Motorcycle Emptyness
Culture sucks down words
Itemise loathing and feed yourself smiles
Organise your safe tribal war
Hurt maim kill and enslave the ghetto
Each day living out a lie
Life sold cheaply forever, ever, ever
Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness
Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness
Life lies a slow suicide
Orthodox dreams and symbolic myths
From feudal serf to spender
This wonderful world of purchase power
Just like lungs sucking on air
Survivals natural as sorrow, sorrow, sorrow
Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness
Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness
All we want from you are the kicks you’ve given us
All we want from you are the kicks you’ve given us
All we want from you are the kicks you’ve given us
All we want from you are the kicks you’ve given us
Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness
Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness
Drive away and it’s the same
Everywhere death row, everyone’s a victim
Your joys are counterfeit
This happiness corrupt political shit
Living life like a comatose
Ego loaded and swallow, swallow, swallow
Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness
Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness
Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness
Under neon loneliness everlasting nothingness
“Motorcycle Emptyness”
Manic Street Preachers
CULTURE SUCKS DOWN WORDS
How generally our language is influenced by what we hear through the media. We bend words and their meanings to fit with our viewpoints shaped by popular media.
ITEMISE LOATHING AND FEED YOURSELF SMILES
How consumerist goods equal degradation and self-loathing rather than self-empowerment as purported by advertising. ‘Feed yourself smiles’ emphasises the vicious circle of low-self-worth leading to consumer binges that allow only the briefest satisfaction – anything from a hamburger to heroin, it’s the same psychology.
ORGANISE YOUR SAFE TRIBAL WAR
This equals the Machiavellian doctrine of divide and rule. Consumer culture and material hierarchy create division between the people which weakens them and staves off revolution. Here it is referring to the application of this principle across history, as the ‘us and them’ mentality that has always been a most effective tool of social control. It could also be talking about peaceful protest and how it has become a token activity while leaders in ‘free consumerist countries’ continue to slowly crush our liberties and offer miniscule rewards to maintain the notion of fair play.
HURT MAIM KILL AND ENSLAVE THE GHETTO
The violence links large scale atrocity to mental states of torture. So in this case the ‘ghetto’ is also a mental state, a feeling of enslavement or debilitation in an increasingly impersonal and dehumanising society.
EACH DAY LIVING OUT A LIE
LIFE SOLD CHEAPLY FOREVER, FOREVER
Tying the first verse together. Consumerism, tribalism and culture all purport to empower the individual and confer a sense of identity, but in fact cheapen and degrade the individual and mask their worthlessness at the same time.
UNDER NEON LONELINESS MOTORCYCLE EMPTINESS
UNDER NEON LONELINESS MOTORCYCLE EMPTINESS
Sunrise over Shinjuku, Tokyo where the video for Motorcycle Emptiness was filmed. Young Japanese dudes and their girls on these outlandish big motorbikes straight out of a comic book, Tokyo neon all around. Cool as f*ck – and devoid of any purpose or meaning whatsoever. Underneath all the clothes, the posing and the ‘movie of my life’ is the gaping awareness of our own significance and the sense of fruitlessness in a world teetering on the brink of self-extinction.
LIFE LIES A SLOW SUICIDE
Some might say most of the things that are supposed to satisfy us – ultimately kill us…. And we know it but choose to ignore. We are addicted to our consumerist culture and it is slowly killing us.
ORTHODOX DREAMS AND SYMBOLIC MYTHS
Human egocentric behaviour will try to find meaning and for that leans on spirituality and symbolism. Following or conforming to the accepted rules or beliefs of a religion (‘doctrine’) and starting to believe the symbolism that comes with it (i.e. life after death).
FROM FEUDAL SERF TO SPENDER
THIS WONDERFUL WORLD OF PURCHASE POWER
From lower class labourer bound by the feudal system, tied to working on his lord’s estate to upper class spender, how one accumulates wealth over time.