Sleepflower

This is possibly my favourite of all the Manics songs, although I feel The Holy Bible is the best all-round album. Looking at the imagery it links together sorrow, anxiety and insomnia in a vicious circle. When someone worries about something, they can't sleep, their mind loses focus, they worry more and so on. Sleep deprivation makes it hard to remember things ("a memory fades to a pale landscape"), relationships with other people are relegated to almost subliminal status ("You are an extinction, a desert heat" - both things that are technically there but have no physical substance, just an effect), the brain loses the ability to function properly ("Broken thoughts run through your empty mind").

After a major incident such as bereavement, separation or anxiety disorder there's the impact on life and especially sleep... when "innocence dies" it's not just a clean cut thing, it has major repercussions. And after some time of not sleeping it compounds the problems (lament blossoming) and makes the recipient feel even more wretched... a dog may be beaten and abused but at least it can have the luxury of sleep. Cobwebs on stone are the aftermath of old spiderwebs, serving no function but still there as a reminder, like the fragments of memory and anxiety that still remain in your mind and cause problems, so much so that even sleeping pills have no effect.

It's a great song, has a lot of personal relevance to me (having suffering from chronic insomnia for about thirteen years) and has fantastic imagery.

"Nobody seems to be able to get to sleep without artificial aid these days - whether it's alcohol, pills, or even exercise programmes. Round where we come from, lots of people seem to walking around with muscles bulging everywhere, even if they're only five foot two, and it's unnatural to be like that. I don't think it's a matter of vanity, because it's not as if anyone ever sees them." (Richey James)

Wow, four years and only two comments (and the second's a duplication). No 'this song rawks!' comments, or something of that ilk? Mind you, Manics fans ARE generally more discerning. Anyway, as to the song itself: well, the recurring Manic theme of sleep crops up again, and as I think about it I see an odd connection between this and 'I Live To Fall Asleep'. Seems to basically amount to 'being asleep is better than being awake,' although I daresay it's slightly more nuanced than that. The restlessness, the despair of consciousness or something. Anyway, I do love this song, even if JDB can't stand it (he's not a fan of 'Revol,' either - what's that about?!).

wish JDB didn't hate this, I love it!

For me this is a song about anxiety, insomnia comes as a consecuence of that anxiety. Broken thoughts, pieces of sleep, fragments crawling, everything becomes fragmented, the mind loses focus (Broken thoughts run through your empty mind). This lyrics remind me of Fight Club, when the narrator says "With insomnia, nothing's real. Everything is far away. Everything is a copy of a copy of a copy." As anxiety grows and the mind loses focus some people gets paralized, like an animal looking at some car lights, one knows what will happen if we don't move, but somehow we can't (Endless hours in bed, no peace in this mind).

"Endless hours in bed, no peace in this mind No one knows the hell where innocence dies Fragments crawling like cobwebs on stone Blows away the safety only a sleeping pill knows"

Love these lines,cery poetic,amazing amazing. This song is one of the best ever made about insomnia My dad has insomnia and therefore there is a chance that i have it too

But honestly,who doesnt go to bed and accidentally wind up thinking about everything they had done wrong and getting anxious about their tomorrow and whether its gonna be as shitty as today or...?

Hell, I'm going to post another comment. Seriously, four comments for this song (technically, although it basically amounts to two comments), when Green Day attracts hundreds of comments (check the 'American Idiot' page if you don't believe me - never have I seen so many catty, childish comments). Forget the illegal war in Iraq, forget the oppression of the East Timorese, forget the poisoning of Russian dissidents - THAT'S what makes me lose faith in humanity!

behind roses in the hospital and from despair to where it's probably the best on gold against the soul (although I personally prefer a couple others). Killer riff and the melody fits well with the lyrics

I love this song :D And first to comment too?!

good analysis.

i actually didn't like the lyrics very much, just the sound because it seemed as if some of the words were strung together just to sound miserable-- and therefore i could hardly understand the meaning unless i had bad insomnia problems myself.

but now that someone who understands the problem analyzes it it makes more sense.