You are pure, you are snow
We are the useless sluts that they mould
Rock ‘n’ roll is our epiphany
Culture, alienation, boredom and despair
At the end of last year, I compiled my selections for the unofficial Manic Street Preachers top 50 songs list for the New Chart Riot blog. It’s something they’d done over Twitter previously in 2013 and 2015. With so much great material over a career spanning three decades, narrowing the list down to 50 and then ordering it required some thought. But the number one choice – that was easy. There was no question – it would always be Little Baby Nothing; the sixth and final single from their 1992 debut album Generation Terrorists.
I was asked to briefly write something about the song and why I love it so much, but partly because I’m easily distracted and partly because of not being sure if anything I could write would do the track justice, I didn’t get around to doing so. But I’m giving it a go now.
As I understand it, the video is one of the band’s least favourite – I mean only James Dean Bradfield is even in it and the symbolism and iconography are on overdrive. In a way, it’s a bit ridiculous, but there’s still something mesmerising about it.
And there’s something mesmerising about the whole song. From the opening instrumental (truncated for the single version) to the closing refrain – the melody captures you and it carries you – and it makes my hairs stand up – every single time I hear it.
Kylie Minogue was the band’s first choice for the song’s duet but wasn’t available for contractural reasons – though she did later perform the song live. But it’s good that she wasn’t, because the vocals of former pornographic actress Traci Lords (who isn’t in the video either) are incredible and I don’t think it would or could be the same song without her – as she explained, they were lyrics she identified with.
This is of course a song about the exploitation of women and the sex industry. There are hints perhaps of Richey’s feelings of emasculation too, but as clever a lyricist as he was his verses and his metaphors here are actually pretty blunt – I mean, how could you be more literal than “used, used, used by men”? Every word bites and every line paints a picture.
His use of the word snow as a synonym for purity is something he returned to in the Holy Bible track 4st 7lbs, and the slogan-like refrain of “culture, alienation, boredom and despair”, according to Richey the central theme for every Manics song, will forever resonate. No other band could have written the song. No other band could take such dark subject matter and turn it into something so beautiful – and that’s ultimately why I’ll never tire of it.
No one likes looking at you
Your lack of ego offends male mentality
They need your innocence
To steal vacant love and to destroy
Your beauty and virginity used like toysMy mind is dead, everybody loves me
Wants a slice of me
Hopelessly passive and compatible
Need to belong, oh, the roads are scary
Hold me in your arms
I wanna be your only possessionUsed, used, used by men
Used, used, used by menAll they leave behind is money
Paper made out of broken twisted trees
Your pretty face offends
Because it’s something real that I can’t touch
Eyes, skin, bone, contour, language as a flowerNo god reached me, faded films and loving books
Black and white TV
All the world does not exist for me
If I’m starving, you can feed me lollipops
Your diet will crush me
My life, just an old man’s memoryLittle baby, nothing
Loveless slavery, lips kissing empty
Dress your life in loathing
Breaking your mind with Barbie Doll futilityLittle baby nothing
Sexually free, made-up to breakup
Assassinated beauty
Moths broken up, quenched at last
The vermin allowed a thought to pass them byYou are pure, you are snow
We are the useless sluts that they mouldRock ‘n’ roll is our epiphany
Culture, alienation, boredom and despairYou are pure, you are snow
We are the useless sluts that they mouldRock ‘n’ roll is our epiphany
Culture, alienation, boredom and despair
Democracy Coma 
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