Lyrics for Motorcycle Emptiness as interpreted by ecureuil

Motorcycle Emptiness Lyrics
Culture sucks down words
Itemise loathing and feed yourself smiles
Organise 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
Survivals 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
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
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 motorcycle emptiness
Under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness
Under neon loneliness everlasting nothingness

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Steve
05-10-2002

Rated 0 
the best song written by them!!

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ladyboygrrl
05-11-2002

Rated 0 
i agree!
i think it is about about an emptiness so huge and overpowering (like a motorcycle) that it takes over life. "life lies a slow suicide"- we are all slowly dying

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MercyKiller
05-30-2002

Rated +1 
The emptiness isn't personal as such though, it's more to do with the emptiness of the world we live in, or rather, how it breeds emptiness within people. Look at the words used throughout the song, and bare in mind the Manic's own Communist/Marxist political views.

"Life lies a slow suicide" followed by "Orthodox dreams and symbolic myths From feudal serf to spender This wonderful world of purchase power" is about how our society and world guide us into lives that are empty, devoid, like a "slow suicide". It could also be seen as our "wonderful world of purchase power" on a "slow suicide", as Marx predicted that capitalism would eventually destroy itself.
The "neon loneliness" is about how we're given so many things, such as TV, to distract us from the unfairness of society we live in. Our loneliness is "neon" because it's bright, colourful, and therefor distracting, but ultimately worthless. While we live "under neon loneliness" we'll always have "everlasting nothingness."


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ladyboygrrl
08-11-2002

Rated 0 
true...but it makes me think of individual lonliness cause richey wrote half of it, and his depression often soaked into his writing. when ur put on anti-depressants (as was richey) or become an alcoholic (as richey started to do) you do live 'life like a comotose'.

richey once said 'early evening i walk around Soho on my own as i have so few friends.it starts to rain. and even cheap dreams don't stop the rain.' That quote always reminds me of "neon lonliness"- walking around a place filled with flashing lights and bars and people, and still being the lonliest person in the world. its lonliness that is surrounded by colour and entertainment- the place where pain is supposed 2b taken away.

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Little_Baby_Nothing
08-11-2002

Rated 0 
Its about loneliness and alienation as a result of our culture. In Blackwood when the four of them were teenagers, every other teenager had a motorcycle and they wre accepted because of this but the Manics, and some others, could not afford it because their father's were miners, and they were teenagers at the time of the miners strike. So, they're saying that because of their social position, they became lonely, alienated outcasts of their community.

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man_kills_everything
10-11-2002

Rated 0 
I think this song was originally written with America in mind, i read this somewhere but i cant remember where. It said something about motorcycle gangs etc etc... anyone make sense of this? Most of the wording definitely hints that it's about America.

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Johnno
04-28-2003

Rated 0 
i dunno the video was shot in japan i think its about the increasing isolation and competition in society today. thats what it means to me anyway

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Mortonium Ice
11-16-2004

Rated 0 
Hmm, does anyone here agree that it's way better livE? I'm thinking of the louder than war version, where he screams at the end of the all the kicks youve given us bit.

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my nothing
11-19-2004

Rated 0 
The "neon loneliness" bit really comes into context when you see the video, the four of them walking around an east Asian city, possibly Toyko or Singapore. The lights are everywhere yet there is still the loneliness.

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LaTragedieHumaine
01-28-2005

Rated 0 
"Under neon loneliness, Motorcycle Emptiness" was actually taken from a poem by Nicky's Wire's brother, Patrick Jones entitled, "Neon Loneliness", but please correct me if I am wrong. The rest of the lyrics have been settled. It's about consumerism and people's blindness to the live they're being oppressed to.

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twilight25
03-09-2005

Rated 0 
It's the song me and my bf call "our song" and it was a great feeling to watch them in Cardiff in Jan'05 and see them perform that with my bf close by holding me.
The lyrics aren't that black and white, but are interpretated according to what the listener perceives it to be. Again themes of capitalism, consumerism are echoed throughout the whole song - people being dazzled by artificial desires. The theme of the motorbike being no form of escapism from forced spending and consumerism, nothing in life is therefore free!

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Reidsan
07-18-2005

Rated 0 
My interpretation is that no matter how much you buy, you can't buy happiness. "Motorcycle emptiness" reminds me of the feeling you can get on a motorbike, like everything's passing around you and you're just sitting there. It's a bit like the book Zen and the Art of Motorycle Maintenance describes - you can retreat into your innermost thoughts while the world whizzes by, part of it yet detatched from it.

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jonnybassman
07-25-2005

Rated 0 
i agree with the whole spender and purchase power idea that no matter how much tv adverts throw at people to make us buy a load of junk we don't really need will never make us happy. i think "under neon loneliness motorcycle emptiness" was the early signs of richeys depression. james was able to settle and enjoy life in london but the more time richey spent there he felt alone under all of the bright lights

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frozen_in_fire
08-17-2005

Rated 0 
one of the best Manic singles EVER! Though everyone always says to me how he looks like George Michael in the video...

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blackemma
08-19-2005

Rated 0 
I always thought the lyric was 'Eagle's loaded and swallow,' which made me think it was about swallowing a gun. The song is less depressing now that I know the actual lyrics...

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richeye
02-09-2006

Rated 0 
I used to think the refrain was: 'I'm dying on loneliness,' then 'You're dying on loneliness,' which is more poetic, dontcha think?
Obviously a critique of capitalism and the alienation it engenders. I particularly like the bit about 'happiness corrupt political shit' - unhappiness seems to be a bit of a taboo subject where I come from (despite the fact that most people I know ARE unhappy).

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JpnGht
04-15-2006

Rated 0 
I used to think a lot of the lines in the song are different from what they really are.

looks like George Michael in the video ?
I can't deny it. I can't deny he looks good in the video as well.

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diablo-evo
07-03-2006

Rated 0 
depressing but lyrically superb

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bloc_party15
07-07-2006

Rated 0 
Love this song, and its meaning, surprisingly

Just great

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i_am_the_law
09-19-2006

Rated 0 
I could listen to this song all day. I've got nothing useful to say about the lyrics, but I just wanna endlessly praise the anthemic chorus, the amazing guitar widdling, the piano and string interludes, the upbeat tempo, and the general feelgood vibe.

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mboy81
02-09-2007

Rated 0 
I used to think there was some connection to Che Guevara's Motorcycle Diaries in this song. Having read the lyrics now I'm not sure. Anyone think there could be anything in it? There are themes of capitalism for sure so possibly an association with communism too. I suppose the neon loneliness part doesn't fit with this idea though...

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ordinaryboy
04-26-2007

Rated 0 
i liked this song a lot more when i didnt know the lyrics!

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royal99
10-08-2007

Rated 0 
I define myself as a music lover, and since the first time I listened to this song I really liked it, because lets face it, it sounds great.
but i never knew what its about. its really really hard to understand what they are saying just by listening to it, even for a native English speaker.
So when i went into this site and finally understand what they are saying and also reading the comments here it came to me that they did a wonderfull trick here.
they are really lefty and socialist group, which fuses their political views brilliantly in their lyrics. in this song they are really criticizing western societies, almost to the point of insulting. but they mask its true meaning by using hard to understand lyrics, and warping it with beautifull music.
and who are majority who listens to this song? improbably the same western people who are being criticized. can you imagine how many people rocked to this song without knowing this songs is basiclly laughs at their faces.

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royal99
10-08-2007

Rated 0 
I meant in the end probably and not improbably. sorry

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royal99
10-08-2007

Rated 0 
oh, and it occurred to me that this is exactly what the Latin guy , the one Monica (from Friends) dated, did to her when he gave her the poem. he compared her (and all american women) to an empty vase.

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