Lyrics for A Design For Life as interpreted by Ice

A Design For Life Lyrics
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 want to 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 want to 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 want to 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

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  • 39 Comments
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roger wilco
05-29-2002

Rated 0 
this song is so hopeless and desperate. radiohead depresses me. the Eels make me suicidal, but few bands can depress me like the Manics can.

simply put, i believe this song is about alcoholism to mask the pain of living.

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1 Reply
roger wilco
05-29-2002

Rated 0 
this song is so hopeless and desperate. radiohead depresses me. the Eels make me suicidal, but few bands can depress me like the Manics can.

simply put, i believe this song is about alcoholism to mask the pain of living.

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mytwojakes
05-30-2002

Rated 0 
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.

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roger wilco
06-02-2002

Rated 0 
check again, mytwojakes,

i believe the question was "What does this song mean to you?"

i could give fuck all about what this song really means.


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mytwojakes
06-02-2002

Rated 0 
Oooh, get you, Oscar Wilde.

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roger wilco
06-05-2002

Rated 0 
many thanks. i shall consider that a compliment.

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mytwojakes
06-07-2002

Rated 0 
And I, in turn, shall consider that as vindication of my opinion of your intellect. Game, set and match.

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roger wilco
06-14-2002

Rated 0 
oh, you sad, sad little person. is mom not giving you enough hugs?

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mytwojakes
06-14-2002

Rated 0 
It took you a week to come up with that response. Do you realise how that makes you look?

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Plastic_hero
07-23-2002

Rated 0 
Ohh, I wonder what Rickey would have to say to you two. It's sad that it has come to this. You're arguing about nothing, and even insulting each other on the Manic Street Preacher-board, how is this happening?

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1 Reply
VektorW
08-17-2002

Rated 0 
Music is art, and art always has different meanings depending on who sees or listens to it.

I see the song Roger Wilco's way, but I can also see how mytwojakes way works. However, I don't really give a shit about the working class identity and the working class perception, and that's a theme that is only relative to one generation of people. A truly great song or piece of literature has themes that will stand the test of time, and for this alcoholism masking the pain of life is a far superior theme.

I couldn't care less about what the Manics were trying to say in this piece, or at least what you claim they were trying to say, because the theme of alcoholism masking the pain of life is a meaning that anyone can relate to, whereas the working class identity one only applies to a select few.

Oh, and "And I, in turn, shall consider that as vindication of my opinion of your intellect. Game, set and match."
Are you trying to sound smarter than you really are by using words with such a stuck up git type tone? Because to me you just seemed to be making an ass of your self.

Adios!

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little_englander
08-19-2002

Rated 0 
The above person is exactly the sort of NME reading tosser whom the Manics were originally out to offend. How regrettable that it's precisely this audience they now endeavour to appeal to.

'Design for Life' is, according to Nicky Wire, specically about the British working class. Incidentally, Nicky Wire wrote it, so I expect his 'interpretation' would be decidedly more accurate than some nobhead like Roger Wilco's.

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Little_Baby_Nothing
08-19-2002

Rated 0 
we don't necessarily have to be working class to relate to it, as long as there's someone richer than us, and everyone can relate to that. And tell me, how many alchoholics do you know?

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man_kills_everything
10-11-2002

Rated 0 
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.

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forever delayed
03-23-2003

Rated 0 
this song maybe seen as deperessing but its a good song to shout at the top of your voice.

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MercuryCobain
05-08-2003

Rated 0 
From manics.co.uk Decapitalisations mine.

NICKY WIRE: A RADICAL RETHINK, IT'S THE FIRST LYRIC THAT MAKES SENSE TO EVERYONE. THERE'S A VERY SERIOUS MESSAGE, BUT THE AMBIGUITY OF THE CHORUS MADE IT I THINK, BECAUSE IT BROUGHT IN PEOPLE WHO THOUGHT IT WAS A DRINKING SONG, AS WELL AS THOSE WHO SAW THE MORE SERIOUS SIDE TO IT. I WAS INSPIRED BY THE LIBRARY MY WIFE WORKED IN, AND ITS JUST SUCH AN UNGLAMOROUS TOPIC, TALKING ABOUT LIBRARIES, CLASS STRUGGLE. POST-BRITPOP, IT REALLY SET US APART AGAIN. IT'S THE FIRST INSTANCE OF SOCIAL HISTORY IN OUR SONGS, RATHER THAN HISTORY FILTERED THROUGH SITUATIONISTS AND EXISTENTIALISTS. IT'S AMAZING THAT AT THAT TIME WE WERE SEEN AS GLAMOROUS WHEN WE WERE DEALING WITH SUCH GREY, SOCIALIST ISSUES.

Note in particular "Class struggle" and "people who thought it was a drinking song." Alcoholic meanings? Nah.

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Mortonium Ice
11-16-2004

Rated 0 
thats all very nice, but we're missing the point,
how f*ing well does he sing it??

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pumkinhed
11-21-2004

Rated 0 
the answer: stupidly well. God it's so emotional and powerful, i actually tilted back in my chair the first time i heard it front to back. glorious

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my nothing
11-23-2004

Rated 0 
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 :>................

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frozen_in_fire
12-20-2004

Rated 0 
I LOVE this song...such simple yet powerful lyrics...and I love the string bit too...the whole thing is just soooo great...I take the album out of my brother's room and just put this song on repeat...

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richeye
04-06-2005

Rated 0 
I interpreted the chorus as a comment on how people don't give a toss about anything anymore.
No-one's said anything about the 'To wear the scars' line, which I find surprising given Richey's history of self-mutilation. Was that just an unwitting faux pas on Nicky Wire's part, or was it intentional?

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LaTragedieHumaine
04-06-2005

Rated 0 
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'.

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alphamale
04-15-2005

Rated 0 
This song is about Alcoholism & recovery.

Libraries gave us power (The distribution of the AA's 'Big Book' allows a phenomenon of recovery by fellowship that the medical field can't challenge)

Then work came & made us free (Working the 12 step recovery program within the 'Big Book' is the single biggest freedom from alcoholism, recovery program created).

What price now for a shallow piece of dignity (Small price to pay arresting a drink addiction to regain some dignity)

I wish I had a bottle
Right here in my dirty face to wear the scars
To show from where I came
(the ego is the last thing to leave the alcoholic & it pipes in wanting to let people how rough life has been)


A design for life
(the AA's 12 steps is called 'a design for life' within its text)

that is all

AlchaMale

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Dr Strangelove
07-11-2005

Rated 0 
For me, it's just what it says. Some people now only want to get drunk and worst still, they are told this is a good thing. "As we are told that this is the end". It charts the path of working class people " Libraries gave us power. then work came and made us free, What price now for a shallow piece of dignity?".

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ultimatemusic
08-30-2005

Rated 0 
This song to me is, just an Idea of Life. That is given out by people. It's very interesting, and interesting to hear everyone's views. To me this was Manic Street Preachers Stairway To Heaven song with that beautiful orchestra. It's class!

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