submissions
| Manic Street Preachers – Let Robeson Sing Lyrics
| 6 years ago
|
|
Robeson spent years in Moscow as a guest of the Communist party. He even recorded a version of the Soviet national anthem. He remarked that Moscow was the one place he felt comfortable as a black man amongst a largely white population feeling that Soviet citizens didn't see his race before seeing him as a comrade if that makes sense. The 'sleepy moscow' line may be a reference to the fact that under Stalin; and even more so under Kruschev and those that followed, the revolutionary spirit of Lenin had largely been lost in consolidation and beurocracy, whereas Cuba and South America had become the great hope of socialism with truly people powered revolutions that had not (at that time) yet fallen into dogmatism or counterrevolution. Basically Moscow wasn't making things happen anymore and so was sleepy whereas Cuba was at the forefront of the struggle against imperialism. The MK Ultra thing has never been proved, but Robeson spent time in a uk sanitarium and was by all accounts never the same afterwards. He was black listed during the McCarthy witch hunts and denied foreign travel after he fell under suspicion. Afterwards he chose to exile himself from the US first in living for a time in the UK and also I n the Soviet Union. Incidentally whilst in the uk he spoke at the National Eisteddfod of Wales - a Welsh folk festival where he was extremely well received and perhaps gives a link to the Manics Welsh Roots. He returned to the US later in life as a broken man (perhaps due to attempted mind control attempts by the CIA and MI5) and shunned publicity til his death in 1976. |
submissions
| Manic Street Preachers – Freedom Of Speech Won't Feed My Children Lyrics
| 6 years ago
|
|
The title is completely unironic. It deals with the reality of life in most of the non western world. Western liberals mock these nations for their supposed lack of freedoms whilst at the same time working hard to asset strip them and exploit their financial weakness. The line "just brings heart disease and boot leg clothing" refers directly to the collapse of the former Soviet Union after 'glasnost' and perestroika. The former soviet citizens were promised a shining capitalist wonderland but all they ended up with was bootleg versions of western clothing brands and a slew of fast food chains which altered the national diet and caused a wave of obesity and heart problems across Eastern Europe. Many who lived under communism (around 70% according to recent polls) would rather return to the Soviet Union than continue with the gangster capitalism that exists in Russia now that America and the rest of the west have realised it's difficult to do business (exploit natural resources) in Russia. |
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.
