MORE ABOUT THE BAND: favourite

1992. motorcycle emptiness

MY TOP 3 FAVOURITE SONGS: MOTORCYCLE EMPTINESS - MANIC STREET PREACHERS (1/3)

I've been rummaging around a lot of other music bloggers websites recently trying to find inspiration and well I felt this was one of them mandatory things you should do for your blog readers; except I've started to actually think about it and it is really fucking hard to decide. I knew however that they would obviously come from my 3 favourite bands; Manic Street Preachers, The Clash and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

Here is my number one.

1/3: Manic Street Preachers - Motorcycle Emptiness, Generation Terrorist

OK, so I lied a little, this one didn't even take me 30 seconds to think about. I joke to everyone that this is my life song but really it is not a joke. This is the song I want to get married too, have children too and even die too... and probably have it playing at my funeral also. And what is more it was released in 1992, the year I was born!

Generation Terrorists - Manic Street Preachers

1992, and many would have deemed the thought of a young British band such as Manic Street Preachers delving into arena rock as odd, especially during the pop concept. In those days the Manics looked cheap but beautiful, and their music depicted every characteristic they owned.Generation Terrorists, the album from which we first heard Motorcycle Emptiness, walked a weird line between punk rock, romantic melodicism and glam, with the lyrics so obviously patterned around politics like that of The Clash and Public Enemy.

The Manics living in Blackwood, South Wales, a place where I imagined to never really have a huge connection with music, especially in the 90's. A place where I imagine to have lacked in life, and not just because of poverty, but because of the independent feeling of not mattering and the dead industries. Motorcycle Emptiness was the introduction to their punk rock roots, and the first and best shot they had to restore revolution to rock and roll at a time when Britain was hugely dominated by techno and acid house. 'Under neon-loneliness/ Motorcycle Emptiness', the perfect soundtrack to paint that iconic picture of the flat, ignored landscape that was Blackwood.

Manic Street Preaches - 1992

The whole album was a portrayal of the bands personal and political views, developing a connection between global capitalism and personal struggle. Track 4, Motorcycle Emptiness screams power and resentment. A track that was purposely written to criticise consumerism as an empty dream that makes human life overtly commercialised; describing how young people are expecting to conform. And that is why I fucking love it. 'Living life like a comatose/ Ego loaded and swallow', it doesn't get much more real than that, and this was the 90's. Let's take a look at today, the 21st century and we are more commercialised and drawn into consumerism than ever before.

This song moves me to the brink of tears, no matter how many times I hear it. And why, because in all 5 minutes and 02 seconds of its endless guitar licks and solos I find myself realising that everything I need I already have.. and that I definitely don't need to buy another pair of shoes.

'This happiness corrupt political shit'

Motorcycle Emptiness - Manic Street Preachers

I wanted to include a video at Glastonbury 2014, when the Manics came on stage and blew the crowd away opening their set with this iconic track. I was there, and it is easily the best moment of my life so far. The sun set and atmosphere was beautiful and the live version was ever better.