Everything Must Go

Always thought this was written to Richey too, moreso than to the fans. Reads like an apology to him for the guilt they must have felt carrying on without him.

How his disappearance actually freed them from the dark times the band seemed to be spiraling into because of his inner demons. Like how, despite all the grief, there is always a small sense of relief (freedom) that comes when someone you love passes away after suffering in pain. He freed them eventually, now they just need to be happy, which of course you never can be after losing someone you love.

So everything must go, like burning old love letters in rage and sorrow in order to move on. If you need an explanation as to why we're carrying on, then we need to do this before we can explain. Genius lyrics. A genius song to go with them, and one of my favourite videos they did too.. the cherry blossoms falling from the tree leaving it barren.. What an amazing way to symbolise dying at the height of your beauty - not suggesting Richey is dead, no one knows that, but a beautiful metaphor for loss nonetheless. Just my interpretation.

Yeah, basically saying to all manics fans of the time that without richey they won't be the same band

It's sad but uplifting at the same time. It is like an apology that "it's the end of an era, but we've just got to move on".

This song is underrated, in my opinion. I mean, A Design For Life and If You Tolerate This... are both great, but music channels should play this just as much.

I thought that it was about bailiffs, and how they are uncaring, as long as they get paid. "i'm sorry, but its all gotta go, since you havent paid" "Why?" "It's gotta go"

A lot of younger fans don't realize how much the Manics changed after Ritchie's death.

Their musical style, lyrics, attitude, public personas all changed, remarkably.

The Ritchie era Manics played very dark, arty, disturbing, punk music, with extremely poetic, complicated lyrics.

And they sold themselves as almost doom-rock, EMO, anarchists.

After he died, they changed to a much more melodic, anthetic, positive band, with much simpler and easier-to-understand lyrics. And they had great success.

So much of this song is about that change, and the feelings of guilt that are associated with it. Abandoning Ritchie's vision of the band, essentially . Because they simply couldn't do it without him. He was the driving force of that era, both in the songs, and on the stage, and in the media.

So the song is saying:

"We're sorry we can't continue as we were, but it's impossible. We have to try something new."

This song is written to richie (guitarist/songwriter who dissapeared, possibly suicide since he was depressed), saying that changes must be made or the band would follow him down wherever he went. Thats my opinion :)

Each of us is what he/she is (at least) partly because of recent history. What would each individual be if he/she could be FREED FROM THE MEMORY/CENTURY/HISTORY? we'll never know, but the impression is that history heavily weighs upon everybody's conscience and HURTS from whatever point of view you come to look at it (I'm just thinking of the Nazis, Stalin, the Holocaust, Cambodjan Red Khmers, Vietnam war, Hiroshima. pollution, starving children and fat western ladies...) The future is just an anticipation of what history has been, so why should we trust in the future? should we somehow get rid of the past, we would inevitably fall down again into the memory as soon as we look for any EXPLANATION about anything. Sooner or later you'll need an explanation about anything, but explanations need history, so once again, like in a nightmare, we are calling back history. Everything must go, you can't help it. We have been made of history, but history is mostly horrible and noone can escape that. A very realistic and pessimistic lyric with a theme not for everybody to understand or appreciate.

Not a post everyone will understand mate cos you're talking pseudo-intellectual b*llcks IMHO.

Yes, Everything Must Go is the Manics' plea to break free from their past, a straight jacket they kind of constructed for themselves. A simple, heartfelt plea for forgiveness.

Yeah, basically saying to all manics fans of the time that without richey they won't be the same band