Tag Archives: journal for plague lovers

#1465: Manic Street Preachers – Virginia State Epileptic Colony

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In early 2014, the only song I had in my iTunes library from Manic Street Preachers’ 2009 album, Journal for Plague Lovers, was ‘Jackie Collins Existential Question Time’. There was no official single from the LP, but that song was chosen as the main promotional cut from it, getting its own music video and stuff. I was in my first year of uni. I was hosting a radio station. Needed more songs to fill out a playlist. ‘Jackie Collins…’ was sitting there, all alone in my personal library, so I thought there’d be no harm in downloading the other album tracks. I knew the context around it, being made up of songs with lyrics by original bandmember Richey Edwards before his disappearance in ’95. It had a 7.8 rating on Pitchfork when it wasn’t all Condé Nast-ed. It felt like it had the potential to be a very interesting listen. I went through the album from front to back on 12th February 2014. Out of the other 12 tracks I got to know through hearing it, it was the second-last one, ‘Virginia State Epileptic Colony’, that became a favourite of mine I think almost instantly. I repeated it a lot that year.

I do remember wondering if it was actually James Dean Bradfield singing on it. Of course it was, ’cause who else would it be? But when it got to the choruses where he elongates “Piggyyyy” and “VSECeeee”, I thought there was a grit on his vocal that otherwise hadn’t been on the rest of the album. Sounded like it was recorded in a totally different place. Once I realised that I liked the whole album and found the “Making of” documentary, I was bummed to see that every respective song contained footage of the band working on it in the studio except ‘Virginia State…’ which was put in place as the credits music. With that being the case, I’ve got in my head canon that the track was probably the last one recorded for the album and maybe very quickly too. Whatever the circumstances, this is one Manic Street Preachers song that I could honestly leave on repeat for about half an hour without getting tired of it. The song goes by so briskly, its structure very easy to follow, with so many melodic components included. The guitar riff that alternates between the open chords and the rising/descending guitar scale in the introduction, very catchy. James Dean Bradfield’s vocals, again, very melodic and memorable from start to finish. The only nitpick I would have is how he really tries to rhyme “half-circled light” with “potassium percolate”. It’s quite awkward. But those are the lyrics he had to work with. Sean Moore’s drumming is solid as a rock. Nicky Wire on bass guitar follows the root note, mainly. But he does provide the skipping piano line during the instrumental break, and that’s probably the most delightful part of the entire track.

The song’s title isn’t a phrase Richey Edwards invented. It’s in fact based on the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded, a state-run institution holding patients with severe mental impairment and others who were considered to be “feeble-minded.” An outdated term. There’s a whole Wikipedia article on it. At some point, Edwards did his own research on the institution, got some lyrics down and passed them on to his friends/bandmembers before he was never to be seen again. The lyrics detail the “choices” on offer to the inhabitants within the institution, but then, it’s like they don’t have much choice considering their mental states. Whatever they’re handed is really their only option. All very sarcastic, which Edwards could very much be in his lyricism. I mean, if you want to hear an official statement on the song’s meaning/background from the band, there’s no better video than the track-by-track analysis they did for NME. That is a video that’s come in handy for all the …Plague Lovers songs I’ve written about on the blog. How many songs by Manic Street Preachers are on here, ten or something? There are so much more by the band I like now. I always had respect for them ’cause they made The Holy Bible and Everything Must Go. But in June, I went through the entirety of their discography, inspired by the What Is Music? podcast. It was time well spent. I’d recommend anyone do the same.

#819: Manic Street Preachers – Me and Stephen Hawking

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I made a post about a Manic Street Preachers song from this album a couple weeks back. There was another one only four days ago. Both mention the following situation, but I’ll repeat it in case you make a decision not to read them. Manic Street Preachers had four members back in the day. One of them, lyricist and guitarist Richey Edwards, who battled with depression, alcoholism and various other bad things, disappeared in February 1995 before the band were to fly for the US leg of their Holy Bible tour. Before he left, Edwards left James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire and Sean Moore copies of a folder called “Opulence” which featured lyrics, notes and artwork among other things. He was presumed dead in 2008, and the three remaining members chose to use these lyrics for their next album. That record was Journal for Plague Lovers. ‘Me and Stephen Hawking’ is the third song on there.

The track plays a bit of a bridge part on the album. Following the gritty opener ‘Peeled Apples’ and the almost-single ‘Jackie Collins’, ‘Stephen Hawking’ keeps the record’s pace on a higher tempo and somewhat upbeat level, before things settle down for a little on the following track. The song is essentially a verse and a chorus repeated twice in the space of just under three minutes, but that’s all that could be done with the lyrics as they were supposedly written in the form on an almost-haiku by Edwards on his typewriter. The verses talk about genetic modification on animals and how one day it’ll be eventually used on humans. The choruses bring up surreal imagery of British wrestle Giant Haystacks in a Bombay fight, while Stephen Hawkings and, supposedly, Edwards look on at this scene and have a laugh with one another. Very two contrasting ideas going on, but I enjoy it still.

I won’t talk about the music as much, because Bradfield and Wire did it themselves for NME when the album had just been released. I’ll leave that below. But I do like how the energetic, yelling verses are stopped in their tracks by the floating chorus with Bradfield’s wilting vocals before revving right out of the gates again. It’s a very up and down motion going on. It’s a general good listen.

#811: Manic Street Preachers – Marlon J.D.

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This song is a bit of a recent addition to my phone library. Journal for Plague Lovers is one of my three favourite Manic Street Preachers albums, and it’s been on my computer storage since late 2013. Then, I’d already established a few highlights from there that I liked right away. One of those should be coming up in the next few weeks. ‘Marlon J.D.’ I didn’t really appreciate until, maybe, about last year. I don’t think I even listened to the album. Its chorus line just started ringing in my head and I guess I needed to listen to it to properly remember what it sounded like.

This blog post, found on a site dedicated to Manic Street Preachers, actually covers a lot of what I would have wanted to talk about here. Probably in better detail too. I’m also all for its driving energy, the slashing guitars and the pulsating drum machine that relentlessly keeps the song moving. There’s an opening-theme-song-to-a-police-detective-TV-show vibe to this song that I sense too, though that’s just me. Like all of the other songs on Plague Lovers, its lyrics were written by Richey Edwards, the band’s original co-lyricist and guitarist who disappeared in 1995 and was presumed dead 13 years later. According to bassist Nicky Wire, Edwards was fascinated by Marlon Brando as a figure of success and self-destruction. A lot of the lyrics are also taken from the film Reflections in a Golden Eye featuring Brando and Elizabeth Taylor.

Wire and lead singer James Dean Bradfield give more information about the song in the video below. Some points covered: Wire wrote the song’s music, and originally sang the song’s demo. You can see him demonstrate it around 2:34 in this video. And neither of them know what the J.D. stands for. I think the answer’s a lot closer then they think. To the point that I think they actually do know, but I don’t know why they would say they don’t. You know what I mean? Anyway, the song’s up there.

#659: Manic Street Preachers – Jackie Collins Existential Question Time

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Hello there. Your favourite series is back, this time covering the Js, coming to you every other day until those songs are done. There aren’t a lot of songs I have on my phone beginning with ‘J’. It’s one of those letters that don’t really appear quite frequently at the start of a word. The songs to come are great though. At least I think so. I’ve been okay if you wanted to know. Been learning to drive and steadily getting there. That’s about it. On to the song!

‘Jackie Collins….’ was the first single from their 2009 album Journal for Plague Lovers. Well… it wasn’t really a single. No track from that album was. Nicky Wire joked that just the titles alone for some of the tracks on there didn’t really make them suitable for a commercial release. Though it was this one that made it known that there was a new album on its way. It’s one of the lighter and poppier moments on the album, save for the last minute or so where James Dean Bradfield really lets loose on the vocals accompanied by the thrashing drums and rise in tempo. Those guitar harmonics that serve as the song’s main musical hook are brilliant too. Good musical substance packed into two and a half minutes.

The lyrics were written by Richey Edwards, the band’s former guitarist and lyricist who disappeared one day in February 1995. Despite all hopes that he would some day return, he was officially presumed dead 13 years later in November of 2008. All of the lyrics on the album were written by him, if you hadn’t heard it before, and were taken from a notebook that he had left behind before his disappearance. They’re not the easiest to decipher, though that doesn’t matter really. I’ve always sensed some sort of sarcasm and satire from them though for reasons I don’t understand myself. You’d just have to listen to the song.