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Valley Boy Lyrics

Here I am in Amsterdam
I like it here they speak my language
Even though it's not my own
It's got BBC for comfort zone

But best of all it's got Marks and Spencer
Equality for the masses never felt better

And some of my dreams
They may have come true
But so have my nightmares
Which I can't get through

And now I've lost the power to speak
And now I've lost the power to eat
Idle and out of touch in Europe

Nothing's gone and nothing's changed
All that was before will still remain
It's too late to learn a new currency

And some of my dreams
They may have come true
But so have my nightmares
Which I can't get through
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Cover art for Valley Boy lyrics by Manic Street Preachers

I really like this song.

Anyway I think it's just about the Wire being rather xenophobic (a sheltered boy from the valleys) and ignoring European culture while on tour for the comforts of British cultural imperialism (M&S and the BBC). I'm not sure why the song gets so depressing towards the end- I think it may just be his lament for the fact that although he has become a famous rock star, in global demand, those very things he takes comfort in are evidence that the messages of MSP are falling on deaf ears.

Cover art for Valley Boy lyrics by Manic Street Preachers

The song is criticising the EU (scum). "It's too late to learn a new currency" obviously refers to the euro. "Idle and out of touch in Europe" could refer to how the EU have lost touch with real perople in europe.

"And some of my dreams They may have come true But so have my nightmares Which I can't get through" This could, but I'm not sure, mean that Nicky's dream of unity among nations (they're socialist) has been achieved, but his nightmares of no democracy / accountability / freedom have also come true.

"Nothing's gone and nothing's changed" also refers to how dictatorships which we fought to eradicate still exist. Everything's the same as it's always been.

Cover art for Valley Boy lyrics by Manic Street Preachers

I don\'t think this is anything to do with the EU. It\'s about Nicky himself and how he felt he\'d become disconnected from his Valley Boy roots after years of endless touring. He\'s the one whose idle and out of touch in Europe, watching the BBC and surviving on Marks and Spencer sandwiches, desperate to just go home. All of his dreams of being a massively sucessful rock star have come true, but only after the nightmare of losing Richey. And now he\'s got nothing left to say, and everything is the same, day after day after day. So was any of it worth it?

 
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