Tuesday 18 September 2012

Jocky's Desert Island Discs: Disc 7 - A Design For Life - Manic Street Preachers

I could have picked any number of Manics songs for my penultimate Desert Island Disc. From their magnus opus The Holy Bible album to early single Motown Junk, so much of their back catalogue has had an inestimable effect on my outlook. Yet, one song more prevalently embodies a time and place that, were I stranded on a desert island for eternity, I'd most keenly wish to remember...

When A Design For Life was released in 1996, I didn't think much of it, didn't understand it. At the peak of my obsessive Oasis fandom and riding the crest of the Brit pop wave, I preferred to allow the visceral, rather than cerebral, dictate my musical taste.

Not until I left home for university in 2001 and unknowingly broke free of my insular childhood bubble did I realise the true capacity of music to be something other than the sum of its parts, conveying a message or higher meaning that transcended the instinctive reaction of my ear to merely the sound of the music.

Much of the credit goes to my then soon-to-be friend Gareth who, hearing Abbey Road ringing down the corridor from my hi-fi that first day in campus halls, chose to introduce himself. With a mutual admiration for The Beatles affirmed, the merits of another British rock band - Manic Street Preachers - were raised, followed by his lending of a book entitled 'Everything', the definitive biography of the band.

Curiosity piqued, I turned to its first page being mesmerised by what I found - Simon Price, the author, describing the first time he heard Motown Junk, its looped "Revolution" Public Enemy sample growing louder and louder before the sound of electric guitar jack being plugged into amp and the rush of vitriolic sounds and phrases affronting the listener.

Having then ploughed through early Manics singles, eventually, I was led back to A Design For Life but this time round the first line hit me like a thunder bolt - "Libraries gave us power".  Now it made complete sense and now I had a fledgling education in Library Science adding significant context.

As an idealist student, away from the cocoon of my family home for the first time, it was akin to the perfect storm. I began to read books I would never have countenanced beforehand. I suddenly found the campus library - above which my university department conveniently resided - a silent sanctuary and an inviting catalyst for all possibilities.