Of Walking Abortion

Manic Street Preachers

Life is lead weights, pendulum died
Pure or lost, spectator or crucified
Recognised truth acedia's blackest hole
Junkies winos whores the nation's moral suicide
Loser - liar - fake - phoney
No-one cares, everyone is guilty
Fucked up - don't know why - you poor little boy

We are all of walking abortions
Shalom shalom we all love our children
We all are of walking abortions
Shalom shalom there are no horizons

Mussolini hangs from a butcher's hook
Hitler reprised in the worm of your soul
Horthy's corpse screened to a million
Tisu revived, the horror of a bullfight
Fragments of uniforms, open black ruins
A moral conscience - you've no wounds to show
So wash your car in your 'X' baseball shoes

We all are of walking abortions
Shalom shalom we all love our children
We are all of walking abortions
Shalom shalom there are no horizons

Little people in little houses
Like maggots small blind and worthless
The massacred innocent blood stains us all
Who's responsible - you fucking are
Who's responsible - you fucking are
Who's responsible - you fucking are
Who's responsible - you fucking are
Who's responsible


Lyrics submitted by glitterkitten

Of Walking Abortion Lyrics as written by Edwards Bradfield

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

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Of Walking Abortion song meanings
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15 Comments

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  • +4
    General CommentOne of the most damning lines, possibly on the entire album, is 'We all love our children'; for me, it trivialises the supposedly sacred insistution of parenthood. It reminds me of something that Philip Slater said, about how 'for the children' is the greatest war-cry - and the greatest justification - for public atrocities. These anxieties that we have for the welfare of our families renders us useless - 'Little people in little houses/ Like maggots, small, blind, and worthless.' We become the self-contained family unit that Richey always abhorred, biologically fertile but mentally castrated.
    richeyeon February 23, 2006   Link
  • +3
    General Commentthis song has nothing to do with maturbation: richey was writing at a time when he was at his best. the song is about how men are inferior to women. the quote is something along the lines of men missing the vital chromosome to be emotional beings with compassion. the whole point of the song is to show that the worlds recognised evil people (mussolini and hitler) wre men. have you ever heard of a woman who killed six million people because she didn't like the way they looked?
    jonnybassmanon July 25, 2005   Link
  • +2
    General CommentI agree with Richeye, the song isn't about inferiorety of men, and is somewhat in mockery of Solanas, by blamining everyone, instead of just men. My basis for that belief is the deridation of the term "whores", since male prostitution is much rarer and they are not generally referred to by that phrase in any case.

    I've also on occasion thought that the closing lines might be directly at Salonas, as well as to everyone in general.
    ithillionon January 17, 2006   Link
  • +2
    General Comment@Johnnybassman: Give them time, and take them off your sexist pedistal. Women assault, abuse, and murder people everyday. Just this morning I read about a mother who pushed her little girl out of a moving car. I read about another who ripped her little boy's scrodem open, before gluing it back together. Women are more than capible of the same abhorant violence men are - they've just never acquired enough power to do it on a global scale. Just wait. We ALL are of walking abortion, and the same worm of evil lies inside each of us. :P
    XeroFluxx6on November 01, 2013   Link
  • +1
    General Commentthe title of this song comes from Valerie Solanas' SCUM manifesto claiming men are inferior and are walking abortions as they are failed females.
    collyon July 06, 2003   Link
  • +1
    General CommentYeah, the major theme is the inferiority of men, principally in their capacity for violence and evil. The key line is 'Hitler reprised in the worm of your soul', in that all men carry the evil of big bad Adolf in them.
    jeffjeffjeffon November 09, 2005   Link
  • +1
    General CommentNicky Wire: "Horthy was a Hungarian fascist military dictator before the second World War, and the devotion that a fascist dictator can achieve just shows such a terrible flaw in human nature. There's always a chance that it'll be revived, because there's a worm in human nature that makes us want to be dominated." From articles.richeyedwards.net/…
    ReActoron March 26, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General CommentAnyone have interpretations of these lyrics?
    Cherub Rockon October 19, 2004   Link
  • 0
    General CommentUm, am I the only one that thinks that this song is about something more important than masturbation (though that's an excellant interpretation). I think it means that every human being is directly responible for war, famine etc. not just males (as Solanas said) or Americans ('so wash your car in your X baseball shoes)'. That everyone's got hatred in them ('Hitler reprised...').
    'Shalom, shalom, we all love our children' - everyone loves their own offspring, but when it's the offspring of others suffering most couldn't care less.
    'Spectator or crucified' - there's no middle ground, no one cares.
    my nothingon July 07, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General CommentHere's the opening monologue by Hubert Selby (an American novelist, wrote 'Last Exit To Brooklyn' amongst other things), for parity's sake:

    "I knew that some day I was gonna die, and I knew before I died, that two things would happen to me: that, number one, I would regret my entire life, and that, number two, I would want to live my life over again."

    A haunting confession, but I couldn't say with certainty what its relevance to the song is.
    The fourth line should also read: 'Recognised truth' and not 'recognise truth', by the way, which changes the meaning slightly.

    Misanthropic to say the least, the song is perfectly in keeping with the rest of the album. Partly it seems to be about turning a blind eye to atrocities, when, as Jeffjeffjeff says, sin is inherent in all of us ('Hitler reprised in the worm of your soul').
    Like My Nothing, I don't think this song is an attack on men specifcally, it's an attack on all of humankind (although, yes, the title comes from the essay attacking men by Solanos) - the line is 'everyone is guilty', not 'men are guilty'.
    richeyeon December 28, 2005   Link

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