are that far gone you just lose the capacity for language. no one understands what you are trying to say and it becomes clear that no one will never understand. that's when you learn to shut up. some of people can live with this constant inner censor... some can't.

it's the facts of life my sunshine
i feel like this is a bit of verbal bitch slap. this is basically richey saying - this is what my life was like. this is what i lived with.

[theperfectcat]

Originally Posted by Richey83

Already gone on record with this one, but I see the song 'Journal For Plague Lovers' as being Richey's deconstruction of religion, specifically Christianity.

I agree with you, except I guess it needn't be only Christianity he's referencing (though it alludes to Christian imagery the most, certainly). I also think that the way the band edited the lyrics changed the way they come off (to me at least)- I think the way they re-constructed/performed the verses and chorus makes it seem like during the verses they're going through all the arguments against organized religion in a somewhat breezy, arrogant, Dawkins-esque way. Then in the chorus there's this sudden change of lyrical tone and this urgency and desperation in James's voice, as if all the intellectual deconstruction in the world won't displace the power of religion (defined one way or another) as a force that people rely on and an institution that shapes the way almost everyone thinks, even those with a relatively secular upbringing. I don't really see that in Richey's original lyrics. I do like the effect though, even if I slightly resent the fact they broke up the bridge he suggested, because it's a beautiful piece of writing IMO.

Also- "PG certificate, all cuts unfocused"- I guess Mel Gibson's a fan of JFPL...

To the person who thinks All is Vanity is about institutions, that's the way I see Facing Page: Top Left. I think it must to some extent be about the Priory and Richey's time there.

I also have really really strong opinions on what Pretension/Repulsion is about, but I think I'll give it it's own post later on. I could go on forever about JPFL in general at the moment...

[theperfectcat]

Originally Posted by &ria

"i would prefer no choice; one bread, one milk, one food, that's all"
i know james thinks this is richey "showing his slightly unfashionable side, his left-wing authoritarian side". but i think it reflects how food is dealt with while your in patient. i don't know about the uk, but in canada you are daily given a sheet of paper that groups food by food groups and you pick one item from each food group for each meal. you can pick more than one, but you have to pick at least one unless you have special dietary restrictions. this is especially true if you are being watched for an eating disorder. your food intake is constantly monitored and your choices are limited.

"i am confused, i only want one truth; i really don't mind being lied to"
therapists never give any concrete answers. they want patients to find answers for the themselves, but when you are so broken that you are just begging to be fixed you just want fucking answers. even if its all lies. at least its something.
.

And before I shut up- I think the chorus (and most in general) of All is Vanity is about how knowledge and looking at things from a critical perspective all the time is a draining practice. Richey is saying he isn't miserable because he's crazy or he looks at things from the wrong point of view, but because he has a "better" grasp of things than most people, and the gap between his perception and the simplified way some others look at life alienates him. He isn't saying he literally wants to impose one truth on the world, but that he would like to go back to a time- like childhood- when he could believe in one authoritarian truth and be like what he percieves most people are. There's a bit in the unedited Peeled Apples lyrics- "conscious can't be cured" which I think is another version of saying this. Once you have the kind of perception of the world Richey was invested in (I don't want to prescribe them for him, but seems to be a form of structuralism that suggests we don't have any free will beyond a certain point and most everyday acts are meaningful as part of that social structure), it is difficult, especially for a sensitive person, to live life without seeing horrible things everywhere. And it's difficult to communicate with people who have a very "common-sense" view of things about this- for example, if you go up to an average person with some convoluted theory about how gender is socially constructed, you're likely to be met with something along the lines of "men and women are just different, it's the facts of life, sunshine". Hence his sarcastic use of that phrase.

And the title, the fact that Richey recognized that this view was kind of elitist, pretentious, and ultimately a form of vanity, is the other facet to the song. In things like PCP, Richey (and presumably Nicky) tried to reconcile left-wing thought and activism with the true interests of working class people, saying that PC language condemned the people it aimed to save. I think he was conscious of the fact that a lot of working class people wouldn't necessarily have found the Manics' language and topics that relevant to their lives. That his hair, for instance, marked him as someone privileged by fame, glamour, and at least a modicum of money. He said in one of his final interviews that he shaved it off because he loved it too much and it was making him too vain. He was writing "Humility" on his knuckles at the same time. There's an obvious longing for simplicity and a self-inflicted puritanism in songs like Marlon J.D. And at the same time, the description of an average life in the original lyrics, followed by "it's all vanity", served to highlight the same attitude in the people he was concerned he was alienating- that their refusal to stop and think about life made them just as vain and self-interested as him.

It shows the flaws and confusion it speaks of.

[PaulyK2009]

Originally Posted by &ria

"i would prefer no choice; one bread, one milk, one food, that's all"
i know james thinks this is richey "showing his slightly unfashionable side, his left-wing authoritarian side". but i think it reflects how food is dealt with while your in patient. i don't know about the uk, but in canada you are daily given a sheet of paper that groups food by food groups and you pick one item from each food group for each meal. you can pick more than one, but you have to pick at least one unless you have special dietary restrictions. this is especially true if you are being watched for an eating disorder. your food intake is constantly monitored and your choices are limited.

Yep, you have to fill it in the night before and choose what you want for the next day. Three large meals a day. I'm sure it varies in quality from hospital to hospital, but all I remember is stodge. And God help you if you're vegetarian.

[River Boy]

Originally Posted by Richey83

Already gone on record with this one, but I see the song 'Journal For Plague Lovers' as being Richey's deconstruction of religion, specifically Christianity.

I'm reading JFPL as much more personal that that. I think he's writing about the dangers of sharing a part of yourself with the world.

[starbrightboy]

Originally Posted by &ria

"i would prefer no choice; one bread, one milk, one food, that's all"

Has anyone mentioned that neophobia, especially food neophobia, is a common manifestation (cause / aetiology / result / symptom / or whatever philosophical stance you take) for a few classifications of mental disorder? It's one of the most common markers of schizophrenia and schizotypy (as measured on the O-Life test).

[Slideling]

Originally Posted by starbrightboy

Has anyone mentioned that neophobia, especially food neophobia, is a common manifestation (cause / aetiology / result / symptom / or whatever philosophical stance you take) for a few classifications of mental disorder? It's one of the most common markers of schizophrenia and schizotypy (as measured on the O-Life test).

Ew.

[penfoldsfive]

Originally Posted by Richian

I find "Symphony of Tourette's" a protest against the idea that a child should be considered cruel.

Has there ever been a remix of this song?

this is a remix

you made an excellent point earlier about how anyone would choose such a sorry fate...i just gotta say God bless Rich. i like you man.

[Slideling]

Thank you. I skim posts lately, dosed off on cough medicine maybe! - But I appreciate you also nonetheless.

[penfoldsfive]

Originally Posted by starbrightboy

Has anyone mentioned that neophobia, especially food neophobia, is a common manifestation (cause / aetiology / result / symptom / or whatever philosophical stance you take) for a few classifications of mental disorder? It's one of the most common markers of schizophrenia and schizotypy (as measured on the O-Life test).

as if you didnt already know, continue to pursue your intellectual interests. this type of intuition will help you infinitely

Is it true that you were vaguely anorexic yourself?

R: "Vaguely; you could say that I had an eating problem. Because if I ate too much, and I was drinking, I got all puffed up and blotchy. And I'm too vain to be like that. I am a vain person. I couldn't handle looking like that, I couldn't look in the mirror. All is vanity."

http://www.thisisyesterday.com/ints/richey1994.html

[srhgrg]

He always says stuff like that, 'never been severely underweight' etc. I'd say being under 6 stone is more than 'vaguely' anorexic, although maybe anorexic's the wrong word?