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4st 7lb Lyrics
I eat too much to die,
And not enough to stay alive,
I'm sitting in the middle, waiting.
Days since I last pissed
Cheeks sunken and despaired
So gorgeous sunk to six stone
Lose my only remaining home
See my third rib appear
A week later all my flesh disappear
Stretching taut, cling-film on bone
I'm getting better
Karen says I've reached my target weight
Kate and emma and kristin know it's fake
Problem is diet's not a big enough word
I want to be so skinny that I rot from view
I want to walk in the snow
And not leave a footprint
I want to walk in the snow
And not soil its purity
Stomach collapsed at five
Lift up my skirt my sex is gone
Naked and lovely and 5st. 2
May I bud and never flower
My vision's getting blurred
But I can see my ribs and I feel fine
My hands are trembling stalks
And I can feel my breasts are sinking
Mother trys to choke me with roast beef
And sits savouring her sole ryvitta
That's the way you're built my father said
But I can change, my cocoon shedding
I want to walk in the snow
And not leave a footprint
I want to walk in the snow
And not soil its purity
Kate and kristin and kit kat
All things I like looking at
Too weak to fuss, too weak to die
Choice is skeletal in everybody's life
I choose, my choice, I starve to frenzy
Hunger soon passes and sickness soon tires
Legs bend, stockinged I am twiggy
And I don't mind the horror that surrounds me
Self-worth scatters, self-esteem's a bore
I long since moved to a higher plateau
This discipline's so rare so please applaud
Just look at the fat scum who pamper me so
Yeh 4st. 7, an epilogue of youth
Such beautiful dignity in self-abuse
I've finally come to understand life
Through staring blankly at my navel.
Song Info
Submitted by
shiverforme On Apr 25, 2002
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Yes
Actually it's about Richey's anorexia
Harrowing song...... Manics Have never been the same after Richey James, but he was a great songwriter.
i like the way that as the song's tempo slows down, so does the frenzy of her illness. at the start of her anorexia she is full of determination and strength....but asher body weakens ("too weak to fuss, too weak to die") so does her belief in her goal ("self-worth scatters, self-esteems a bore") and it eventually comes to a stop with her reaching her target of 4st 7lb, finding the true meaning of life....and finding nowhere else to go
the last two verses are escpecially disturbing to listen.
Also does "Karen" refer to Karen Carpenter and "Kate" to Kate Moss?
@blundertown It was onde of those 'write your question to and get an answer column writers', you could ask Karen a question if i remember properly.
@blundertown It was onde of those 'write your question to and get an answer column writers', you could ask Karen a question if i remember properly.
quite clearly about anorexia
The first 'verse' is actually:
I eat too much to die, And not enough to stay alive, I'm sitting in the middle, waiting.
And it is a sound clip taken from the British documentary series, '40 Minutes', titled "Caroline's Story". It was the story of a British girl who had anorexia.
This is a great song from an AMAZING band. It is literally impossible to listen to it without feeling some sort of emotion.
Extremely emotional and harrowing song about anorexia and how it has consumed the girl's life.
Zed92uk is right, i autobiographical. When he was admitted to the Priory, Richey was a llowed to decorate his room and, in typical fashion, it was a collage of different images from loads of different sources. But probably the most important images he stuck up were that of three supermodels, Kate Moss Kristin something and Kate something else (Kit Kat) sorry, i forget the surnames. The band always said it was written from the perspective of the girl in the BBC documentary but that's kinda hard to believe when you read into it and the imagery seems so personal. "Mother tries to choke me with roast beef and sits savouring her sole ryvitta, that's the way you're built my father said." Also, 4st 7lb is the lowest a fully grown male can survive at. If a male slips below this weight, he will die almost instantly. That also points to the fact that it isn't written about a girl.
I especially love the end, i mean, im not jet quite sure if i like the manics music, but i definitely am absorbed by their lyrics, but in the end of this song thei both work together perfectly.... "self worth scattered self esteems a bore...."
ladboygrrrl I kinda disagree 4st 7lb is when ur on the brink of death. So she loses ne more weight the girls dead. It's about finding ur own self worth and admiring yourself for it. All the girl had was her discipline not to eat. She is vain like we all are. The song is sung in a diary style she slowly loses more and more weight it finishes before she's die unless u believe she was cured. But the girl in the documentry the beggining quote is from died. It is autobiographical also but Richey never got down that low. I think he reached 6 stone which is pretty awful for a 5ft 8 man. I think it's about richey quite obviously but he's kinda taken his feelings and imprinted them on a girl. In some sort of attempt to get the attention off him. He was too self absorbed I'm not condemning him for that I think that's a fault with most people including myself. He used to be my hero but he was never a hero he was just a person. Not a tortured artist a person the same thing could've happened to a taxi driver but it happened to him and he was in the public eye. Richey was/is a person who was overly sensitive the world was too much for him to take in. Maybe he's dead maybe he's not. But he wrote some great lyrics that and his intelligence is what I admire.