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...



Lyrics submitted by Ice

Track duration: 04:21

"A Design for Life" as written by James Dean Bradfield, Nicholas Allen Jones, Sean Moore

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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A Design For Life song meanings
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48 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment:Libraries gave us power is referencing Francis Bacon "knowledge is power" and work came and made us free is referencing the sign at Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp "arbeit macht frei - work sets you free"
    Flag TheFoston November 26, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:There are a lot of 1984 (the book I mean) references in here and in the video, which Richey said in a 1992 interview was one of his favourite books. A tribute perhaps? (in part)
    Flag manic4manicson August 25, 2012   Link
  • 0
    Lyric Correction:I'm really sure that in the first chorus it actually goes:

    We don't talk about life
    We only want a cut price
    Flag manic4manicson July 05, 2012   Link
  • 0
    Translation:Need your help guys.
    English is not my language,so I would like to understand the meaning of this two lines:
    "And we are not allowed to spend
    As we are told that this is the end"

    I assume we're not allowed to spend because we have no money, so why to spend is the end?
    I mean is it like an achievement? In this case the ultimate goal, what we actually like for, but this would give to "spend" a positive connotation which I consider highly unlikely. Unless that's what "they" told us, so we, as poor and "naive", are led to believe that is our purpose in life.

    Or the end is like "something wrong" which will cause the definitive loss of our dignity, but in this case I wonder why saying "not allowed", when more likely we (as working class) are encouraged to spend in things we can't afford and, most of the times, not even need, maybe to keep us from actually thinking, spiralling us down to a life depression cause we've not got what it takes to be "normal". Consequently we accept our role in society, we become as we are perceived, work-pub-sleep-work again. Alienated,numb,invisible. No matter if we have a story to tell, maybe a life of struggle that would give us dignity, the 'world' would never know we fought with honor, will never see the scars. So the scar could be the undisputable tesimony of our fight (with life and adversities?), an uncontrovertible proof of what I'd rather see as something noble and romantic more than pathetic as we look like.
    Living with dignity when you have nothing, when you are nothing. That reminds me the words in common people:
    You'll never live like common people,
    You'll never do what common people do,
    You'll never fail like common people,
    You'll never watch your life slide out of view,
    And dance and drink and screw,
    Because there's nothing else to do.

    Or Am I getting completely wrong and this is all about a book (or books) or a speech of someone? Or both?
    Please bring me on the right track. Thanks all.
    Flag pr649on June 03, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:There are some very patronising negative comments on here, especially from Darkside.

    In my view the song is brilliant because like all good art it is purposefully open for interpretation. The fact that the song is written in a derisorily first person is what causes the duality. Other songs of this ilk would be the kinks “a dedicated follower of fashion” or Loves “Live and let live”. The song offers no solutions, only one real question “What price now for a shallow piece of dignity”. What can a modern working class strive for now they have been given power and freedom (a concept of those enslaved themselves)? The answer is a nihilist one, lost without an aim, without god, without sense of purpose we have nothing with which to buy our dignity. We have nothing to spend but time, this is the end, the best we can hope to achieve.

    Darkside I respond to you with a Bob Dylan quote
    While one who sings with his tongue on fire
    Gargles in the rat race choir
    Bent out of shape from society’s pliers
    Cares not to come up any higher
    But rather get you down in the hole
    That he’s in
    In other words get a life
    Flag Beefheart1977on March 02, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Christ, people have got this so wrong. Perhaps lacking a knowledge of (Welsh) working class history is the problem. As an aside - I advise people watch the documentary on the Manics on youtube (youtube.com/…) in which they explicitly describe how they shifted the emphasis of their music and lyrics following Richey's disappearance to broader appeal and working class solidarity, it certainly puts this song in perspective.

    'Libraries gave us power' - This describes the establishment of libraries that catered to the working class in Briatin beginning roughly in the 19th century onwards. - Probably meant ironically, although these libraries made it possible for the poor to educate themselves, it didn't really give them any power.

    'Work made us free' - Again probably an ironic reference to the Nazi concentration camp slogan 'Arbeit macht frei' - 'work makes you free'. Work does not make people free, it enslaves them like those confined in the concentration camp.

    'What price now for a shallow piece of dignity' - I'm not so sure on this one, but I think this is a bitter reflection on how the sense of working class identity and pride is debased by circumstance, as in - the way of the world rewards the unscrupulous businesses while at the same time the unions collapse, the coal mines shut and companies move their workforce abroad. The price is unemployment and disenfranchisement, and just generally a worse lot.

    I admit the second verse perplexes me, but I think it's definitely about identification with the working class, maybe the idea of being scarred (as by being bottled) shows forcefully where you're from, even if it is a sometimes harsher existence. Yet still something a representative would be proud to wear.

    As for the chorus - I'm not entirely convinced it's about perception by the media, I think it's more about the idea that 'talking about love' - maybe more high minded ideals about brotherhood or any higher concept of humanity - is simply too painful while being profoundly limited/trapped by economic circumstance - 'we are not allowed to spend, as we are told that this is the end' - thus 'we only want to get drunk' - to numb the pain. So 'a design for life' is probably a bleakly ironic comment on economic planning, even extending to socialist ideals and working class solidarity. If you don't agree with me listen to the bloody music! It's not exactly 'happy' is it, it's meant to be tragic and painful.

    I generally prefer the Richey era, but I do really like this song. I think I find it more moving in the context of his disappearance, as in, I think it's as much about their grief over him, even though the lyrics clearly aren't really related to him.
    Flag smallblackflowerson October 03, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Givemeataco, Travis' "Slide show" came out about 1999, so it is the other way round. Travis are referencing this song (released in 1996), along with Oasis' "Wonderwall" (1995) and Beck's "Devil's Haircut" (1996).

    This song is about the way society stereotypes the working class, ignoring the fact that they can be creative, intelligent and ambitious. (In the eyes of the media and upper classes "We don't talk about love, we only want to get drunk").

    The use of "we" and "us" throughout the song shows that despite their fame, the band still consider themselves part of this class.

    This is truly a great song. I still remember the day in 1996 I bought it on cassette, which started something: 15 years on, there is still no other band that really matters.
    Flag slashedandburnton August 20, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I'm not sure this song is about alcoholism or upper class. But it is a reference to Travis's "Slide show" (along with Becks "Devil's haircut" and Oasis "Wonderwall") it said's "Cause there's no design for life.
    There's no devils haircut in my mind. there is not a wonderwall o climb or step around"

    I only have clues: "Devil's haircut" is probably about noticing the bad things around you. Wonderwall is about a person you love is going to save you. "Design for life" could tell that there is no wonderwall because it said's "we don't talk about love". I don't know about the rest. I might be wrong.
    Flag givemeatacoon August 04, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:guardian.co.uk/books/2011/feb/07/…

    Oh, and no-one seems to have pointed out that the second line paraphrases a translation of the notorious 'Arbeit macht frei' sign over the gates of the Auschwitz concentration camp

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…

    though I'd hope that was common knowledge.
    Flag SuitBoyon February 09, 2011   Link
  • +1
    My Interpretation:The lines:

    'wish I had a bottle
    right here in my dirty face to wear the scars
    to show from where I came'

    I think are a reference to the 'blue scars' coal miners used to get when they got cut working in the pits - the coal dust used to get trapped under the skin as the wound healed leaving a discoloured scar. Blackwood, where the Manics were from, was a town with its roots in coal mining and their ancestors would have been miners (Richie's dad was and had to retrain as a hairdresser when they closed the pits).

    I think Nicky's referring to this heritage but in the context of the children of the former miners - they have nothing to show outwardly of their heritage - the mining days are gone, replaced by soulless consumerism and retail - production replaced by consumption. I think the reference to the bottle could be referring to a modern day scarring of the face - through pub violence brought about by apathy for modern life. It's pretty despairing, but then this is the 'design for life' we have inherited from the economists and capitalists - the way the system can destroy the soul and hope of the youth in some of our communities in the name of 'global markets'.

    It's a serious song, whichever way you look at it. Really sends shivers down my spine with its bluntness.
    Flag MJT81on May 22, 2009   Link

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