Richard Edwards fra Manic Street Preachers forsvandt sporløst i 1995, et halvt år efter udgivelsen af et album med meget systemkritiske punkpopsange. Tilfældigt?
Richard James Edwards blev født den 22. december 1967. Han var sanger, sangskriver og guitarist i det walisiske rockband Manic Street Preachers, der i august 1994 udkom med albummet The Holy Bible, som jeg for første gang rigtigt lyttede til i går aftes. Og jeg blev chokeret over lyrikken!
Den 1. februar 1995, altså seks måneder efter udgivelsen af The Holy Bible-albummet forsvandt Edwards sporløst, og han er ikke dukket op siden. Det sætter den politiske knivskarpe lyrik i The Holy Bible i et ekstra mystisk lys.
Edwards havde en bachelorgrad i politisk historie fra Wales Universitet, og det skinner tydeligt igennem i hans lyrik.
Du kender nok Manic Street Preachers største hit:
Budskabet er: Hvis du tolerer de igangværende politiske overgreb på vores frihed, så går det ud over dine børn næste gang. Det er i hvert fald det, jeg hører.
Den er fra 1998-albummet This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours, dvs. uden Edwards. Det lykkedes altså ikke at lukke munden på de maniske gadeprædikanter ved at “forsvinde” Edwards. Men tjek lige Edwards’ lyrik i The Holy Bible:
“I wonder who you think you are
You damn well think you’re God or something?
God give life, God taketh away, not you
I think you are the Devil itself”
“Six million screaming souls
Maybe missery, maybe nothing at all
Never counted, never mattered, never be”
“I knew that someday I was gonna died
And I knew before I died
Two things would happen to me
That number one: I would regret my entire life
And number two: I would want to live my life over again”
Se også Richard D. Halls dokumentarfilm ‘The Tragic Street Preachers‘ om Edwards mystiske forsvinden.
Tilføjelse 24.08.2023:
Hov. Jeg glemte Motorcycle Emptiness, som er den næstmest spillede sang af Manic Street Preachers på Spotify. Et tidløst hit med en genial tekst af Edwards fra albummet Generation Terrorists.
“
Culture sucks downwards
Itemize loathing and feed yourself smiles
Organize your safe tribal war
Hurt, maim, kill and enslave the ghetto
Each day living out a lie
Life sold cheaply forever, ever, ever
Under neon loneliness
Motorcycle emptiness
Under neon loneliness
Motorcycle emptiness
Life lies a slow suicide
Orthodox dreams and symbolic myths
From feudal serf to spender
This wonderful world of purchase power
Just like lungs sucking on air
Survival’s natural as sorrow, sorrow, sorrow
Under neon loneliness
Motorcycle emptiness
Under neon loneliness
Motorcycle emptiness
All we want from you are the kicks you’ve given us
All we want from you are the kicks you’ve given us
Under neon loneliness
Motorcycle emptiness
Drive away and it’s the same
Everywhere death row, everyone’s a victim
Your joys are counterfeit
This happiness corrupt political shit
Living life like a comatose
Ego-loaded and swallow, swallow, swallow
Under neon loneliness
Motorcycle emptiness
Under neon loneliness
Everlasting nothingness
“
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