Manic Street Preachers – La Tristesse Durera (Scream To A Sigh)

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  General Comment:"We took the title from a book on Van Gogh, although the song's got nothing to do with Van Gogh. It means something like 'the sadness goes on', and it's about the way life doesn't get any better as you get older. It's always a beautiful image every year when the war veterans turn out at the Cenotaph, and everyone pretends to care about them - but then they're shuffled of f again and forgotten. I'm much more sympathetic towards older people than towards my generation - I think they have a lot more dignity, and seem to be able to take care of their problems themselves. People of my generation seems to be so selfish. I'm no exception, because you can't escape from the culture that surrounds you. A phrase like 'Trade Unionism', and the idea of caring about the community you come from, is now seen as laughable - and of course, that's a product of the political culture over the last 15 years."
  (Richey James; Melody Maker, 19 June 1993)

  Flag manic4manicson October 23, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:I've always somehow connected this song to Richey and his feelings, I didn't know it was written by Nicky.
  Especially the second verse sounds to me like it could be about Richey, but I guess I was wrong. The other interpretations here make much more sense.

  Flag SpiegelGasseon July 25, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:It's quite a conflicting song for me but it's mostly chockablock of wonderful lyrics. I heard that Nicky wrote this.
  
  Anyway, Nicky makes a good point in this song how the sadness will never leave some veterans who have had to battle through world wars. To see people wheeling them out once a year to the cenotaph where they are forced to remember might be good for some but for others it really does reinforce the idea that they've never forgotten and they don't take kindly to being faced with this so brazenly. However, given the money that gets generated from poppies and that the event of Remembrance Day does make some people feel like people care doesn't really make me believe that this as a day should be scrapped or anything. It does some good despite being imperfect as an idea.
  
  As an attack on those who don't really care and try to silence the veteran's voice with false platitudes it is very good at conveying that. The final verse really hammers that home. Properly caring means to take time out and listen to the people you say you care for and think about what they say too.

  Flag icecreamscusemeon November 14, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:We've grasped the meaning, but literally it means "the sadness endures". Durera = endure

  Flag tentnanton September 30, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:Guys, I think you need a European angle on this, it is about the sadness that was caused by the 1st world war, and the damage it has done to the generation that witnessed it and the generations that have followed. In Europe, the damage done continues, and has yet to be forgotton or healed.
  
  There is no harm in paraphasing other people in the song, it doenst mean it is about VVG though.
  
  Here is the cenotaph:
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…
  
  A memorial to those that lost theier lives, what the manics are saying, is that the veteran is also a monument to that undying sadness that the war caused.
  
  The second verse is ensconced in the veterans bitterness at how he is treated. People are only pretending to care because they cannot be see to do otherwsie.
  
  As for the selling of the medal, its a reflection on how we asked the greatest sacrifice and abandoned the soldiers to poverty.
  
  Its all about the wars.
  
  M

  Flag MMFB2001on May 26, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:As has been said its about vetrans,on the face of it I think the sadness that continues is that of seeing their friends die and then being wheeled out every year to be patronised and forced to remember "Scream to a Sigh" I suppose is that the scream of death to the sigh of the apathy pensioners are forced into with no respect, prospects or means to live.

  Flag short christmason January 22, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:"Wheeled out once a year a Cenotaph souvenir"
  
  The Cenotaph is the war memorial in central London. Every year, on Rememberance Sunday, veterans and serving soldiers march past it and wreaths of poppies are laid at its foot.
  
  How ironic that the song refers to war memorabilia sold to further the ends of fashion when, on the very next album, the band posed in Soviet uniforms.

  Flag Sinbadon November 10, 2008   Link

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    You can buy a cheap plastic poppy for as much as you like, even a nickel, on rememberance day here in Canada. Old vets sit sadly at cheap card tables staring into space trying to get people to stick money in the bucket so that they can afford to do it all again next year.
    
    Yeah, I can hear this song in my head every year. It's a sight more honest than "in Flander's fields the poppies blow" or whatever it is.

    Flag arolloon December 03, 2008  
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  General Comment:Id does mean "The sadness will last" or "The sadness will be lasting"

  Flag Lücieon June 04, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:its about war veterans, "lifes has been unfaithful" to them when by fighting for a just cause "promised so much".No-one thinks about them, except when they`re "wheeled out once a Year, to the cenotaph". Politicians use them to their own ends, "I see Liberals, I am just a fashion accessory". Most Veterans are so poor because of their pathetic pensions, that the have to make money somehow, "I sold my medal, it paid a bill". All in all its about the disgusting way that the elderly get treated, which is even more sad when you consider that these people fought & lost friends to allow us to live in the style we`ve become accustomed to.

  Flag pose mourinhoon May 19, 2006   Link

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  General Comment:It could mean "The sadness will last"

  Flag Yanakuon February 19, 2006   Link

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