Generation Terrorists

Infobox Album | Name = Generation Terrorists
Type = Studio album
Artist = Manic Street Preachers


Released = February 10 1992
Recorded = Blackbarn Studios, August-December 1991
Genre = Hard rock, Punk rock
Length = 73:11
Label = Columbia 4710602 (CD)
Producer = Steve Brown
Reviews = *Allmusic Rating|4|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=Adb6wtro9kl6x link]
*"Q" Rating|4|5 [http://www.q4music.com/nav?page=q4music.review.redirect&fixture_review=134159&resource=134159&fixture_artist=145875 link]
Last album =
This album = "Generation Terrorists"
(1992)
Next album = "Gold Against the Soul"
(1993)
|

"Generation Terrorists" is the debut album by Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers released on 10 February 1992, produced by Steve Brown. It was recorded by tracking (the band recorded each instrument separately rather than playing it as a live band and then adding the overdubs later) over a period of 23 weeks at Blackbarn Studios, near Guildford, England. Despite the whole band being credited in the album notes, Bradfield played all guitars and bass on the album. This made him the only band member to play on the album, as Sean Moore programmed a drum machine rather than actually playing live drums on the album. Fact|date=August 2008

To avoid controversy in the U.S., the track list was changed and some of the more "difficult" tracks were dropped. The album was released in its full, uncensored form everywhere else. Manics icons The Clash ran into this exact same problem with their debut album "The Clash".

All lyrics were written by Nicky Wire (real name Nicholas Jones) and Richey James Edwards. All music was written by James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore (except "Damn Dog", which is a cover version of a song by the Sleez Sisters from the 1980 movie "Times Square)".

The album's sound is reminiscent of "Appetite for Destruction" era Guns N' Roses while the lyrics are politicised like that of The Clash and Public Enemy. Fact|date=August 2008 Wire and Edwards' love of poetry is also evident in their lyrics. The track "Repeat (Stars And Stripes)" is a remix of the band's own anti-monarchy tirade, originally a double A-Side single with "Love's Sweet Exile", by Public Enemy production team The Bomb Squad of whom Bradfield and Edwards were big fans.

The cover was originally intended to be Andres Serrano's "Pisschrist", a Jesus figure inside a tank of blood and urine, but Sony wanted to avoid any religious controversy; also, the royalty demanded for the piece was deemed excessive. Other ideas were the Bert Stern Marilyn Monroe photographs, a sandpaper sleeve that would scratch the album itself as well as anything else that it was shelved by (an old Situationist prank, this idea was used by Guy Debord for his first book "Memoires" and by The Durutti Column for their first album "The Return of the Durutti Column"), as well as several other famous religious paintings.

The final front cover of the album was a picture of Edwards' left arm and chest. The arm had a tattoo of a rose with the words "USELESS GENERATION" underneath, which was changed to "GENERATION TERRORISTS". This was not without problems, as the original pressing had made Edwards' flesh to be bright pink as opposed to the intended mustard. The back featured a design similar to their earlier "New Art Riot EP" cover, an EC Flag, though this time it was crumpled and in flames.

Quotations

The album sleeve featured quotations from various literary figures that were considered relevant to particular songs.

Track listing

UK

#"Slash 'N' Burn" – sleeve features a quotation from E. E. Cummings. – 3:59
#"Nat West – Barclays – Midlands – Lloyds" – sleeve features a quotation from Philip Larkin. – 4:32
#"Born To End" – sleeve features a quotation from Arthur Rimbaud. – 3:55
#"Motorcycle Emptiness" – sleeve features a quotation from Sylvia Plath. – 6:08
#"You Love Us" – sleeve features a quotation from the Manifesto of the Futurists. – 4:18
#"Love's Sweet Exile" - sleeve features a quotation from Attila Kotanyi and Raoul Vaneigem (IS no.6, 1961). – 3:29
#"Little Baby Nothing" – sleeve features a quotation from Valerie Solanas. – 4:59
#"Repeat (Stars And Stripes)" – sleeve features a quotation from Chuck D. – 4:09
#"Tennessee" – sleeve features a quotation from Chief Ten Bears of the Comanche at the Council of Medicine Lodge Creek, 1867. – 3:06
#"Another Invented Disease" – sleeve features a quotation from Albert Camus. – 3:24
#"Stay Beautiful" – sleeve features a quotation from Confucius. – 3:10
#"So Dead" – sleeve features a quotation from Henrik Ibsen. – 4:28
#"Repeat (UK)" – sleeve features a quotation from George Orwell. – 3:09
#"Spectators Of Suicide" – sleeve features a quotation from Henry Miller. – 4:40
#"Damn Dog" (music by Jacob Brackman/Billy Mernit) – sleeve features a quotation from the Sleez Sisters – 1:52
#"Crucifix Kiss" – sleeve features a quotation from Friedrich Nietzsche. – 3:39
#"Methadone Pretty" – sleeve features a quotation from William Burroughs. – 3:57
#"Condemned To Rock 'N' Roll" – sleeve features a quotation from Nik Cohn. – 6:06

USA

# "Slash 'N Burn"
# "Natwest – Barclays – Midlands – Lloyds"
# "Love's Sweet Exile"
# "Little Baby Nothing"
# "Another Invented Disease"
# "Stay Beautiful"
# "Repeat (UK)"
# "You Love Us"
# "Democracy Coma"
# "Crucifix Kiss"
# "Motorcycle Emptiness"
# "Tennessee"
# "Repeat (Stars And Stripes)"
# "Condemned To Rock 'N' Roll"

Personnel

*James Dean Bradfield – vocals, guitars
*Sean Moore – drums, percussion, backing vocals
*Richey James – guitar
*Nicky Wire – bass

Additional

*Dave Eringa – piano, organ (tracks 2, 5, 14, 16)
*Traci Lords – vocals (track 7)
*Richard Cottle – keyboards (track 4)
*Spike Edney – keyboards (track 7)
*May McKenna, Jackie Challenor, Lorenza Johnson – backing vocals (track 10)

Trivia

The working title of this album was "Culture, Alienation, Boredom & Despair" (a lyric from the song "Little Baby Nothing").