Condemned To Rock N' Roll

My InterpretationFrom my point of view, this is Richey Edwards exposing the pain and emptiness of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle.

"A line of vodka tears inside/A shot of boredom helps my mind" - Personally, I think this sentence describes Edwards' sorrow and how alcohol has essentially done nothing for him and that actually find solace in boredom more than intoxication.

"Lips I kiss just another plague/Love can't fix the hole they made" - This to me is basically saying 'No matter how many women you get off/sleep with, it will never truly satisfy you." I don't think he is referring to love in a literal sense, just lust and promiscuity.

The last line "There's nothing I want to see/There's nowhere I want to go" send shivers down my spine, especially when taking into account Edwards' disappearance in 1995. I think Richey was truly a lost soul and the circumstances that later followed are absolutely tragic.


This defiantly points to the lyrical direction the band later took 2 years later with The Holy Bible. The song, as something previously mentioned earlier, certainly seems quite poetic. Instrumentally, the song heavy riffage reminds me of Motley Crue and I think this is no coincidence, as the song seems to denounce the cruel reality behind the "good times" that the Crue had once sung about. I think this was probably the first of many swan songs from Richey, the majority of which later appeared on The Holy Bible.

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General CommentYou've missed the best lines off!

Sterile like a line of piss, motherfucker
Review with avant-garde lips
You're just a motherfucker

There's nothing I want to see
There's nowhere I want to go...

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My InterpretationIt's really powerful, really savage, this song. My idea is that all the pressures of life and a proper relationship are really starting to constrict and depress the songwriter (Richey, I'm thinking). They can't really get connected to the other person and find the whole thing really restrictive and dispiriting, and just want to end it ('lets go shoot the fucking doves'). The peaceful past seems so appealing to them compared to the future. In the end, writing lyrics and music is the only thing keeping them even slightly sane, as well as being the only way for them to express their emotions. Therefore they are 'condemned to rock n' roll' as it is the only way of life possible for them.

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General Commenti love this song. its more like a poem than a song. i think musically its not very good but the lyrics are amazing.
"lips i kiss just another plague
love can't fix the hole they made"

that sums up my life and me.

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General Comment"the past is so beautiful the future like a corpse in snow I think it's all the fucking same" is about how people look back on the past as if it was wonderful and that now everything is awful and the future is
doomed when really not much is all that different

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