The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
Libraries gave us power
Then work came and made us free
What price now
For a shallow piece of dignity
I wish I had a bottle
Right here in my dirty face
To wear the scars
To show from where I came
We don't talk about love
We only wanna get drunk
And we are not allowed to spend
As we are told that this is the end
A design for life
A design for life
A design for life
A design for life
I wish I had a bottle
Right here in my pretty face
To wear the scars
To show from where I came
We don't talk about love
We only wanna get drunk
And we are not allowed to spend
As we are told that this is the end
A design for life
A design for life
A design for life
A design for life
We don't talk about love
We only wanna get drunk
And we are not allowed to spend
As we are told that this is the end
A design for life
A design for life
A design for life
A design for
Then work came and made us free
What price now
For a shallow piece of dignity
I wish I had a bottle
Right here in my dirty face
To wear the scars
To show from where I came
We don't talk about love
We only wanna get drunk
And we are not allowed to spend
As we are told that this is the end
A design for life
A design for life
A design for life
A design for life
I wish I had a bottle
Right here in my pretty face
To wear the scars
To show from where I came
We don't talk about love
We only wanna get drunk
And we are not allowed to spend
As we are told that this is the end
A design for life
A design for life
A design for life
A design for life
We don't talk about love
We only wanna get drunk
And we are not allowed to spend
As we are told that this is the end
A design for life
A design for life
A design for life
A design for
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Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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In the 10th anniversary edition of Everything Must Go Nicky says, in the DVD, that the "we only want to get drunk" line was "as much a criticism as it was an observation." He also said that A Design For Life was trying to say that the working class could be beautiful, literate, intelligent etc but also destructive and a "disgrace to their class".
The line "and we are not aloud to spend" is, according to James, about the influence of consumerism on the working classes in the UK. "That fuck it mentality of, we are not allowed to [spend money], so therefore we shall", James said.
Incidentally, anyone who has seen the video for the song with the images of the Poll Tax riots in London and George Orwell quote "Hope Lies In The Proles" would know this song IS about the working classes. Drinking is mentioned in the song, but so is love. It's not a love song either. Go figure...
The people are thick lol thats why. However u sound torrish to me that is fine but I think he is remarking on people looking down on the working class and also how society has imitated the working class and how unrestrained capitalism has limited the opportunities of the working class.
Basically Nicky is criticising what would now be known as the undreclass as well as the upper class, basically I was spot on in other words, thanks a lot mate, you sound like a hardcore fan, well done.
Greatest Manics song of all time! Well, maybe, it's hard to decide. Still brings me to tears everytime I hear it late at night. Anyone who says it's just a drinking song knows nothing about either the Manics or the British working class. It's a song for reflection, so it annoys me when I hear people play it in a shop or something knowing nothing of what the words mean. Ah sigh, I'm just a very over-protective Manics fan :>................
Yeah but all there best songs are on the greatest hits album all 44 of them lol. Except one... And its not the one they told me at the concert was the one they thought was going to be their big hit (she says?) something like that.
I remember reading at the time it was released an interview with Nicky. He said the song was inspired by listening to an interview on the radio of someone from the band Gene. They were claiming how disgusted they were when they saw people getting drunk and fighting. I think this was Nicky's response to this kind of middle class spectating.
i cant believe peoples comments on the first page find this song depressing. the chorus is one of the most uplifting pieces of music the manics have ever done, especially with the string arrangement and james's voice. the song is about working class perception and how everyone thinks 'we dont talk about love, we only wanna get drunk' whereas in reality the working class can be intelligent and useful, a lot of writers musicians actors sports people etc come from a working class background. 'libraries gave us power' highlights how no matter your background you can always improve and learn and 'i waish i had a bottle...etc' just means that you can improve as a person without being ashamed of where you come from although the upper classes do not recognise this hence the 'what price now for a shallow piece of dignity'. unfortunately if you look at most town centres in the country at a weekend the 'we only wanna get drunk' line kind of stops being ironic as it is meant in the song.
I prefer to take the "we only wanna get drunk" as literal as in the underclass and working class only wanted to drink and this attitude spread out and became prevasive in all elements of society however whilst the wealthy can drink and have "culture" the working class are only left with clubbing etc. I personally felt the line about hitting himself with a bottle is a disparaging remark aimed at the so called upper middle classes and upper clases who look down on those with less money, position and power than themselves who judge a man only by the worldy goods they posses, their apperance and accent rather than the deeper soul of the person. <br /> <br /> They expect poor people to look like tramps and be violent so the person or people this song is about feel they might as well go in with scars to conform to narrow minded prejudices against the working class<br /> <br /> Finally I thought the line about work making us free was ironic too as in it actually is an emprisonment born out of a capitalist society where some are allowed to have everything so others must work like rodents on a treadmill just to get by, I never knew about the "albrecht macht frei" thing. I though that was the name of a nazi lol as the libertines have a song by that name. <br /> <br /> You have done very well as the whole song could well be about people looking down their noses and not just that bit I decided was unquestioanably about people looking down on people (the bits about we only one to get drunk I take as literal I know the other meaning is entirely reasonable too but I just think it makes more sense i.e literal before metaphors)
@danhardwick77 <br /> the drinking culture you mention as being prevalent now was just as prevalent at the time the song was released, its just more widely noted by the press and widespread across the country. it's a trend that goes way back.
Arbeit, it's "ARBEIT macht frei". Not Albrecht!
Well, put simply, you're wrong. It's about how working class identity has changed while perception hasn't. The lines "we don't talk about love, we only want to get drunk" is a comment on how the working class are perceived, not how they behave.
this song maybe seen as deperessing but its a good song to shout at the top of your voice.
thats all very nice, but we're missing the point, how f*ing well does he sing it??
The idea of A Design For Life is based on "designed for living", commercial slogan of american car company Ford, and on ''an ideal for living', title of Joy Division's 1978 ep. It is also the title of a biography of Joy Division, by Mark Johnson, called 'An Ideal For Living: A History Of Joy Division'.
The verses are about a Auchwitz prisoner. They mentioned this in a few interviews.
"Libraries gave us power, then work came and made us free. What price now, for a bit of dignity"
"WORK MAKES YOU FREE" was the slogan of auchwitz. And libraries/education didn't give working class people the power they thought it would. It's a bit of dark humour about how screwed the working classes get, basically!
The choruses, in contrast are about the modern day working classes, celebrating life, and their freedom.
So, the lyrics are about the the persecution working class people survived (The Holocaust) and the freedom and hope they now enjoy. It's a celebration basically.
To be honest, if you think alcoholism masking pain is a far superior theme than working class identity and change then there is something wrong. How many alcoholics do you know? How many people do you know who are considered working class? I assume the latter will outnumber the former. The majority of people in the UK are 'working class', the working class secretly run the country while the 'middle' and 'upper' classes watch in slendour. This is a theme that you do not care about? Yet you think a song about alcoholism will 'stand the rest of time'? You are sadly mistaken and by the look of it, sadly very ignorant of the world around you. Sorry if any of that didn't make sense, bye.
Thank god you and Little baby nothing, hard core fans I assume, pumped that goose in the head. He deserved it for righting such tosh about a crap theme beating a cool theme, cant even be arsed to use my full intellect on him right now I am so annoyed, I seen them at the O2 with a bunch of middle class no knothings who cant fucking rock at all....
I dont mean the manics, I mean the fans, the manics where superb, need to see them somewhere less stuffy next time!!!!
Actually I said the same as many others, and no that one line is not open to interpretation, look at page 4 someone writes out a quote by the artist himself, I think I will take his words over your "Relatvisim" nonsense which says we are all equal in opinion, with the end point of that philosophy meaning that a murder could hold the opinon they did nothing wrong and we should not judge them, relativists can never answers this one, they just claim it isn't relevant or flat out dodge the issue. Relatvisimm sucks and the only one that is patronising is you for taking the side of people who cant even see a simple metaphor. <br /> <br /> Its like this if someone is a million miles away from the meaning of a song then don't reward them for their effort. However if someone is fairly close to a multifaceted line then that is where your "open to inerpretation comes in", the artist himself said they were wrong, so who is narrow minded now, who thinks they know more than the artist? Yourself. <br /> <br /> Ps someone much brighter than you made a much more valid criticism of my argument and that is this page dosent specify if its the artists intent or what you get from the song, but personally the ONLY thing that matters is what the artist was talking about. And occasionally then extrapolating from that for modern times. Missing the more straightfoward lines does not class as that. <br /> <br /> SO spit out your dummy, because your relativism sucks.