Track 9 on
Manic Street Preachers third album
The Holy Bible. It was the first single released, as a
double a-side with
Sculpture Of Man and
New Art Riot as the b-sides.
The only contribution which was made to this song by Nicky Wire was the title, which is a play on words - while it describes the spluttering, speedfreak nature of the song, it also touches on Richey's anorexia (see Webster's definition below).
The lyrics were all written by Richey. It's probably his finest moment. There's a vainglorious attempt to encapsulate everything in the world - all the pain, joy, hate, rage, sickness, anger, energy, everything - into a few brief minutes. A bit like the Manic's career really.
But the song wouldn't work if the music wasn't up to scratch. James gets it just right here, providing a frenetic, psychotic, spitting, howling fury. The chord progressions are all wrong, the words all jumble into each other, and the band are all out of sync. Goddamn it sounds good.
They performed this live on Top Of The Pops, with James wearing a balaclava and the rest of the band in combat gear. The complaints received for that performance remained a record until The Prodigy played "Smack My Bitch Up".
With the possible exception of Yes, this is the greatest song ever written.
I hate purity. Hate goodness. I don't
want virtue to exist anywhere.
I want everyone corrupt