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Marx and Engels Lyrics
There's misery in all I hear and see
From the people on TV
After their tea when life begins again
They'll be happier than me
There are a thousand meals being made on Saturday
From the view I saw today
I took a bet inside the launderette
With a girl from Wallasey
She spoke in dialect I could not understand
But one thing that she made clear
There was no coming on to her
There was no way
There's misery in all I hear and see
From the people on TV
After their tea when life begins again
They'll be happier than me
There are a thousand meals being made on Saturday
From the view I saw today
I took a bet inside the launderette
With a girl from Wallasey
She spoke in dialect I could not understand
But one thing that she made clear
There was no coming on to her
There was no intellect
That she could respect
If it couldn't see
That the girl just wants to be
Left alone with Marx and Engels for a while
She's writing in the style
Of any riot girl
From the people on TV
After their tea when life begins again
They'll be happier than me
From the view I saw today
I took a bet inside the launderette
With a girl from Wallasey
But one thing that she made clear
There was no coming on to her
There was no way
From the people on TV
After their tea when life begins again
They'll be happier than me
From the view I saw today
I took a bet inside the launderette
With a girl from Wallasey
But one thing that she made clear
There was no coming on to her
There was no intellect
That she could respect
If it couldn't see
That the girl just wants to be
Left alone with Marx and Engels for a while
She's writing in the style
Of any riot girl
Song Info
Submitted by
michaelbondy On Jan 08, 2005
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I think this song has nothing to do with economics or politics and is simply about a bookish girl who is not interested in any line any guy has for her.
Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels are the writers of The Communist Manifesto and Capital, which is abuot how the working class can rise and defeat the bourgeouisie, creating a classless society. Hence, communist manifesto. But it's supposed to be inspirational to the workers to fight, even though it didn't work. But i think the song might be about the world being miserable and poor people not being able to afford necessities perhaps? And the girl i guess is also someone who is poor, but my best guess in the end ("That the girl just wants tobe/left alone with marx and engels for a while/she's writing in the style/of any riot girl) is about her writing inspirationally i suppose? I'm really talking out my ass here.
no kidding.
so, i just want to know what the high background vocals are saying under the last verse. it's probably whatever the girl in the song is supposed to be writing down, and it's probably funny (stereotypical faux-marxist/angsty teenager writings). I'm guessing this only because one of the first words she sings is "bourgeois." After that i can't make it out. Any help?
The girl's lyrics go: 'The bourgeoisie, historically, has played a revolutionary part to all feudal, idyllic relationships. It has resolved personal worth and in place of freedom is exploitation for profit alone. There is a spectre of the past in my bold assertion. We could learn much from the past'
i think that's out of the Communist Manifesto itself, if I'm not mistaken. Mind, I might be.
Yeah, it is - or at least adapted from there.
I've always taken this song to be about how the girl is so preoccupied with the literature and the political theory of Marx and Engels that she neglects the reality going on around her, and the misery of ordinary people which they write about.
There's been a few references to communism/socialism. The Hammer and sickle on the cover of 'this is just a modern rock song', this song...a reference to an anarchist author in 'a century of fakers' who "didn't get it right". By all means, Marx and Engels got it right, but the Soviet Union and others got it terribly wrong - this is what I think is meant by that.
It's all up to you on what it means really.