This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
If hospitals cure
Then prisons must bring their pain
Don't be ashamed to slaughter
The centre of humanity is cruelty
There is never redemption
Any fool can regret yesterday
Nail it to the House of Lords
You will be buried in the same box as a killer, as a killer, as a killer
A drained white body hanging from the gallows
Is more righteous than Hindley's crotchet lectures
Pain not penance, forget martyrs, remember victims
The weak die young and right now we crouch to make them strong
Kill Yeltsin, who's saying? Zhirinovsky, Le Pen
Hindley and Brady, Ireland, Allit, Sutcliffe
Dahmer, Nielson, Yoshinori Ueda
Blanche and Pickles, Amin, Milosovic
Give them respect they deserve
Give them the respect they deserve
Give them the respect they deserve
Give them the respect they deserve
Execution needed
A bloody vessel for your peace
If man makes death then death makes man
Tear the torso with horses and chains
Killers view themselves like they view the world
They pick at the holes
Not punish less, rise the pain
Sterilise rapists, all I preach is extinction
Kill Yeltsin, who's saying? Zhirinovsky, Le Pen
Hindley and Brady, Ireland, Allit, Sutcliffe
Dahmer, Nielson, Yoshinori Ueda
Blanche and Pickles, Amin, Milosovic
Give them respect they deserve
Give them the respect they deserve
Give them the respect they deserve
Give them the respect they deserve
Then prisons must bring their pain
Don't be ashamed to slaughter
The centre of humanity is cruelty
There is never redemption
Any fool can regret yesterday
Nail it to the House of Lords
You will be buried in the same box as a killer, as a killer, as a killer
A drained white body hanging from the gallows
Is more righteous than Hindley's crotchet lectures
Pain not penance, forget martyrs, remember victims
The weak die young and right now we crouch to make them strong
Kill Yeltsin, who's saying? Zhirinovsky, Le Pen
Hindley and Brady, Ireland, Allit, Sutcliffe
Dahmer, Nielson, Yoshinori Ueda
Blanche and Pickles, Amin, Milosovic
Give them respect they deserve
Give them the respect they deserve
Give them the respect they deserve
Give them the respect they deserve
Execution needed
A bloody vessel for your peace
If man makes death then death makes man
Tear the torso with horses and chains
Killers view themselves like they view the world
They pick at the holes
Not punish less, rise the pain
Sterilise rapists, all I preach is extinction
Kill Yeltsin, who's saying? Zhirinovsky, Le Pen
Hindley and Brady, Ireland, Allit, Sutcliffe
Dahmer, Nielson, Yoshinori Ueda
Blanche and Pickles, Amin, Milosovic
Give them respect they deserve
Give them the respect they deserve
Give them the respect they deserve
Give them the respect they deserve
Lyrics submitted by ShiverForMe, edited by Wild12e, willks08, FluffyBunny8
Archives of Pain Lyrics as written by Edwards Bradfield
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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This song talks about the dualistic view the public has for serial killers and criminals. In particular, it attacks the public's fascination for these monsters, and then exhibits society getting a chance to direct their own murderous cruelty back at these criminals.
It becomes a cycle of human nature rolling around in it's own shit.
this song is so lovely.
one of the darkest songs i know. why do ppl prefer the new stuff to this?
IT's about capital punishment and the glorification of serial killers
This song is NOT pro-capital punishment. You'd have to ignore the fucking lyrics to think it is. Lyrics like "execution needed a bloody vessel for your peace" are satirical. You would have to be unaware of the whole sentiment of the band or just plain stupid to believe it is saying "kill murderers". these lyrics do not in any way suggest any kind of conservative veiws on "justice". Read the lyrics.
@jdb actually Bradfield explained that despite this song being extreme right wing and them thinking they were left wing… they realised this after writing it but left it in to show just how confused they and everyone were. He said another band might bin the song on this realisation but that would be whitewashing and represent untruth to comply with their advertised beliefs. They felt it was important to show the dichotomy they were unwittingly guilty of.
no the opening quote was by a mother of one of the victims of the yorkshire ripper. The song's very an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth etc... Well little englander the manics said they had a right to contradict themselves something they do a lot. Altho I'm sure they had some excuse for patrick batemen like it wasn't glorifying him but it was talking about society I dunno can't remember lol.
Given Richey James' mental state at the time, I doubt he was being sarcastic - I think he was completely sincere. James DB admits on the 'Holy Bible' DVD that he found the perspective of the song baffling. He's intent on distancing himself from many of the songs, too. I think the essence of the whole album is reflective of a seriously disturbed mind. Which is troubling, because I really like it!
I think it's pretty important to remember the Manic Street Preachers were frequently contradictory in their point of view. I think the song puts across the attractiveness of the certianity and sense of retribution found in Draconian punishment, whilst simultaneously mocking its arrogance and brutality.
Having said that, I'm fairly sure Richey definitely had a hangup about wanting to 'tear the torso with horses and chains', in that he repeated the concept in an interview. I think he was talking about how he wanted to make children watch murderers being torn apart on TV, so they know what happens to 'bad' people. Pretty fucked up, really.
I'm a lefty, liberal sort, entirely opposed to the death penalty, and this is a song that really challenges my beliefs and prejusices. Originally I always took it to be a satirical attack on rightwing bullshit, particularly the ironic use of the opening sample - if only God has the right to take life, how can you support execution? The centre of humanity might be cruelty, but retribution only continues this.
Then, I changed my mind, and decided Richey actually meant it all, that rapists should be sterilised and murderers torn apart; it's about facing up to reality and adopting a consistent, stern and unflinching view of the world, and so in fact an attack on a Western liberal concensus that ducks the issue by believing people are inherently good but commit evil acts due to society.
Now, I'm not sure it's as simpe as either saying it's ironic or not. The song clearly detests serial killers, but also in a strange sense respects them, suggesting that violent retribution is somehow paying a tribute to them. But Richey includes far right politicians like Zhironovsky and Terre'Blanche in his litany, who espouse the same sort of discourse as the song.
So actually message is that whatever position you adopt on these matters should be rigorous, should stand up to scrutiny, shouldn't be hypocritical and shouldn't ignore difficult truths. He's against the right and the left, the fascist and liberal and the communist in equal measure.
So, this is a song I've spent more than ten years trying to understand, and there are still vast complexities that I don't get. I think that's an amazing tribute to Richey as a lyricist, and demonstrates just how good The Holy Bible is.
the opening quote is spoken by the mother of one of the victims of Jack the Ripper. If that makes sense...
Correct me if I'm wrong, but recording technology didn't exist in 1888. One of 'Jack the Ripper's victims' indeed.
The song is pro-capital punishment. As Zed92uk said, it's a reaction against the glorification of serial killers: something the Manics, ironically enough, participated in when they wrote 'Patrick Bateman'.