Tag Archives: 2013

The difficult survival of popular music and how to help / Song Analysis #65: Manic Street Preachers – Anthem for a Lost Cause

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I haven’t talked much about why I decided to step back from There Goes the Fear last year.  Music writing, editing my writers’ work, the research, and all the admin of running a website, including its social media accounts and ad revenue, consumed all my free time for 10 years.  I don’t think most people realized that.  A lot of people I encountered through my travels assumed from the amount of content I wrote, how much and where I traveled, and how little sleep I got at times, TGTF was my full-time and only job.  I had a separate 9-5, Monday-Friday career in nonprofit that paid the bills and made traveling abroad to shows and festivals and experiencing the world possible.  I was burning the candle at both ends, my body was suffering, and no one was advising me to back off of one or the other.

Working very hard like this is not at all uncommon for people in the music business.  Most of my friends who work in it are, by nature of the industry, hustlers who work multiple jobs and long hours, often in difficult, unstable circumstances, because of how passionate they are about their role in this business.  The big-name bands you know and love may have villas in the south of France and their own private jet, but indie artists these days and anyone who works behind the scenes aren’t that rich or anywhere near that flashy.

I had entertained moving abroad for a long time and wanted to figure out how to do that.  I left a conference in February in Belfast with friends’ full support and thinking this was going to be the year I’d finally do it.  But like so many things for so many people this year, I had to scrap the plan due to the coronavirus.  I’m really not happy about it, sure, but I’m going to be okay pushing my plan off for later.  I’m not so sure about my friends and their livelihoods.  I can’t think of too many people who have welcomed the pandemic.  Uh, Jeff Bezos?  He isn’t thought of too highly in the DC area after he bought The Washington Post…

I chose today’s song for an unusual reason: my original interpretation wasn’t on the mark at all.  Keep reading to see how I tie the band’s explanation for the meaning of the song to the title of this post.

Title: ‘Anthem for a Lost Cause’
Where to find it: ‘Rewind the Film’ and ‘Anthem for a Lost Cause’ single (2013, Columbia)
Performed by: Manic Street Preachers
Words: James Dean Bradfield

Verse 1
It’s a cold and lonely message
At the end of a song
It invaded hearts and minds
But they couldn’t get along
It can ask you to remember
It can ask you for a dance
So it seems that every song
Now is just one last chance

Chorus
Take this, it’s yours
An anthem for a lost cause
Now ashes, bone, and splinter
What once was a glittering prize
The composition rites

Verse 2
Oh redemption, love, and departure
I think your work is done
Paris, St. Petersburg don’t need a tower of song
Escape’s not worth the capture
So walk that lonesome road
No joy or earthly rapture
Nothing to take the load

Chorus X 2
Take this, it’s yours
An anthem for a lost cause
Now ashes, bone, and splinter
What once was a glittering prize
The composition rites

Take this, it’s yours
An anthem for a lost cause
Now ashes, bone, and splinter
What once was a glittering prize
The composition rites

Bridge
…Yours…
…Cause…

Chorus
Take this, it’s yours
An anthem for a lost cause
Now ashes, bone, and splinter
What once was a glittering prize
The composition rites

Manic Street Preachers, with or without Richey Edwards, have been known for more politically aware and socially biting lyrics than those found on ‘Anthem for a Lost Cause’.  This is a schmaltzy, waltzy moment, with an old-fashioned ‘60s feel that Nicky Wire described in the Quietus was intentional: “The brass arrangements took ages, we were really trying to get the feel of Sam Cooke or something.”  They decided to give the promo video a Welsh political bent instead, reminding us all through an emotional, heart-tugging story set during the South Wales miners’ strike of 1984-1985 mounted in opposition of then UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.  I have quite a few friends from Yorkshire and the North East.  Let’s just say that from what I have heard and learned, her legacy is not a positive one, either there or pretty much anywhere in the North.

I usually don’t stick the video or stream this early in the post, but I’m breaking all kinds of rules lately.

If I read a book before I see its film, I usually find the film is ruined for me.  I had the reverse happen when I watched the promo video, got all teary eyed and upset for the woman and the miners, and then went back to the lyrics and felt disenchanted.  I seem to remember I was too busy doing stuff for TGTF, so it took me ages for me to finally find the lyrics online.  Up to that point, I was going off what I heard.  Before I did any other digging, I interpreted the song as a man singing sweetly to a woman while they were slow dancing that he was in fact saying goodbye.  “Lonely” and “lonesome road” come up in the lyrics, suggesting a disappointing but inevitable outcome.  I interpreted the man as the “lost cause”, the guy who accepts that he can’t settle down, but he wants the woman to remember for who he was when they were together.

Nicky Wire said that James Dean Bradfield wrote this about “composition rites”, a phrase that confused me and that Wire misheard as “composition rights,” as in music composition copyright.  (I am not an expert in music copyright, whether in composition or sound recording, so consult your friendly music lawyer if you want to know more about this.)  The difference between “rites” and “rights” is apparently the key to this song.  An uncited sentence on the song’s Wikipedia page is credited to Bradfield’s further explanation: “In an interview, Bradfield stated that the song was about the question of if lyrics today are as important as they were before.”  With all the lyrics taken together, the song as a whole makes so much more sense.

I wanted to write about this song now because of what we’re seeing happening to the music business, and I want anyone who is unaware to wake up to the reality.  I’m having a hard time looking to a future when live shows and festivals will be looking like they used to, full of happy people, crammed in, experiencing live performance.  I’m wondering when the business that I knew will bounce back, if ever.  I have lived and breathed the music life for so many years, this truth was obvious to me, but louder for the oblivious ones in the back: the primary source of reliable income for most musicians and bands, performing live, is no longer a revenue stream.  This is catastrophic.

This is a disastrous time for anyone who makes a living through the music business because there are no shows going on: that means besides the people you watched on the stage, almost everyone who works in a behind the scenes role to live shows and festivals – of which there are a lot – now find themselves unemployed and scrambling to find alternate employment.  If an artist or band can’t make money, anyone who works for them won’t make any money either.  Live music venues are closing.  In short, this is really bad for all parts of the music industry ecosystem.

Bradfield’s sadness on ‘Anthem for a Lost Cause’ is legitimate.  He’s singing about the lack of interest and respect in music lyrics in popular music today, which should be extended to full songs themselves.  The average music listener can go on YouTube (free) or a music streaming service like Spotify, Deezer, etc. (free or paying a small fee) and not appreciate that you’re getting to listen to someone’s art for an infinitesimally small fee, art that was made through many people’s talent, hard work, and time.  In turn, the artist or band who made it are getting a criminally small return on all that talent, hard work, and time from the streaming service.  If you would like a story that explains the heinous nature of music streaming royalties, read this.  If you’re a numbers kind of person, this will do.

The music business has been like this for a long while.  I saw how it was becoming increasingly difficult to make a living by being a musician or being in a band.  It’s one of the reasons I worked so hard with TGTF.  It upset me deeply seeing my friends and young kids coming up struggle.  Being able to tour or appear at a festival had become an artist’s bread and butter.  My friends who are in bands like playing to crowds and getting that genuine audience reaction.  However, I am sure that many of them would not have toured as extensively and spent that much time away from home and their loved ones as they did if the actual singles and albums they made and released resulted in more profit for them.

If there are any silver linings to the economic fallout to COVID-19, I hope that there will be serious changes to the way the state and the music fans themselves appreciate, respect, and support artists.  If they are not supported financially going forward, less and less people will be making music.  We’re going to lose all that richness of art that comes through popular music. 

If you value any piece of music you have listened to in your life, you need to do something now. Support your favorite artists by buying music and merchandise from them.  Support your local venues however you can.  However small the contribution, make a difference. If you don’t know where to start, this is a good starting point.

*Photo at the top is of Irish band whenyoung, the last band I saw at SXSW 2019.

Song Analysis #20: Fenech-Soler – In Our Blood

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Title: ‘In Our Blood’
Where to find it: ‘Rituals’ (2013, B-Unique)
Performed by: Fenech-Soler
Words by: Ben Duffy

Lines have blurred between dance music and pop, but dance is and has always been a different animal to rock. I like to dance, and I also like to rock. But it has always bothered me so much when I encountered the snooty type of rock aficionado who would widely and loudly dismiss all dance music. (Dance music aficionados don’t do that. They’re too busy having fun…dancing.) While I would be the first to admit that a lot of dance music today isn’t intellectual, it’s not supposed to be. Good dance music should be judged on how well it gets the job done: does it get people on the floor to dance? If yes, a dance song can be said to be a success. And a lot of the time, the best dance songs work their magic by reminding you about that girl or boy you fancy and how much you want to be with him or her. Or by simply helping you forget your troubles for that moment in time as the infectious rhythms take you away.

During the first music festival I ever covered, Dot to Dot in Nottingham in 2009, I spoke to then rising star and frontman Ed Macfarlane of Friendly Fires, and he said he wanted their music to be escapist, because that’s what he felt successful dance music did. We got into a friendly argument over this, because up to that point, I had only been a music writer for a couple months and prior to becoming a writer, I’d viewed most music as equal in weight and I have loved so much dance prior to that, it never occurred to me that dance music would be considered lesser by a good majority of the people in the music business. Was I in for an education… It even bothers me to this day that some people view Friendly Fires as a lightweight band; I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing them and meeting them several times, and they’re just lovely, genuine people with a true love of music. They, along with any other dance / dance/pop band out today, are making music that they love and want to share with the world and no-one – not even some snooty rock aficionado – has the right to criticise them. So what if you consider the lyrics simple and escapist? If the music brings people joy, shut up.

However, you should know there are some dance songs out there that are disguised as multi-colour confetti, hands in the air without a care in the world-type affairs but in actuality, have deeper meaning and darker undercurrents. ‘In Our Blood’, Fenech-Soler’s next single, is one of those songs. Funnily enough, Fenech-Soler came out shortly after Friendly Fires did, and were immediately compared to them, even though I’ve always sensed more of a tropical vibe in Friendly Fires whereas Fenech-Soler was more hardcore electronic. Fenech-Soler were also compared to Delphic, which is ultimately how I became aware of them: a couple years ago, being native Mancunians, Delphic curated a sold-out Manchester Warehouse Project show and Fenech-Soler were one of the bands they’d personally invited to play on the night. Naturally, I investigated who Fenech-Soler were – learning that they were even more electronic than even Delphic and their electro-rock/pop were – and proceeded to fall in love with ‘Lies’ and ‘Demons’. It’s kind of strange for my head to wrap around the fact that I’ve seen Fenech-Soler in Manchester before (opening for Example a couple days after my birthday 2 years ago), yet I’ve never seen Delphic there, and perhaps even stranger, Fenech-Soler have a better handle of what’s I’m up to these days than either Friendly Fires or Delphic do. Singer and lyricist Ben Duffy has given me priceless encouragement as I’ve been Editor at TGTF, encouragement I needed and have been grateful for. Both bands took their time – a whole 3 years – to work on and release their sophomore albums this year, and in that album vs. album battle, Fenech-Soler came out on top. I’ve mentioned on this site that I’m clairvoyant: well, ‘In Our Blood’ was my choice to be their next single and this past weekend they just announced that it would be. You put two and two together 🙂

First, the words:

Verse 1
Time after time out on the floor, it’s killing us
Some nights we’re just letting go, it’s not enough
Lovers fade, lovers walk
Either way, people talk, but
Nothing else matters anymore.

Pre-chorus
Sunrise, don’t wait up,
I’m going to get lost in the dark

Chorus
I don’t want to go back home,
Silver light flooding through our bones,
Chemical in the dark, beat in our hearts,
I don’t want to go home,
Don’t want to go home.

 

It’s in our blood, it’s in our blood,
It’s in our blood, in our blood tonight
Even if I have to dance alone,
I don’t want to go home,
don’t want to go home

Verse 2
Follow the sounds, yeah, we’re animals
When we’re together, we never fall
We can start again, start a war
Either way, this is who we are
So let’s get lost in the dark

Chorus
I don’t want to go back home,
Silver light flooding through our bones,
Chemical in the dark, beat in our hearts,
I don’t want to go home,
Don’t want to go home.

 

It’s in our blood, it’s in our blood,
It’s in our blood, in our blood tonight
Even if I have to dance alone,
I don’t want to go home,
don’t want to go home

Now, the analysis:

Part of the reason I wanted to do this analysis: I was concerned those snooty rock people I mentioned earlier might draw the unnecessary (and from my best guess, also incorrect) conclusion that this song is about drugs, because yes, dance parties do tend to attract drugs and drug users. (But so do rock shows!) And I can see where this could come from – “it’s in our blood”, “silver light flooding through our bones”, “chemical in the dark” – if you had just the lyrics in front of you and had no idea who Fenech-Soler are, if they were musicians, if they wrote dance music, etc. So if you fall into that category, you’re forgiven. If you’ve never heard this song, I implore you, queue up the stream at the bottom of this post before proceeding any further. As I said in the lengthy introduction, this is a song that requires closer investigation because all is now what it seems. From the word go, this song has a party vibe, but imagine your surprise that you’re in fact we’re witnessing something far more serious!

Let’s tackle verse 1 first, shall we? Ben Duffy is taking us to…the dance floor (“time after time out on the floor”). No surprise there. But he isn’t alone. He’s bringing the apple of his eye, his lover, what have you. This is the place where they have been together so many times. And he’s using the physical act of dancing with the person he cares about as a metaphor for their relationship. “It’s killing us” isn’t meant to be taken literally, it’s saying their relationship is dying. “Some nights we’re letting go, it’s not enough” seems to indicate what’s left is the last vestiges of their relationship, and they’re barely holding on with their fingertips. What is left isn’t enough to sustain love.

“Lovers fade, lovers walk / Either way, people talk, but / Nothing else matters anymore”: he’s come to the uncomfortable conclusion that life goes on, it doesn’t matter what people are saying about us. The relationship is over, and he is being kind of fatalistic about it. The pre-chorus sounds hopeful in its build-up, as he tells the “sunrise, don’t wait up” because “I’m going to get lost in the dark”. Even though he knows the relationship is over, he can’t really face up to it in the stark light of day. So he retreats to the place where he can drown his sorrows. And dance.

Then begins what I consider one of the best, if not the best chorus on all of ‘Rituals’. (For more on the album, read my review here on TGTF.) He insists, “I don’t want to go back home”, because going home, he’d have to face the end. When you’re in a dance club and you’re a dance music fan, the incredible high you get moving your body to a song that you love is second to none. You feel it in your bones, you feel it in your veins, you feel it “in our blood”. Note he says, “in our blood”, not “in my blood” or “in your blood”. Even if when the morning comes and it’s all over, right here on the dance floor, he still feels there is still a glimmer of hope that the two of them have a chance to make it because they share this night. The saddest part of the chorus for me is when Duffy sings, “even if I have to dance alone, I don’t want to go home, don’t want to go home”: again, he’s accepted the end of the relationship, but he’s not taking this lying down. Literally. He is going to spend this night, the last moments before his heart truly has to give in, dancing and trying to delay the pain he’s already starting to feel.

Verse 2 supports the idea that he thinks there might be a chance to save what they have, because when they are a team, they’re unstoppable: “When we’re together, we never fall”. However, he’s pragmatic: “We can start again, start a war / Either way, this is who we are”: he’s saying I can’t change who I am, and I know you can’t change who you are. If we try and start over, we might just end up fighting again, and if this happens, we shouldn’t blame ourselves because this is our nature. But he offers his hand with, “So let’s get lost in the dark”, for what will likely be their last dance. If you take this all in, ‘In Our Blood’ is both celebratory and poignant. And it’s brilliant what Fenech-Soler have done here. Absolutely brilliant. (For another example of Fenech-Soler in fine form, check out earlier ‘Rituals’ single ‘All I Know’.)

Something else that great dance music gives you: hope, in the form of euphoria. I’ve been blasting my watermarked promo copy of ‘Rituals’ in my car the last couple of weeks and it’s been giving me a much needed injection of life. Whoever said dance music lacks true emotion needs a lobotomy. You just haven’t been listening to the right kind of dance. I pity the person who can’t loosen themselves up and just dance and lose themselves in the music.

Lastly, the song, updated now with its video after this article posted. I’m really pleased this will be the next single off ‘Rituals’ – it couldn’t have been any other song in my mind – and the band has promised a promo video is forthcoming soon.

Song Analysis #17: Suede – Hit Me

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Title: ‘Hit Me’
Where to find it: ‘Bloodsports’ (2013, Suede Ltd)
Performed by: Suede, whose name on American Spotify “The London Suede” annoys me to high heaven
Words by: Brett Anderson

I’ve always preferred male singers to female ones. I sing in a lower register than most women – I was lead alto in school choir – so it’s more comfortable for me to sing along to men’s voices, so I’m not reaching up and beyond my range. And don’t ask me why, but I’ve always preferred the unique sounding men’s ones. Specifically Morrissey and Brett Anderson of Suede. It had been such a long time since Suede had put out anything new, and I was really sceptical when their new one ‘Bloodsports’ was announced. Many questioned if it would be any good, after having gone on hiatus (well, really, a true breakup) and making it without Bernard Butler, with the rest of them having not worked together in years.

To my pleasant surprise, I actually really love the new album, and one huge reason about this is that the starry-eyed vocal quality of Anderson’s is still there, espousing the power of love of all things. Though of course being Brett Anderson, there are always ‘Barriers’ to it actually happening. There was always something special in the way he was romantic (and depending on the song, sexual) in his words. There was something dangerous too; I always sensed that he was not someone who loved easily but if you happened to fall in love with him, he’d latch on like the Scorpio I dated as my first boyfriend many moons ago and would never let go.

First, the words:

Verse 1 (long version)
You touch the place where we meet
Where you and I become she and he
I’m not as strong as I pretend to be

You feel the scratches and scars
You feel the possibly we call ours
But drop me once and I’ll fall to bits

Chorus (x2)
Come on and hit me
With your majesty
Come on and hit me
With all your mystery

La la la la la
La la la la la
La la la la la
La la la la la

Verse 2 (short version)
I remember when we touched, we are young
You feel my pulse and we become one
But drop me once and I will fall to bits

Chorus (x2)
Come on and hit me
With your majesty
Come on and hit me
With all your mystery

La la la la la
La la la la la
La la la la la
La la la la la

Chorus (x2)
(So) Come on and hit me
With your majesty
Come on and hit me
With all your mystery

La la la la la
La la la la la
La la la la la
La la la la la
La la la la la
La la la la la
La la la la la
La la la la la
La la la la la
La la la la la

Now, the analysis:

I remember when I was younger and telling my father that I would have preferred to have been born a boy because it’s in my nature to be honest and if I’m blunt, so be it. You know what you’re called when you’re a woman who acts like that, right? I don’t like how in Western society (and even more so in Oriental ones ::groan::) women have to wait until the man makes the move. We’re not allowed to. We have to stand around, look pretty, and wait for him to come to us. From a psychological standpoint, some “experts” have said this stems from the fact that the man has to feel like he’s the one in control and he’s the one calling the shots. I’ve always been an individual and fiercely independent, so this goes against everything I believe in.

The reason I really like this song? It’s so simple, yet it so clear in showing the vulnerability of a man in love. And let’s face it, whether it’s because they are inherently macho or it’s society that’s made them like this, men in general aren’t readily willing to show or admit their feelings to the women they are interested in. They have to be really, truly in love for anything like that to surface. Are they afraid of getting hurt? Are they afraid of being vulnerable, to admit they can be like us women and their outer armour can be penetrated when their defenses are down? Well, hate to say it fellas, but some of us women prefer those non-macho, emotion-rich types. I want to be with someone who not only can empathise with my feelings but has his own feelings and can show those feelings to me without feeling like he’s any less of a man. I don’t want to be in love with a brick wall.

Both halves of the first verse are structured in the same way: the first two lines are optimistic, and romantic for Anderson’s style of writing. He’s acknowledging there is a strong connection there. (Um, “you touch the place where we meet“? Hello, sex.) But is it love? He can let down his guard because they’re at the place “where you and I become she and he“. (By the way, I love how he swapped the usual order of “he and she” to “she and he” – he’s giving her more respect, opposite to the way on envelopes a doctor is addressed before his married wife, “Dr. and Mrs.”) He’s letting her into his world and letting her see him, warts and all (“you feel the scratches and scars“). And that’s perfectly okay, because they’re together and it feels right (“you feel the possibly we call ours“). Oh yeah, and grammar be damned! “Possibly” used as a noun. Why not?

Then examine the third lines. Both indicate just how vulnerable he is in this position. “I’m not as strong as I pretend to be“: he’s telling her (or us) it’s not a comfortable situation and it’s taking all of his courage to be able to give in to her, to surrender. “But drop me once and I’ll fall to bits“: he knows he’s on a knife edge between bliss and possible rejection or heartbreak, but he’s willing to take that chance for love.

You touch the place where we meet (1)
Where you and I become she and he (2)
I’m not as strong as I pretend to be (3)

You feel the scratches and scars (1)
You feel the possibly we call ours (2)
But drop me once and I’ll fall to bits (3)

The chorus has an interesting contrast too. He’s inviting her to “hit” him with who she is, a majestic, beautiful creature he’s fallen in love with. But he also reckons there is a mysterious element to her as well, and he’s excited about the prospect of learning more about her as “all your mystery” unfolds to him.

The next and final true verse is somewhat similar to those I described above, but with a further romantic twist. They’ve touched, they’ve been so close she could feel his pulse (a shortened, less elegant way of conveying the overused “you can / can you feel my heartbeat”), but he’s still feeling vulnerable. This, I think, is amazing. The song hasn’t come to any resolution; he’s not skipping around town without any inhibitions because of being in love. Don’t misunderstand all those “la las”. No, as a man he’s still feeling exposed. I feel that, because that feeling is real. And all too rare to be seen in my experience.

I remember when we touched, we are young (1)
You feel my pulse and we become one (2)
But drop me once and I will fall to bits (3)

Women aren’t allowed to take chances in love, and men don’t want to take the chances in love, even though they’re allowed to. Huge disconnect.

Lastly, the song, in its promo video form. Remember what I said about Brett Anderson being dangerous? The video takes that literally. Initially, the video made no sense to me but the more I watched it, the more I “got” it. I won’t say anymore to let you come to your own conclusions.