Unusual Words Used In Manic Street Preachers Songs

Back to The Lyrics

  • ARBEIT MACHT FREI - "work brings freedom". Ironic motto of the death camps, where many occupants were literally worked to death.

  • BE PURE, BE VIGILANT, BEHAVE - a reference to the UK comic "2000AD". This was the slogan of a character called 'Torquemada', an evil fascist dictator who's big idea is the extermination of any life forms that aren't "Pure" human. I think Richey or Nicky made a comment about "2000 AD is the best literature being published today", or something, in the early days?

  • BRADY BILL - American legislation, requiring a waiting time before the purchase of firearms. Named after James Brady, Reagan's Press Secretary, who was brain damaged in the assassination attempt on Reagan. Although a Republican, he appeared at the Democratic Convention, supporting Clinton's moves on Gun Control.

  • CUBA - Immigration problems 'started' when Castro allowed Cubans to leave for the US. Many Cubans died en route; they sailed on flimsy rafts and disease was also rampant. This problem was resolved in Sept 94 when the US promised to grant 20,000 entry visas a year to Cubans, and Castro agreed to prevent emigration.

  • EST - electro-shock treatment. Psychiatric treatment - read Victor Bockris's Lou Reed biography for an account of its effects. Alternatively this could refer to Erhard Seminars Training - a cult which definitely would have a PR problem. It was started by Werner Erhard in the 1970s. It's based on re-shaping your outlook and improving your head through self-awareness techniques and following Erhard's dictums and practices. Of course he has ruined people's lives and is a blatant sham. He started the Hunger Project (Feed the World by changing the way you think) which drew support from various celebrities but never amounted to anything.

  • EXXON - Oil company. Their tanker the 'Valdez' ran aground off the coast of Alaska in 1989 causing the worst oil spill in U.S. ever.

  • FILA - line up, form a queue, get out of here.

  • HARTHEIM CASTLE - A euthanasia facility near Linz (now in Austria). It was known as the "Dachau sanatorium" and feared by Dachau inmates. If someone fell ill and was sent to Hartheim to recover, they never returned. An excess of 1200 died there between 1941 and 1942.

  • KAFFIR LOVER - Derogatory term used by white Afrikaans about some-one who sympathised with the struggle against apartheid.

  • KULTURKAMPF - "culture struggle". Bismarck's campaign to repress German Catholics, and force them to take on a more 'German' Protestantism. This can be seen as a forerunner of Hitler's policies.

  • LAGERSTRASSE - "camp street". This accuses 'ordinary' Germans of complicity in the Holocaust, since the camps were open knowledge, often close to towns themselves.

  • LA TRISTESSE DURERA - 'the sadness continues' - a quote from Vincent Van Gogh's suicide note

  • LEBENSRAUM - "living space". A central part of Hitler's world view, the need for Germany to conquer land in the East, in order for the German race, and German culture to develop.

  • MASS OF DEAD INSECTS - A Buddhist ceremony, also mentioned in Masuji Ibuse's Hiroshima novel "Black Rain" where he states... "The Mass for Dead Insects was a rite performed on the day after the [harvest] festival, when farmers would make rice dumplings as an offering to the souls of the deceased insects they had inadvertently trodden on as they worked in the fields."

  • MEXICO - Illegal immigration from this country to the US is an ongoing problem, and US' efforts to stem illegal immigration have been controversial. Also, Mexico's increasing activity with Cuba, such as Mexico's investment in Cuba's refinery, and the purchase of part of Cuba's telephone company, has further strained relations with the U.S.

  • MEIN KAMPF - "My Struggle". Written by Hitler during a spell in prison after the First World War.

  • NATWEST, BARCLAYS, MIDLANDS, LLOYDS - All high street banks in the UK. The precise order is due to their placement in Blackwood high street, the Manics home town. The lines "...Barclays iron eagle..." and "...black horse apocalypse..." refer to the logos of Barclays and Lloyds respectively.

  • RAUS - "out". As in 'Foreigners Out', or 'Get Out'

  • TOWER COLLIERY - a coal mine closed because it was believed to be uneconomic. However, after the work force bought it out, new sources of coal were found, and the mine became profitable, and the workers well-off.;