Your Love Alone Is Not Enough

Manic Street Preachers

Your love alone is not enough not enough not enough
When times get tough they get tough they get tough they get tough
Trade all your heroes in for ghosts in for ghosts in for ghosts
They're always the one's that love you most love you most love you most

Your love alone is not enough not enough not enough
It's what you felt it's what you said what you said what you said
You said the sky would fall on you fall on you fall on you
Through all the pain your eyes stayed blue they stayed blue baby blue

But your love alone won't save the world
You knew the secret of the universe
Despite it all you made it worse
It left you lonely it left you cursed

You stole the Sun straight from my heart from my heart from heart
With no excuses just fell apart fell apart fell apart

No you won't make a mess of me mess of me mess of me
For you're as blind as a man can be man can be man can be

I could have seen for miles and miles
I could have made you feel alive
I could have placed us in exile
I could have shown you how to cry

Your love alone is not enough
Your love alone is not enough

I could have shown you how to cry
Your love alone is not enough
Your love alone


Lyrics submitted by Liverpool, edited by madsounds

Your Love Alone Is Not Enough Lyrics as written by James Dean Bradfield James Bradfield

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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Your Love Alone Is Not Enough song meanings
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19 Comments

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  • +7
    General CommentHe left out the line Nicky sings "I could have written all your lines." That line haunts me.
    CHAKAon June 10, 2007   Link
  • +4
    General CommentSean has written a lot more of the music with James this time around. And I wrote half of the music for the first single, Your Love Alone Is Not Enough, which features Nina Persson of The Cardigans, who I think are one of the great underrated bands and I love her voice. It's a complicated lyric. What it's trying to say on one level is that any single element is never enough for a country to survive. You can't solely have religion, or love, or democracy. We need all these elements for any country to be coherent. It is also about people and specifically, suicide. There are just too many people I've known who have killed themselves. James was like, "Great. Another fucking song about suicide! I thought you did all that on your solo album?" I guess people will assume it is about Richey too. He was in a successful band, he could have had a nice girlfriend if he wanted, and we all loved him. But it wasn't enough. Whether its suicide or not, obviously, we don't know. But there's a line in there: "I could have seen for miles and miles/I could've shown you how to smile/I could've shown you how to cry" it's just that feeling of regret. Could someone have done more?

    Nicky Wire
    Liverpoolon April 23, 2007   Link
  • +3
    General Comment'A great song is when you have the courage to turn something sad into a happy, poppy song' - Bono

    So true in this case.
    PleasePleasePleaseon May 09, 2007   Link
  • +3
    General CommentThe line "I could have written all your lines" means waterfalls for me. It's the most heartbreaking thing in music history I guess. In Manic history at least.
    latvianon July 28, 2010   Link
  • +2
    General CommentAs others have said, the song is indeed about suicide. The title of the song was the last line of a suicide note left by a friend of someone close to the band.
    LDGon April 04, 2012   Link
  • +1
    General CommentCool song! I read that this song is about suicide...Sounds about right to me
    zazzle21on April 18, 2007   Link
  • +1
    General CommentThis song is an imagined conversation between two lovers, which leads to one's suicide, as the other person's love is not enough to save them
    aarghapandaon May 25, 2007   Link
  • +1
    General CommentI love it when such sad songs become such wonderful pop songs.

    I like to think of it as a general statement about belief in general. Love alone is not enough....whether it be romantic love, patriotism, religion, friendship, anything. Life is a lot more complex than just love, and "love" is such a vague, nebulous word to begin with.
    arolloon December 03, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Commentdemocracy is a word that means every thing and nothing
    wee yinon October 07, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Commentloves
    vauinon November 01, 2007   Link

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