- Motorcycle Emptiness
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"Motorcycle Emptiness" 
Single by Manic Street Preachers from the album Generation Terrorists Released 1 June 1992 Format CD, vinyl record (7"/12"), cassette Recorded Mid 1991 Genre Alternative rock, hard rock Length 5:06 (edit)
3:35 (short edit)
6:09 (album version)Label Columbia Producer Steve Brown Manic Street Preachers singles chronology "Slash 'n' Burn"
(1992)"Motorcycle Emptiness"
(1992)"Stars and Stripes"
(1992)"Motorcycle Emptiness" (
sample (help·info)) is a single by the Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers, released on 1 June 1992. It was the fifth single to be lifted from their debut album Generation Terrorists. The track is slower paced than most others on the album. Its lyrics are inspired by S.E. Hinton's book Rumble Fish, about biker gang culture. The lyrics have been interpreted by the band as an attack on the hollowness of the consumer lifestyle offered by capitalism, describing how society expects young people to conform.The song reached number seventeen in the UK Singles Chart on 13 June 1992. It remained there for another week and spent a total of six weeks in the top 75, two weeks longer than any other Generation Terrorists single, and a record not surpassed by the Manics until 1996's "A Design for Life".
Some of the lyrics are taken from the poem "Neon Loneliness" (the first line of the chorus, "Under neon loneliness," is a direct lift) by Welsh poet Patrick Jones, the brother of MSP bassist and lyricist Nicky Wire. "Motorcycle Emptiness" was also included on Forever Delayed, the Manics' greatest hits album, in October 2002, and released as a reissued single from the compilation in February 2003.
The song was remixed by Apollo-440 under their alternative name Stealth Sonic Orchestra as a piece of classical-style music. This remix was available as a track on the single "Australia" (taken from their seminal 1996 album Everything Must Go); and was also used by T-Mobile for an advertising campaign in 2003, much to the derision of some fans.
The song was derived from the early Manics songs "Go, Buzz Baby, Go" (with which it shares the chord structure and the phrase "Motorcycle Emptiness" late in the song over the verse chords), and "Behave Yourself Baby", a rough demo with a similar structure, that has the lines "All we want from you is the skin you live within", similar to "All we want from you are the kicks you've given us" in this song.
In 2006, Q magazine readers voted the song as the 88th best song ever.[1]
Contents
Sleeve quote
"I talk to God but the sky is empty." – Sylvia Plath
Track listing
CD
- "Motorcycle Emptiness" – 6:02
- "Bored Out of My Mind" – 2:57
- "Crucifix Kiss" (live) – 3:10
- "Under My Wheels" (live) – 3:01
12" picture disc
- "Motorcycle Emptiness" – 6:02
- "Bored Out of My Mind" – 2:57
- "Under My Wheels" (live) – 3:01
7" / MC
- "Motorcycle Emptiness" – 6:02
- "Bored Out of My Mind" – 2:57
2003 reissue CD
- Released in Europe as promotion for the Forever Delayed hits compilation.
- "Motorcycle Emptiness" – 6:02
- "4 Ever Delayed" – 3:38
- "Little Baby Nothing" (Acoustic) – 4:54
References
- ^ Q Magazine issue 243, October 2006, Page 71.
Manic Street Preachers James Dean Bradfield · Sean Moore · Nicky Wire
Richey EdwardsStudio albums Generation Terrorists (1992) · Gold Against the Soul (1993) · The Holy Bible (1994) · Everything Must Go (1996) · This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours (1998) · Know Your Enemy (2001) · Lifeblood (2004) · Send Away the Tigers (2007) · Journal for Plague Lovers (2009) · Postcards from a Young Man (2010)Compilation albums EPs New Art Riot (1990) · Stars and Stripes (1992) · Life Becoming a Landslide EP (1994) · Know Our B-Sides (2001) · God Save the Manics (2005) · Journal for Plague Lovers Remixes E.P. (2009)Singles "Suicide Alley" (1988) · "UK Channel Boredom" (1990) · "Motown Junk" (1991) · "You Love Us (Heavenly Version)" (1991) · "Feminine Is Beautiful" (1991) · "Stay Beautiful" (1991) · "Love's Sweet Exile/Repeat" (1991) · "You Love Us" (1991) · "Slash 'n' Burn" (1992) · "Motorcycle Emptiness" (1992) · "Suicide Is Painless (Theme from M*A*S*H)" (1992) · "Little Baby Nothing" (1992) · "From Despair to Where" (1993) · "La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh)" (1993) · "Roses in the Hospital" (1993) · "Faster/P.C.P." (1994) · "Revol" (1994) · "She Is Suffering" (1994) · "A Design for Life" (1996) · "Everything Must Go" (1996) · "Kevin Carter" (1996) · "Further Away" (1996) · "Australia" (1996) · "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next" (1998) · "The Everlasting" (1998) · "You Stole the Sun from My Heart" (1999) · "Tsunami" (1999) · "The Masses Against the Classes" (2000) · "Found That Soul" (2001) · "So Why So Sad" (2001) · "Ocean Spray" (2001) · "Let Robeson Sing" (2001) · "There by the Grace of God" (2002) · "The Love of Richard Nixon" (2004) · "Empty Souls" (2005) · "Underdogs" (2007) · "Your Love Alone Is Not Enough" (2007) · "Autumnsong" (2007) · "Indian Summer" (2007) · "The Ghosts of Christmas" (2007) · "(It's Not War) Just the End of Love" (2010) · "Some Kind of Nothingness" (2010) · "Postcards from a Young Man" (2011) · "This Is the Day" (2011)Box sets Video Albums Everything Live (1997) · Leaving the 20th Century (2000) · Louder Than War (2001) · Forever Delayed (2002)Other appearances "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" (1995) · "Leviathan" (2005) · "The Instrumental" (2006) · "Umbrella" (2008)Related articles Categories:- 1991 songs
- 1992 singles
- Manic Street Preachers songs
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